Anyone Have a trailer hitch on a Yaris??

[mmstingray]

I want to add a hitch to my 2009 sedan so I can add a bike rack. Both my mountain bike and my wife's bike have a severely sloped downtube, so I'm looking at both the Draw-Tite Sportframe Trailer Hitch Receiver and Lets Go Aero BikeWing-2 2-Bike Rack at ETrailer.

The sales people are super helpful there and advised that I consult my dealer first because the tongue weight shouldn't exceed 70 lbs. And that's in Canada. I'm in state States where I think it's somehow verboten. With 2 bikes and the rack, it probably won't exceed 70lbs by much.

Anyone experience any repercussions? I've searched the forum but couldn't find anything definitive. I have no towing aspirations.

[David C]

Originally Posted by mmstingray

I want to add a hitch to my 2009 sedan so I can add a bike rack. Both my mountain bike and my wife's bike have a severely sloped downtube, so I'm looking at both the Draw-Tite Sportframe Trailer Hitch Receiver and Lets Go Aero BikeWing-2 2-Bike Rack at ETrailer.

The sales people are super helpful there and advised that I consult my dealer first because the tongue weight shouldn't exceed 70 lbs. And that's in Canada. I'm in state States where I think it's somehow verboten. With 2 bikes and the rack, it probably won't exceed 70lbs by much.

Anyone experience any repercussions? I've searched the forum but couldn't find anything definitive. I have no towing aspirations.

70lbs tongue weight doesn't sound right, at least not if you're talking about how much weight you can put on the frame behind the rear axle. My 2007 HB can go up to 200lbs of weight on a hitch, so about 150lbs of actual useable cargo if you deduct the weight of the hitch receiver and the rack.

Two bikes plus a rack and a hitch receiver would be at least 100lbs. I've done 1000km drive with four 15" wheels on a cargo carrier no problem on mine, which is roughly 135lbs (34lbs per wheel) plus 35lbs for the carrier and receiver adapter and then the hitch receiver itself, for a total of 200lbs give or take.

I'm in Canada btw, but I drive that setup in the states too.

Now the tongue weight as in a trailer tongue weight is different than load limit. For your application, you're looking at the load limit, which is about 200lbs (at least for the HB).