I know there's an old thread about the curt hitch, but didn't wanna necro. Has anyone found a hitch or used the curt hitch with over 200# tongue weight? I have a little bike(Z125) I'd like to take on trips and it weighs about 225#.(+ the rack that holds it) Was hoping to get some ideas for this since the weight on the car isn't necessarily bad(just another large person + some drag). So if there's a higher rated hitch I could throw on or maybe some mods I could make. I saw there's a strap to help with leverage but I don't particularly like the idea of hooking that to my trunk if I can help it.. I saw someone post about a Lexus hitch but couldn't find anything else about it.

 

I don't think the hitch is the issue, I believe it's the mounts any hitch uses. IIRC, Lexus doesn't recommend putting a hitch on because the mount points aren't meant to carry any significant weight. It may be printed in the owner's manual. I'll have to take a look.

 

Yeah I def understand that, the mounting plates, while they look durable, the area they cover is small, esp for a cantilever design.

 

The problem with using a rack vs a trailer is that the hitch/rack acts like a big lever and its going to put a lot of stress on the suspension. With that much tongue weight your rear wheels may rub.

 

I mean it's prob like 300 pounds with the bike and rack. Like having a big person in your back seat or two normal sized people. I'd think it's more the hitch mount points before that. Wonder if I could manually reinforce it.

 

Not really because the back seat is not all the way at the rear of the car, i have over loaded a hitch before in my scion tc, by using a platform mount and some equipment. The "lever" action of the weight on the rear suspension made the rear tires rub the wheel wells and basically made it very dangerous to drive the car. Its a lot different than just putting weight in the back seat or in the trunk, i'm pretty sure the hit mount points can handle the weight for a short period of time, but i wouldn't try it for long, especially with a platform mount /basket.

 

You have to consider the mounting points for the hitch as well. If they engineered the mounting points to hold the exhaust, it's only designed to hold that kind of weight. While you don't plan on hauling something all that heavy, it may too much for the mounts to handle.

 

I'm not sure exactly where Curt mounts their hitch. You can check and see what the Lexus genuine hitch used for mounting points in Europe (if they sold one over there) and see if they are the same points on the car. If they are, you should be fine. Lexus Europe did list a maximum towing capacity for the 2IS at 1500 lb.

Jeff

 

Curt mounts their hitch to where the exhaust brackets bolt to the body, I just installed one on my car yesterday. Mind you, there are 3 M12 bolts per side holding the exhaust brackets on which is quite overkill if you ask me. I imagine if there were an OEM Lexus hitch, it would also bolt to the same location since theres really nothing else a hitch could bolt to back there.

 

Yeah but I assume that's not tongue weight which is what this would be. Also I can't for the life of me find any info or pics of the european hitch.(Except the 'installed' pics in the club lexus thread)