A-frame bike rack weight consideration

[Learner]

(NOTE: this post is mistitled; I should have entitled it "RV tongue jack bike rack"}

I have a Jayco 224bh. The cargo capacity listed on the door is 885 lb, which in my opinion is pretty low for a trailer with a frame as beefy as it has, and two 3500 pound axles. The listed GVWR is 5500 lb, but it would seem as though 6,000 would be more realistic given the components on the trailer. It should also be noted that this unit has a 2 and 5/16" hitch coupler. At any rate, with a full load of water it's obvious that I don't have much capacity for other cargo.

So here is what I was thinking: I was contemplating using a tongue jack mounted bike rack, in order to be able to bring our bicycles with us. This style of bike rack mounts between the trailer tongue jack base and the trailer A-frame, being fastened as it were with the tongue jack bolts.

This puts the weight of the bike rack and the bikes closer to the hitch itself, rather than further back on the A-frame.

Because of the hitch carrying a lot of the weight of the bikes and rack in this arrangement, would I still need to add the weight of those items to the cargo capacity of the trailer? Or would I instead add the cargo weight of those to my tow vehicle?

I'm certain that they will be varying opinions on this, but I'd like to hear the various viewpoints.

Thank you in advance.

[justlb33]

This is an interesting point. My opinion as I am trying to validate the same thing is that I would consider this as part of my tongue weight. So, I'm thinking part of the TV payload. I am currently already up near my max, so I have eliminated this style of bike rack from my options. Probably just store them inside the trailer for now, in which they would of course be part of the cargo in the trailer.

[Learner]

Originally Posted by justlb33

This is an interesting point. My opinion as I am trying to validate the same thing is that I would consider this as part of my tongue weight. So, I'm thinking part of the TV payload. I am currently already up near my max, so I have eliminated this style of bike rack from my options. Probably just store them inside the trailer for now, in which they would of course be part of the cargo in the trailer.

In my case I'm running a Fastway E2 weight distribution system with the 800-pound bars. TV has a max hitch weight of 1000 when using weight distribution. So I have a little wiggle room with regards to my hitch weight.

One of my concerns is that since the bikes will still sit over the propane tank, the weight of them will tend to transfer farther along the A frame. So this might increase the effect of the weight distribution hitch.

[DocBrown]

Tongue weight is not separate from the GVWR of the trailer. It's counted separately so you can factor it into the total available payload of the tow vehicle. So what ever you add to the tongue goes toward the GVWR of the trailer, and it increases your tongue weight.

How heavy are your bikes and the rack you are planning on using?

[Learner]

Originally Posted by DocBrown

Tongue weight is not separate from the GVWR of the trailer. It's counted separately so you can factor it into the total available payload of the tow vehicle. So what ever you add to the tongue goes toward the GVWR of the trailer, and it increases your tongue weight.

How heavy are your bikes and the rack you are planning on using?

I don't have a weight on the bikes yet, but I would guess they're about 35 lb apiece. I don't have the weight on the rack yet either, but it did not look very heavy. I would guess that the whole setup would weigh less than a hundred pounds. I'll have to do some more investigation.

[Scott_Trailer_Newbe]

Originally Posted by docbrown

tongue weight is not separate from the gvwr of the trailer. It's counted separately so you can factor it into the total available payload of the tow vehicle. So what ever you add to the tongue goes toward the gvwr of the trailer, and it increases your tongue weight.

How heavy are your bikes and the rack you are planning on using?

agreed