[ravi06]

Want to throw my motorcycle on a hitch carrier. The bike weighs ~300lbs. I'm wondering how the rear suspension does with that much weight on it. If it sags, etc.

This is on a 2020 EX-L with AWD

Black Widow Heavy-Duty Steel Motorcycle Carrier - 600 lbs. Capacity

Easily transport your bike with the steel MCC-600 hitch-mounted motorcycle carrier. Available online at affordable prices, only at DiscountRamps.com!

www.discountramps.com

Thanks!

 

[Wrascal]

When your bike starts to bouncing (due to the road variations) it'll subject the hitch to stress; maybe even the end of your bike (and/or the attachment points).

I'd suggest a small trailer where most of the bike weight is carried on the trailer axle.

 

[P-A-N-D-A]

ravi06 -
Consider the Honda OEM hitch is rated 350-lb static, but with the type of carrier you linked it will put that 300-lb bike weight much further away from the hitch, thereby increasing the leverage on the hitch, thereby increasing the stress/movement on receiver & hitch, and ultimately decreasing the static weight the hitch can safely carry. Don't know exactly how much the tongue weight gets reduced by, based on the distance away from the hitch pin hole, but likely reduction of minimum 30%, so total hitch weight capacity becomes maximum 250-lb, which would include the weight of the carrier itself. Good Luck.

 

[New-Sheriff]

Having done a lot of towing of TT’s with trucks and SUV’s, I agree 100% with Wrascal. The cantilevered weight on the hitch is potentially dangerous. Find a nice little trailer built for motorcycles. Whatever the hitch weight in the end (won’t be much with a MC trailer), know that hitch weight needs to be subtracted from the cars payload rating (found on drivers side b pillar door jam) to determine passenger+cargo weight remaining.

 

[pshadoa]

The tongue load on an AWD PP with or without ATF cooler is 500lbs when there are two occupants. It ranges down incrementally to 425lbs with five occupants.
Page 441 in Owners' Manual.

 

[ravi06]

Is the Owner's Manual tongue weight rating for the OEM hitch or the subframe/platform itself? Reason I ask is...

Curt Hitch is rated to 750lb

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch/Honda/Passport/2019/C13421.html?VehicleID=201997361

Draw-Tite hitch is rated to 900 lb

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch/Honda/Passport/2019/76290.html?VehicleID=201997319

I don't have storage for a full size trailer, nor do I want to install wiring (this will only be used a few times a year). Thanks for the input thus far! Some of the Ridgeline guys seem to be okay running this setup, but I might just end up renting a trailer as needed.

 

[mcrimm]

I don’t think the rear suspension is very burley. When we travel with lots of crap in the back, I get flashed a bunch at light. Headlights aren’t self leveling like on my Mazda.

I wouldn’t consider putting your bike on the back. Tough on the hitch, unibody and suspension.

 

[P-A-N-D-A]

The tongue load on an AWD PP with or without ATF cooler is 500lbs when there are two occupants. It ranges down incrementally to 425lbs with five occupants.
Page 441 in Owners' Manual.

I had to look that up myself, pshadoa.
Then I went out and took a picture of my Passport, with OEM hitch installed. See label:

ravi06 is asking advice, and I don't want him to push the limits and risk damage or injury. Hauling a trailer is significantly different physics on the receiver/hitch/mounting bolts/rear axle, than top-heavy static weight extending cantilevered out in the air. The weight of the receiver device and cycle actually adds more load to the rear axle than just the combined weight. With a motorcycle hitch mounted carrier, the downward load is applied further away from the rear axle than at a hitch ball mount. The load is approximated to be all at the center of the hitch mounted carrier platform. The downward force applied further away from the rear axle will transfer load from the front axle and apply it to the rear axle, think of a see-saw. You can imagine that if the downward force was great enough or the distance from the rear axle sufficiently large, the car would pivot about the rear axle and the front suspension would lighten, upsetting weight distribution. This transfer of weight is happening even if it's not large enough to lift the front wheels off the ground or you can't see it. The combined weight of the hitch mounted carrier and cycle will have to be adjusted to account for this extra effective load on the rear axle.

5000-lb trailer towing is best done using weight-distributing receiver, for those exact reasons. 111-in wheelbase and unibody construction merits that choice. And just because a hitch is rated for 5000, 7000, 9000 lbs or more, doesn't mean your vehicle can safely handle that kind of load, or is structurally strong enough to handle it.

Good Luck with whatever decision you make.

 

[pshadoa]

PANDA Is your PP AWD? If so, perhaps you have the wrong label?
Took a pic of mine and the max to tongue load is 500lbs as it should be according to the manual. Just wanted ravi06 to have accurate info to help make his decision.

 

[P-A-N-D-A]

PANDA Is your PP AWD? If so, perhaps you have the wrong label?
Took a pic of mine and the max to tongue load is 500lbs as it should be according to the manual. Just wanted ravi06 to have accurate info to help make his decision.

Touring AWD. OEM Honda Hitch, 08L92-TGS-100 , only hitch Honda offers for the Passport, FWD or AWD.
Installed it myself, and label was pre-attached to the new replacement rear valance piece.
I know that OEM Honda ATF cooler includes a replacement label to install over the pre-attached valance label, and since your label states 5000-lb towing, I can only conclude the dealer adhered that label when they installed your auxillary Honda ATF cooler, as part of your original label is visible at the edge.

However note: Different label, but still same hitch, same mounting points, same studs, same unibody, same suspension, hence same reasoning.
A 300-lb bike plus a 98-lb hitch-mount carrier results in 400 lbs of free-movement cantilevered weight on the end of a 2-ft ball mount lever, bouncing up and down, pivoting over the rear axle suspension like a see-saw . . . a bumper label won't change the physics of weight transfer, axle load, suspension compression, and vehicle handling. And with that load factor on your suspension, highly suggest you carry full size spare tire for your Passport; no way it could be driven with any margin of safety on the temporary spare.
I agree with the numbers you are stating, pshadoa, but differ in how we interpret them .
It's not my Passport, not my bike, not my risk, not my decision.
That final choice is up to ravi06 (Butch1) . Wishing you safe travels.

 

[New-Sheriff]

Tongue weight is typically, at minimum, 10% of trailer weight, some RV’ers use 15%. A front wheel drive PP has a 3500lb tow rating which explains a 350lb tongue weight rating. The “properly equipped “ AWD PP has a 5000 lb tow rating, and 500lb tongue weight rating. If one tows a 5K TT, with a 10% tongue weight, that tongue weight needs to be subtracted from the payload rating. I don‘t own a PP yet, and I haven’t checked a payload rating on an Elite, but if it’s about 850lb, and the TT is 5K, then you only have 350lb remaining for passengers and gear.

 

[erick1670]

Want to throw my motorcycle on a hitch carrier. The bike weighs ~300lbs. I'm wondering how the rear suspension does with that much weight on it. If it sags, etc.

This is on a 2020 EX-L with AWD

Black Widow Heavy-Duty Steel Motorcycle Carrier - 600 lbs. Capacity

Easily transport your bike with the steel MCC-600 hitch-mounted motorcycle carrier. Available online at affordable prices, only at DiscountRamps.com!

www.discountramps.com

Thanks!

I got mine from etrailer.com and my tongue weight is 700, you want that.

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch/Honda/Passport/2019/C13421.html?vehicleid=201997361

and get the Pilot hitch wire harness... on the Passport is hidden on the left side panel, just need to move the floor side cup or whatever you call it.

that’s what I did...

 

[louierg]

Want to throw my motorcycle on a hitch carrier. The bike weighs ~300lbs. I'm wondering how the rear suspension does with that much weight on it. If it sags, etc.

This is on a 2020 EX-L with AWD

Black Widow Heavy-Duty Steel Motorcycle Carrier - 600 lbs. Capacity

Easily transport your bike with the steel MCC-600 hitch-mounted motorcycle carrier. Available online at affordable prices, only at DiscountRamps.com!

www.discountramps.com

Thanks!

Go to your manual or call your dealer and find out what "tongue weight" is it you can handle. Also check your total pounds to pull which includes all add ons, all passenger weight and all things load in and on the vehicle, GVW. You do not want to exceed this weight unless you want a new transmission not to mention stopping the vehicle problems. That said make sure your trailer at the ball is not over the tongue weight maximum. Also it may be prudent to install a transmission cooler. This will help to prevent very very expensive transmission repair. Good luck.

 

[Mindyzevs]

I like to drive myself off-road, in all sorts of places. But I'm sorry to kill my bike for that, so I came up with the idea of just renting it. I found the website riderly.com, which has a vast assortment of bikes. I rent a bike there every weekend and ride for fun. But there was such a problem that I would swallow or something would go wrong. And then I needed to tow it somehow back, but I was lucky that the rental came with a feature that I could call my landlords, say my location, and my car would come to get me.

 

[Mike D]

The tongue weight discussion here is a bit of a non-issue regarding the "trailer" being towed, as there is no trailer here. Whether your vehicle has a a 350 pound or 500 pound rating is also not an issue for this "non-trailer" discussion. If it will handle 350 pounds it will handle 500 pounds at the receiver, statically (my two cents). It's not the part that changes it's the rating relative to the transmission with a cooler or not (again, not an issue here as no trailer is involved.)

The parts "could" handle the load, static. Will they handle the load in motion...maybe. A trailer bounces a bit too so those loads will change on the "tongue" weight when hauling, but I agree with PANDA that this weight is 2 feet from the mouth of the receiver, and this platform weighs 100 pounds all by itself, so the load, let me calculate, that comes to...math I can't figure, but certainly more than 300 pounds on a ball at 6 inches from the receiver.

I agree with the suggestion of a small trailer as a much safer and less risky way to move this bike. If I had to move the bike a couple times a year to storage or moving etc would I use this...maybe. Would I drive around regularly with my bike on the back so I could have it "just in case", no way. It will eat your suspension, even if it can "handle it" not to mention the bike is putting all kinds of side loads on the tie downs used etc. A recipe for eventual failure and the bike jumping off and getting damaged, causing a collision, you name it. OR, I am completely wrong.

Again, I'd do it once, maybe twice a year, but not regularly.

You do you.