- First Name
- Alex
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2023
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Oakland ca
- Vehicle(s)
- Wildtrack 4d
- Your Bronco Model
- Wildtrak
- Thread starter
- #1
I have a 23 Bronco 4D (Wildtrak) and a 1UP 4 bike tray rack (2" 2 bike + 2 add ons).
With a sasquatch spare requires a 7" hitch extender to fit if I want to put 4 bikes on the rack. It's fine with 2 bikes, no issues. The hitch is rated for 350#. The rack with 4 trays is 96# and each bike is around 25#. The rough math is 50% of hitch capacity with a 7" extender, so that's 175# capacty with 196# (roughly) of load. I think it's actually worse than that because the center of gravity on that rack is 2' past the hitch, but my physics is rusty.
Question 1 - is it ok to run the 4 bike rack? I imagine Ford overengineered the hitch, so it's not exactly 350#, and the 50% is a conservative approximation. But, the actual weight on the receiver may be higher than 196# given the center of gravity being far back. I risked it for a short drive and there was a LOT more vertical play than before. Partly due to the hitch extender being connected with a through bolt rather than the expanding solution used by 1UP that is much tighter. But partly because it was a lot of weight really far back.
Question 2 - if not, what are thoughts on North Shore or other vertical carry hitch racks? the NS 6-bike rack is only 68# and I think it also has a much closer center of gravity. And it might not even require a hitch extender. Any one have experience there?
With a sasquatch spare requires a 7" hitch extender to fit if I want to put 4 bikes on the rack. It's fine with 2 bikes, no issues. The hitch is rated for 350#. The rack with 4 trays is 96# and each bike is around 25#. The rough math is 50% of hitch capacity with a 7" extender, so that's 175# capacty with 196# (roughly) of load. I think it's actually worse than that because the center of gravity on that rack is 2' past the hitch, but my physics is rusty.
Question 1 - is it ok to run the 4 bike rack? I imagine Ford overengineered the hitch, so it's not exactly 350#, and the 50% is a conservative approximation. But, the actual weight on the receiver may be higher than 196# given the center of gravity being far back. I risked it for a short drive and there was a LOT more vertical play than before. Partly due to the hitch extender being connected with a through bolt rather than the expanding solution used by 1UP that is much tighter. But partly because it was a lot of weight really far back.
Question 2 - if not, what are thoughts on North Shore or other vertical carry hitch racks? the NS 6-bike rack is only 68# and I think it also has a much closer center of gravity. And it might not even require a hitch extender. Any one have experience there?
Sponsored
