Rear bumper weight allowance
Have a 2016 starcraft AR 1- 15 rb. I want to put a bumper hitch on for a carrier for supplies. Does anyone know the weight limit on the reaer bumper
Forum Discussion
BigSur2 wrote:
My rule has always been no more than one bike....with spare tire removed and stored elsewhere. The bumper is not made to hold weight.
This issue keeps coming up and I hear this often. But consider this:
The rear Bumper on my Gulfstream Innsbruck is a 4x4 box section of .090 or probably .092 steel. The rectangular Box sections that connect the bumper to the frame are the same thickness with about 20 square inches of contact surface with the frame with four, 5 inch long welds.
This is a structure that can support a serious amount of weight.
Shock loads...or what is being called here "bouncing" are important considerations but there is only a "shock" if something is loose, rises up and comes down on the structure. If something were fastened to the bumper shock loads will not be a consideration.
However the distance and weight on the bumper to the mounting point on the frame is a lever and must be accounted for. But this is about one foot on my trailer or less.
As for tongue weight. Yes putting weight on the far rear will lighten the tongue weight but it is easy to compensate for that with loading of the trailer. And it is not a one-to-one proposition.
Now maybe many other trailers bumpers are far less strongly built than mine, and I have considered the fact that mine may have been added on by the first owner. I do not intend to speak for all here. but merely to say that ALL bumpers cannot carry some weight is not accurate.
