Weight capacity for TT bumper
I have a 2005 Starcraft Homestead 24RKS and the bumper appears to be heavy duty 4 inch and welded to the frame. Does anyone know the average weight capacity of something like this? I saw another Starc...
Forum Discussion
Acdii wrote:
snip..
Here is the real problem, the wall thickness of the bumper is thin, even with a perfect weld to the frame, given enough trouncing, eventually the metal around the weld will tear, and cause the bumper to fail.
^^^^THIS^^^^ IS THE PROBLEM!!!
I almost lost two bikes not realizing just how thin the bumper metal is!
MOST RV bumpers are 14 gauge steel (about 1/16" thick), that is only a couple gauge sizes thicker than the sheet metal of a vehicles door skin (typical automotive sheet metal is 18 gauge!).
The 14 ga steel will simply tear away from the welds when it is twisted (which is what happens when you put bike racks on the bumper).
This leads to the fact that MOST RV bumpers do not have ANY weight rating for the bumpers..
SOME RVs do use a thicker wall bumper which will be 1/8" inch thick, with those the manufacturer of the RV will typically give a weight rating..
No weight rating from the RV manufacturer, do not attempt to put any weight on the bumper..
