Tow Hitch - Tongue Weight Capacity

[Low Voltage]

No way that figure is correct as several others have stated. Remember that the hitch is designed to pull a max load of 3500 pounds. Normal tongue weight (ballpark figure) is usually 7% to 10% of the max trailer weight and works out to 245 to 350 pounds at the ball if you were maxing load capacity. It should be able to carry at least 350 pounds of vertical load! If not, why did they choose a 2-inch square receiver? Some small load rating hitches sometimes use a one-inch or an inch and a half receiver. I once had a Camaro with the hidden hitch for very light loads and it was on a 2 inch wide 1/4 thick flat bar. That hitch was rated for 3500 pounds as well.

 

[Madsen203]

Picture from the internet but I actually saw this guy at Metcalf. This was before the Y was available to the general public. I’ve been tempted to try this but I chickened out and bought a harbor freight trailer.

If just a solo driver or two, I bet it would be OK on smoother roads. I still wonder if this would negatively impact efficiency more than the trailer. Horizontal sail vs a thinner profile of loading the bike laterally on a trailer.

Anyone try this at home?

 

[samori01]

I just installed the Yakima Ridgeback 4 on my Y this morning. It’s the exact same one Tesla sells but they just placed some decals on them. So far it works great but I only tried it with 2 bikes. I’ll test it out this weekend with the other 2 kiddy bikes to see how it works out. I believe the total weight shouldn’t exceed 120... the bike hitch was around 35 alone. The 4 bikes we have should be under 85 so I’m close to and if not at the limit.

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What kind of wheels are those?? They look great!

 

[Hall88]

There’s no way in hell the max vertical load rating is only 120 lbs. no way. I’m not doubting they put it in the Manual but it’s not right. I installed my drawtite a few days ago and it’s built like a locomotive part lol. I had a 12” extension ball hitch and I was jumping up and down as hard as I could, I weigh 190. The car/hitch didn’t move. The sticker on the drawtite rack says 525 tongue and 3500 tow rating.

I’ll do some quick maths for you but it’s held on with 6 15mm steel/alloy bolts that have a ultimate tensile strength of more than 100 ksi each.

there’s also a tow eye in the rear crash bar that would be reacted by those same 6 15mm bolts. That tow eye is designed to lift the entire 5000 lb vehicle up a cliff sometimes loaded with mud and water. It could prob lift 10,000 lbs.

it must have to do with compressing rear suspension a bit then driving 100mph or something. Sounds like the lawyers wrote that nonsense in. You will have no issue adding a bike rack.

if you guys want I’ll throw on my kx250f rack. With bike That thing weighs 350 # and sits 24” off. I wouldn’t do the slalom course at 100mph doing that but at safe normal speed it would be just fine

also tongue weight is still a vertical load. It makes no difference if the load is caused by a trailer or a dirtbike rack it’s a vertical load applied a certain distance from the receive mounting bolts. It induces principal stress in the mounting bolts caused by shear and bending, and uniaxial load (if towing and accelerating hard)

Curious if you or anyone ever did try the hitch carrier? I’ve been trying to decide between buying a single bike trailer or a hitch mount. I would prefer hitch mount as it would make it easy to charge if needed and a lot cheaper option as well.

 

[bubblysun]

There is an interesting discussion on Reddit that suggests 160lb is a typo, it should read 160kg.
"160kg = 350 lbs"!

https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModelY/comments/owps2t

Has anyone used any of the vertical bike racks (e.g. Yakima, Velocirax, 1-up, Northshore etc) on a Model Y or X?

 

[Low Voltage]

There is an interesting discussion on Reddit that suggests 160lb is a typo, it should read 160kg.
"160kg = 350 lbs"!

https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModelY/comments/owps2t

Has anyone used any of the vertical bike racks (e.g. Yakima, Velocirax, 1-up, Northshore etc) on a Model Y or X?

That is correct - the normal "rule of thumb" in towing is the tongue weight should be 7 to 10 percent of the rated hitch capacity. Since this hitch/car combo is rated to tow 3500 pounds, the max tongue weight is 350 pounds.

You must be careful dealing with metric measures v/s US standard. That happened in a historic emergency landing of a Canadian jet a few years ago when the fuel loader did not correctly convert the kilograms of fuel to pounds and the plane ran out of fuel mid-air. They landed safely, but not where they intended.

 

[DerbyCityY]

I saw where someone bought an after market hitch, which I think I wish I had done. The Tesla rack is a Type II hitch which limits the weight to tow 3,500 lbs. A Type III hitch may have completely different numbers which is rated for a 5,000 lb. tow.

The tongue weight has nothing to do with the weight of a vertical load. The vertical load is the weight applied down at the hitch, without the presence of the trailer which helps support the 3,500 lbs. and the 350 lbs. tongue weight. The trailer doesn't bounce the hitch up and down. It's like the action of a diving board, up and down. If you're 150 pounds and jump on a scale it will go far over 200 pounds. That is the action of the 160 lb. rack and bikes on the hitch, over and over as you go down the road.

My desire to put electric bikes on the back is limited to one bike.

 

[Mr.nobatti]

There’s no way in hell the max vertical load rating is only 120 lbs. no way. I’m not doubting they put it in the Manual but it’s not right. I installed my drawtite a few days ago and it’s built like a locomotive part lol. I had a 12” extension ball hitch and I was jumping up and down as hard as I could, I weigh 190. The car/hitch didn’t move. The sticker on the drawtite rack says 525 tongue and 3500 tow rating.

I’ll do some quick maths for you but it’s held on with 6 15mm steel/alloy bolts that have a ultimate tensile strength of more than 100 ksi each.

there’s also a tow eye in the rear crash bar that would be reacted by those same 6 15mm bolts. That tow eye is designed to lift the entire 5000 lb vehicle up a cliff sometimes loaded with mud and water. It could prob lift 10,000 lbs.

it must have to do with compressing rear suspension a bit then driving 100mph or something. Sounds like the lawyers wrote that nonsense in. You will have no issue adding a bike rack.

if you guys want I’ll throw on my kx250f rack. With bike That thing weighs 350 # and sits 24” off. I wouldn’t do the slalom course at 100mph doing that but at safe normal speed it would be just fine

also tongue weight is still a vertical load. It makes no difference if the load is caused by a trailer or a dirtbike rack it’s a vertical load applied a certain distance from the receive mounting bolts. It induces principal stress in the mounting bolts caused by shear and bending, and uniaxial load (if towing and accelerating hard)

So... I have two ebikes I'd like to haul on motorcycle rack. Combined weight is about 250lbs not including the motorcycle rack. Do you think it'll work?

 

[lacollier78]

There’s no way in hell the max vertical load rating is only 120 lbs. no way. I’m not doubting they put it in the Manual but it’s not right. I installed my drawtite a few days ago and it’s built like a locomotive part lol. I had a 12” extension ball hitch and I was jumping up and down as hard as I could, I weigh 190. The car/hitch didn’t move. The sticker on the drawtite rack says 525 tongue and 3500 tow rating.

I’ll do some quick maths for you but it’s held on with 6 15mm steel/alloy bolts that have a ultimate tensile strength of more than 100 ksi each.

there’s also a tow eye in the rear crash bar that would be reacted by those same 6 15mm bolts. That tow eye is designed to lift the entire 5000 lb vehicle up a cliff sometimes loaded with mud and water. It could prob lift 10,000 lbs.

it must have to do with compressing rear suspension a bit then driving 100mph or something. Sounds like the lawyers wrote that nonsense in. You will have no issue adding a bike rack.

if you guys want I’ll throw on my kx250f rack. With bike That thing weighs 350 # and sits 24” off. I wouldn’t do the slalom course at 100mph doing that but at safe normal speed it would be just fine

also tongue weight is still a vertical load. It makes no difference if the load is caused by a trailer or a dirtbike rack it’s a vertical load applied a certain distance from the receive mounting bolts. It induces principal stress in the mounting bolts caused by shear and bending, and uniaxial load (if towing and accelerating hard)

Totally agree. I installed my own aftermarket hitch and the mounts are built like a tank and mounted directly to the frame. I wouldn't hesitate to throw on my 120 lb motorcycle carrier and 400 lb motorcycle. I have used that carrier to haul two 75 lb ebikes for a total of 270 lbs. Didn't even notice them.

 

[Rojer Lockless]

I saw this on and I wish I had stopped to ask them about it. but it was in the middle of two big cities so I'm sure it was on a road trip. This was this year.

 

[agmonaco]

Well I just talked to Tesla service and also customer support. They could not explain the exact reason for the 160lb weight limit restriction for bike racks on the model Y factory installed trailer hitch. I have a Thule bike rack and 2 Radrover electric bikes. All together without the batteries it weighs 190lbs. I have carried it a few times without any issues. I cannot imagine it causing any damage unless i hit a very deep chuck hole or jarred it some other way. With a trailer it has a 350lb limit. Anyway the manual says that can cause severe damage. I guess that is the difference between having it attached to steel on ICE car and aluminum. If anyone has any technical inside info as to why? Please post. Thx. Tony

 

[Leonard]

Well I just talked to Tesla service and also customer support. They could not explain the exact reason for the 160lb weight limit restriction for bike racks on the model Y factory installed trailer hitch. I have a Thule bike rack and 2 Radrover electric bikes. All together without the batteries it weighs 190lbs. I have carried it a few times without any issues. I cannot imagine it causing any damage unless i hit a very deep chuck hole or jarred it some other way. With a trailer it has a 350lb limit. Anyway the manual says that can cause severe damage. I guess that is the difference between having it attached to steel on ICE car and aluminum. If anyone has any technical inside info as to why? Please post. Thx. Tony

Thanks for asking this question. The 160-pound limit does not make sense. I hope they provide us with a real reason. My guess about the difference between the bike rack limit and the trailer limit is about leverage.

“Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world. ”​

― Archimedes

The trailer tong weight is known ( can be measured because the trailer wheels carry some of the load ) but a bike rack is more uncertain; the overall distance from the hitch to the rack's center of gravity can vary greatly depending on the specific configuration. There are too many variables, so they developed a safe max limit. But this is just a guess.

 

[a2t2]

as an added follow up to all this i can say loading the rear more than a hundred # or so will cause the rear suspension to sag and will create a negative camber. If you really load it down back there you will be sitting on the insides of the tires which will wear them quickly.

It also may upset the weight balance as this car seems to be ass heavy as is, you dont want the front to get too light - going fast, hitting a big bump, ect ...

The bottom line is if the tongue weight is really max at 120 # the the max permissible trailer tow is 1200 #. As I have kept saying the tongue weight MUST be 10% of trailer weight to prevent trailer sway. That is basic trailer principles in every owners manual on every vehicle that can tow.

 

[Jigglypuff]

This may be why you would want adjustable suspension