Quote:
Originally Posted by shechelle
I have been reading some of the other threads. But you can buy a new Scamp with the rear receiver that it would seem was designed for a bike rack?? I will have 3 kid mountain bikes and 1 adult bike on there but the Thule rack is very heavy itself. I will have 3 kayaks on the car. I may have to go ahead and put the bikes inside the Scamp. Or maybe I can fit two bikes on the roof with 2 kayaks (Thule stacker) and two bikes on the front of the vehicle with some type of receiver up there, I just saw a pic on another thread.
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Yes you can buy a new Scamp with a rear hitch receiver but that does not mean you can put an unlimited amount onto the receiver. The rear receivers on the trailers are attached on the underside to the trailers main frame. One needs to be careful not to put to much strain onto the frame of the trailers or you will have yourself a pretty big repair issue to deal with. Not to mention the not so nice towing experience putting all that extra weight to the rear extreme of the trailer can cause. Add to that the further the rack sticks out from the rear of the trailer (& a 5 bike rack will stick out) and the more the items on the rack wiggle around will simple add to excitement of towing.
You might want to check what the load weight rating is on your vehicles roof....not just the load rating on the roof racks. I know on my old tug for example that it was not up to the load rating to carry the weight of two
fiberglass double kayaks for example but fine for two singles.
It may be that you need to reconsider your tug and trailer chooses if you are wanting to bring ALL you have listed on every trip.
Keep in mind you need to watch what your vehicles total GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) is. That is the maximum operating weight of a vehicle including the vehicle itself, fuel, accessories, driver, passengers and cargo & the trailers tongue weight. The GVWR number should be on the sticker on the door. With 4 people & their stuff, 3 kayaks on the roof, a couple of kids bikes on the roof & trailer attached you *may* be pushing it. I don't know what the numbers are for the Pathfinder but I know my midsize Nissan Frontier with a slightly higher tow rating does not have a big pay load capacity, when compared to a full sized truck, so with trailer attached & one passenger and dog I actually need to watch I don't overload the rear of it with to much heavy stuff.
Or it may be that you need to decide what stuff you really need to bring and not bring on your trips. Maybe bring the bikes one trip but not the kayaks or just the bikes and no kayaks.