2021.5 30DS Hitch Upgrade (YES!)

[fuzzball]

Ultimate Goal: Carry a 400 pound Yamaha Xmax scooter on a hitch mount carrier while flat towing my Chevy Spark.

The scooter and the rack combined are 475 pounds. I felt like that was pushing the limits of my 500 pound tongue weight. Especially with the heavy adapter needed to add receivers probably pushed the entire setup to slightly more than 500 pounds.

So after looking around and researching I decided to go for the hitch upgrade. Since I live about 10 minutes from eTrailer that seemed like a good place to start.

Here's the hitch I went with:

https://www.etrailer.com/Heavy-Duty...me/2021/C47CR.html?VehicleID=2021110471150531

1600 pound tongue limit gives plenty of room for error. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Took it to Freedom Welding just down the street from eTrailer and had it welded on. The new hitch is considerably wider and sits an inch lower than the original. Since it's so much wider and lower I didn't like the location of the plug so added this adapter to the receiver. Works great and keeps the side pressure off the plug since it's in line with the car.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B81772Y?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

The new hitch also had a flange on it that kept my safety cables from hooking properly so added these quick links to fix that.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0768YBHR7?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

So new hitch is on and good and all connections can be made. What next?

 

[fuzzball]

The next step was to get comfortable with a scooter hanging off the back since I had never used a hitch mount before. I already had a nice Mototote rack but hadn't used it yet. With the hitch upgrade in place and the Sturgis rally approaching seemed like good time to give it a shot.

2000 mile round trip the setup performed flawlessly! After that I'm feeling more confident about reaching the ultimate goal.

Here was the finished scooter setup with the bike secure and a quick video at the Sturgis campsite.

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[fuzzball]

Next step was to come up with a configuration to add the car but keep the scooter down at a reasonable height for loading and unloading by myself.

eTrailer came through again. This adapter allows the hitch rack to go in and only be 2 inches higher than original. It also allows the car to be connected with an empty receiver in between and the tow bar pretty level. It's also beefy enough to handle all the load on it.

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Gen~Y-Hitch/325-GH-404.html

For the car to safely clear the scooter rack in turns a tow bar extension will be needed. I went with this one. It's about as long as I could find without getting crazy and should give the clearance needed for something as compact as a Chevy Spark.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007M1FNM?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

[fuzzball]

I haven't actually used the full setup yet but pretty confident it's going to work fine. Here's a mock up of what it'll look like. Missing from the picture is the tow bar extension and the rack part of the carrier that the scooter sits on. I'm changing the scooter carrier main shaft to an updated version the eliminates any droop. Wanted to make sure there was plenty of room between the two shafts.

All my current safety cables and power cords will still be plenty long enough to do the job also.

I've seen a lot of threads and talk about this kind of stuff but never much detail. Just wanted to run through my journey with this project. Hope it helps someone!

 

[NXR]

Be certain to add anti-rattle devices (hitch clamps) every place something slides into something else. You're adding a lot of leverage and slop creates a lot of stresses.

Ray

 

[fuzzball]

Be certain to add anti-rattle devices (hitch clamps) every place something slides into something else. You're adding a lot of leverage and slop creates a lot of stresses.

Ray

Good idea! The carrier has a brilliant design on the anti-wobble already. I'll have to look at options for the car setup.

https://youtu.be/r6pBn_VVvWs?si=6XZYpVoF0KQKDEHc