So I have the mopar class 3 hitch on my 2008 4 door and they claim its only good to around 300 pounds of tongue weight. I use a dirt bike hitch carrier for hauling my 220 pound KTM dirt bike around and its a little nerve racking having a $9000 bike on the back pushing those limits (With fuel and the weight of the rack its 300 pounds). I am trying to find a better hitch for the jeep that can handle more tongue weight so I can use a dual dirt bike carrier for taking two bikes with me or at least making me feel safer with my one. You guys have any ideas? I may just have to bite the bullet and get a small utility trailer but thats not as fun.
Upgrading class 3 hitch to handle more tongue weight
- Thread starter tech180
- Start date
cozdude
Guy with a Red 2-Door
It will be fine. The tongue weight of my dads class 3 is 500lbs and we trailer our 25' boat around on it just fine. I think the boat some 2500 lbs but I'm not sure
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2500 pounds can be towed bt a 4 door jeep but that's different then tongue weight. Tongue weight is how much wait can be put on the receiver rather than pulling weight.
Yeah, same here. Would be nice if there was a hitch for the jeeps that could support 500+ tongue.
Skid_Kid
New member
That would be great, but your rig is not designed to handle it.
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If you have 3 people in the back seat that's more then 500 pounds (Well, with my friends anyways, lol). Not worried about the jeeps suspension being able to handle 500 pounds, most of us load more gear then that in our jeeps to go on our off road expeditions (Not to mention 20 gallons of gas in dual Jerry cans at 8 pounds a gallon and our large steel bumpers with 37" tires hanging off the back of them). Issue is getting a hitch that's able to handle 500 pounds of weight, so your right, the hitch is not designed for that weight and that brings us back to the issue of finding a solution for a hitch able to support more then 500 pounds.
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Your trailer should not have that amount of tongue weight with only a few hundred pounds loaded on it. You may need to rethink how you load/organize it. It makes for a crappy ride too with a lot of tongue weight and can be unsafe. it will effect the steering of your rig. You should have the load centered over the axle. The common amount is like 15% of the load should be on the tongue.
Thanks for your reply, your advise is good, thanks. However I am not referring to towing a trailer. I use a dirt bike carrier that slips into the hitch and you load your bike onto it, there is no wheels, its just a ramp with tie downs. Our factory jeep receiver is rated to carry 350 pounds on it, with my bike fully loaded and the carrier in the hitch it weighs about 300 pounds. I have never had any issue with it but its still a little sketchy. We have class 3 receivers and those are supposed to be good for 500 pounds but for some reason ours are only rated at 350. Has to be a way to beef those up or a better solution.
Here is an example of what I use to haul my bike (Not my jeep in picture).
My bad:doh: I didn't catch the hitch carrier part. I thought u were referring to a small trailer. That's why I was like wtf, that's a lot of tongue weight. Go to a fabricator and have them build you a custom hitch. Sometimes the rv shops do it too. They can make you something beefy :thumb: I had a nice hidden hitch fabricated for a lowered truck that popped out behind the license plate at an rv shop.
cozdude
Guy with a Red 2-Door
Yea I know tongue weight is different than tow weight. After seeing your pic of you set up I know fully understand what your dealing with. Just get a small trailer for piece of mind then IMO. I trailer my golf cart around with the little trailer I have. Use it for tons of shit so the 200$ we spent on it was well worth it
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Thats a great idea. I will call the RV places on Monday and see what they can do and report back. Thanks!
Yeah, might be the be the best route to go getting a little trailer. Just sucks cause I some times drive the jeep up some trails to get to my biking spots and that's no fun to do with a trailer..... But its no fun if your bike falls off the back of your jeep either, lol.
No worries! Hope it works out. Post back with what you find out. Subscribed
As posted above a small trailer would be the next option, and probably the only other option. However that changes things too. Gotta deal with all the extra issues that go along with it like speed limits, lane choices, parking, storage, registration, maintanance, blah blah blah. It would be super convenient though to load and go. It would prob ride a lot better going down the road too
That's exactly my thinking too! Its pretty sweet to just toss it on the back and drive like I normally do. Oddly, it actually feels like it rides better with the weight back there.
mudmobeeler
Caught the Bug
Is there much difference between the Mopar hitch and aftermarket ones? A local Craigslist ad has a Mopar hitch for sale for $50. That includes the hardware to install but no wiring or the slide in part for the ball. A quick look around on the www and the Mopar ones are around $300 new. While looking though I also have been finding aftermarket ones for about $80 that are brand new with hardware and include wiring for a four prong plug in. Not trying to hi jack the thread, just searched for hitches and found this one.
BBrown626
New member
How about a bumper with integrated receiver, such as LOD?