Bumper hitch?

I have a Nissan Pickup and it has a 2" ball on the bumper. The stamped rating says its good for 250lbs tongue weight and 2,000lbs GVTW.

Will this be sufficient to tow a single bike trailer? bike weighs about 450ish. the trailer is galvanized tubing made by CampOutInc. I can easily pick up the coupler, with the bike on the trailer, and mount it to the ball. I doubt the trailer weighs more than 1,000 lbs.

I know your all probably gonna suggest a class III receiver, but i just want to know if my setup can handle what i think is a light tow.

Anyone successfully tow using the bumper hitch?

 

i tried it on a dodge dakota with about the same setup and i destroyed the bumper. mainly from braking, it twisted the whole section when the boll mounts, forward.

spend the extra $150 and get a hitch

 

go for it, I would

 

Perhaps you weren't giving yourself enough room/time to brake smoothly.

 

I had a ford explorer sport trac with just a bumper hitch. It was rated I think for 350/3500 pounds. Never had a problem pulling a small 2 bike trailer

 

So every time someone pulls out in front of you and you're going to buy a new bumper?

 

I use the bumper hitch on my Tacoma with no equipment damage, but it is rated at #3500. I likely wouldn't use it if it was rated at #2000. Get the hitch.:up:

 

Asking for advice then refuting the advice given is a staple of the BBS.

You know what you need to do; you need to get a hitch. Then Jeff reaffirmed that by telling you that he tried it and it ruined his bumper. Then you refuted that, insinuating that he doesn't know how to drive.

Get a hitch.

 

84 Nissan pick up. Bumper mounted tow ball. Flat bed trailer, two bikes, all my gear, never a problem.

 

Towed an open trailer with bike/gear for two years on the bumper of my Explorer. Now I'm towing a 5x8 enclosed with everything stuffed in the back with no issues (so far). I keep looking to get a hitch, but it'd be worth more than the truck! I really gotta hit a junkyard.

 

Must be a Canadian dakota. I have a gen 2 and 3... both towed with the ball on the bumper with ~3klb and no issues. The only reason for that was because neither truck had a receiver on them at the time I needed.

 

You could pull that little trailer with wire ties and a paper clip, the bumper ball should be fine.

 

I wouldn't think a little open trailer with one bike would cause a 2000lb rated bumper hitch any problems at all.

 

we have a winner.... shit happen and you may need to hit the brake alittle harder than usual.

$150 for a hitch is alot cheaper than a bumper.... incase you ever decide to sell the truck, lease return, etc...

 

Thank you all for your advice. I am going to test it out, i feel confident in my setup. I just wanted to hear others' experiences.

 

This place never ceases to scare me when it comes to trailer/towing questions!

For the love of the koran, and my family on the road, spend the money and make it as safe as possible. Just because the sticker says you can, doesn't mean you should.

 

Half the rated capacity. Half, which is less than 1k pounds, but by the end of the page he will need a dually diesel for the sake of the children.

This place never ceases to amaze me, either.

 

I wouldn't pull a grocery cart in a parking lot with a bumper mounted ball. I'm not saying he needs a diesel, I'm saying he needs an appropriate classed receiver for the automobile.

Half the rated capacity quickly turns to more than the max capacity under an emergency stop situation.

 

Half rated capacity doesn't change due to the situation. When they rate the hitches and vehicles they take emergency maneuvers into consideration. Particularly here in lawsuit happy USA. My Forrester Turbo is rated to tow 2500lb here in the states. The same vehicle is rated to tow over 4000lb in Australia and the UK. I wouldn't ever tow over 2000lb with it personally, partially because the hitches you can buy for it are only rated to 2000lb and I wouldn't spend the money on a custom built hitch for it.

 

This is the only way you can truly be safe and have enough towing capacity:



Keep in mind the engineers that design and rate those things are clueless and would never think of you actually having to suddenly stop your 2,000 lb trailer when they give it that rating.

If you consider that most structural engineers use a safety factor of at least 1.5 from actual yield strength you should be fine, assuming that the bumper is in good shape (i.e. not loose, rusted, etc.).