Anyone know if this would support a rack

[Wishyouwerehere]

Bolted to the 6" black channel shown with the rack against it. I am thinking of mounting one similar and would like to add brackets from the top silver diamond plate trim that has wood behind it. Not sure of the wood thickness or other uses.

 

[JimboFunFinder]

Interesting! My first comment is that the rack looks like it would be quite heavy even without items in it although the 6" channel should be strong enough to support it. I would be concerned about any supports going to the diamond plate unless you knew that you could screw to an aluminum cage behind it. If your FF is wood I would not recommend any support attaching to a wood frame. The front tongue will support a lot of weight and loads but you need to be much more careful in the rear. Any weight at the rear will tend to lighten the hitch weight and potentially cause stability problems (I know from experience).

 

[Wishyouwerehere]

I used 6, 3/8" bolts thru a pc of 1/8 x 1 1/2" x 36" flat bar across the rack tubing, then through the rack tubing, then through the 6" Wide C Channel at the rear the tongue was bolted to. The rack is about 25 lbs alone and the main weight it will haul is my spare dump tank, about another 30 lbs, never plan to have over 100 lbs in the rack. Would you think an extra $125 lbs at the rear would cause the stability issue with my X160?

 

[JimboFunFinder]

I found a side photo of the X160 and measured 2 inches from the axle to the hitch. It was 1.25 from the axle to where your storage would be. Considering this to be a teeter-totter that means for every pound in the rack, the hitch weight would decrease by .625 lb. Using 55 lbs, the hitch weight would decrease by ~34 lbs. At a 100lbs in the rack, the hitch would be ~78 lbs lighter. Considering that your hitch weight specification is only 170 lbs, you have changed it by 20% and 46% respectively. This would concern me but you could always counter it by making sure that any weight from the supplies (or water) that you carry are primarily in front of the axle. Could you move the spare tire from the rear to the tongue? I know my modeling is simplistic but it gives a reasonable expectation. From my experience (albeit on a heavier trailer) I can quickly feel the difference if I am carrying extra weight at the rear.

 

[runner421]

My two cents - it would depend on your tow vehicle and hitch setup. Since you tow with a small SUV, it makes a big difference. A truck, with an equil-i-zer hitch setup would lock the camper to the tow vehicle and the extra weight wouldn't be a big deal.

 

[JimboFunFinder]

Agreed, the hitch weight spec on my F281BIKS is 740 lbs so the percentage change would for even 78 lbs be minimal and the F250 would probably never notice it.

 

[RipVan]

I think that I'd be most concerned with the stress placed on the rack's attachment points to the camper's frame. The rack doesn't appear to stick out too far from the frame but with 100-125 lbs in the rack, there'll be a fair amount of flexing of the metal with any up/down movement when the trailer goes over road bumps.
I attached a bike rack to the rear bumper of my TT. To reduce the "lever effect", I ran a webbing strap from the plate that holds the spare wheel, over the top of the spare wheel and down to the bike rack. Now there is little, if any, flexing where the rack attaches to the bumper. You could do the same with a strap that would attach to the rearmost cross bar on the rack.

 

[RipVan]

While they weren't specific to the OP's question, I do think JimboFunFinder's replies are pretty important when dealing with a relatively small TT with a fairly low hitch weight. JFF's "math word problem" explanation (he's either a math teacher or an engineer ;-)) is interesting and most likely accurate. Some rainy day, I just may have to break out my slide rule, graph paper and a pencil to do a "peer review" ! I think the main point is that keeping the hitch weight within 10-15% of the TT actual weight allows for the best and safest handling. Just sayin'.

 

[profdant139]

Rip, that idea of using the spare tire as an anchor is a good one, but there is a catch. I have discovered that on some Fun Finders (like mine!) the spare tire is mounted on bolts that go through the wall and are backed by washers and nuts on the inside.

I discovered this when I noticed that the spare tire was wiggling a little. The point is that the spare was not mounted to a structural element, such as a stud -- the mount depends solely on the strength of the rear wall panel.

In order to improve the spare tire mount, I unscrewed the inside nuts and washers and instead installed a large metal plate to spread the load over a much wider area of the rear wall. (I drilled holes where the mounting bolts come through the plate from the outside.)

So I would recommend something like this in order to beef up the spare tire, if you want to use it to anchor a rear rack or whatever.

 

[Wishyouwerehere]

Rip, that idea of using the spare tire as an anchor is a good one, but there is a catch. I have discovered that on some Fun Finders (like mine!) the spare tire is mounted on bolts that go through the wall and are backed by washers and nuts on the inside.

I discovered this when I noticed that the spare tire was wiggling a little. The point is that the spare was not mounted to a structural element, such as a stud -- the mount depends solely on the strength of the rear wall panel.

In order to improve the spare tire mount, I unscrewed the inside nuts and washers and instead installed a large metal plate to spread the load over a much wider area of the rear wall. (I drilled holes where the mounting bolts come through the plate from the outside.)

So I would recommend something like this in order to beef up the spare tire, if you want to use it to anchor a rear rack or whatever.

Good info, when I was reading the post about the spare and strap adds, I thought about the 4 plastic "nut" covers visible on the back wall inside the shower and was thinking bout the apparent lack of structural support for the spare tire I thought then about adding a large plate inside to distribute the weight is a great idea, thanks. I did a 200 mile trek over the past few days and with 50 lbs in the rack it rode just fine.

 

[RipVan]

I checked out my spare tire mount in order to see if what profdant mentioned could have been the case. It may still be the case but the spare tire attachment on my FF seems quite solid indeed. I'm not seeing any nuts on the inside wall anywhere near where the spare tire mounting bracket bolts would pass through the wall. Pulling and pushing on the mounted spare results in no movement whatsoever! I've got to believe it's fastened into a support structure. Additionally, I my situation, the bulk of the weight of the bike rack and any mounted bikes is carried by the bumper with the strap arrangements purpose being to keep the bumper from twisting due to the lever action of the bike rack. I think that same purpose would apply in wishuwerehere's situation.

 

[profdant139]

Rip, sounds like you are good to go. As they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!