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 Starcraft with a similar setup and they had the hitch that bolts to the bumper. I was going to order the same thing and use a hitch rack that my generator will go on. The generator is only about 90 pounds and the rack maybe 50 or so. I would think the bumper could easily hold 500 pounds but I wanted opinions first.

May be a bit tricky to calculate precisely, but the force of a few bounces going down the road would increase the load on the bumper welds. Just something to keep in mind.

I've not seen ANY 4" square RV bumpers that are truly "heavy duty." Bolting a hitch receiver to the bumper creates a fulcrum/lever situation and the 90 lbs. of generator and whatever the rack weighs become much, much more in terms of torsion (ft. lbs.) as the RV bounces down the road. There are countless stories on this and other forums about people who have set things up this way and end up dragging bicycles, generators, and other gear down the road by one end of the bumper or just the locking security cable they used. The only truly safe way to do things is to have a receiver hitch bolted or welded directly to the frame. Leave the RV bumper to what it does best: carry the stinky slinky.Rob

Second Chance wrote:I've not seen ANY 4" square RV bumpers that are truly "heavy duty." Bolting a hitch receiver to the bumper creates a fulcrum/lever situation and the 90 lbs. of generator and whatever the rack weighs become much, much more in terms of torsion (ft. lbs.) as the RV bounces down the road. There are countless stories on this and other forums about people who have set things up this way and end up dragging bicycles, generators, and other gear down the road by one end of the bumper or just the locking security cable they used. The only truly safe way to do things is to have a receiver hitch bolted or welded directly to the frame. Leave the RV bumper to what it does best: carry the stinky slinky.Rob100% agree. OP, take a look at the thickness of the bumper as you may find it is actually very thin. Many reports of the metal peeling away with the type hitch installed you have mentioned. It is much safer to have a hitch welded to the TT frame then chance a RV bumper with hitch bolted to it. Of course all RVs are not created equal but willing to bet yours is not any different than the average cheap RV bumper.

You guys convinced me. I cancelled the bumper mount hitch order.The portable generator I bought is only 1 inch too tall to fit in the pass through. It would be nice to get it in there but not sure I want to modify the handles to make it fit. I will look at options.

Lots of people do it. There is no standard for RV bumpers, so it is difficult for us to say you will have no problems. My advise is only put items on that bumper you are willing to lose.Something that attaches to the frame would be better.

Weight capacity for TT bumper | Good Sam Community

32 Replies

Second_Chance
Explorer II
Jun 20, 2016
I've not seen ANY 4" square RV bumpers that are truly "heavy duty." Bolting a hitch receiver to the bumper creates a fulcrum/lever situation and the 90 lbs. of generator and whatever the rack weighs become much, much more in terms of torsion (ft. lbs.) as the RV bounces down the road. There are countless stories on this and other forums about people who have set things up this way and end up dragging bicycles, generators, and other gear down the road by one end of the bumper or just the locking security cable they used. The only truly safe way to do things is to have a receiver hitch bolted or welded directly to the frame. Leave the RV bumper to what it does best: carry the stinky slinky.

Rob
korbe
Explorer
Jun 20, 2016
May be a bit tricky to calculate precisely, but the force of a few bounces going down the road would increase the load on the bumper welds. Just something to keep in mind.

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Weight capacity for TT bumper

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