Is it Okay to Use a Hitch Extender in Between a Swing-Away Extender and a Bike Rack?

Question:

Question on hitch Tongue Weights. Daughter’s tow hitch on her Subaru and her BF’s Toyota truck have a 350 TW capacity. Her 1UP USA bike bike rack weighs 46 lbs. We bought her a Yakima swinging adapter so she can swing the rack sideways even those the 1UP rack swings down. The Yakima adapter weighs 35 lbs. Two bikes weight let’s say 35 lbs each. About 155 lbs total for the two bikes, the rack and the swing arm. 1 Is it safe to use an 8 inch 2” extender given they reduce TW capacity by 50? 2 Can I mount the extender to the Yakima swinging rack so it’s between the Yakima rack and the bike rack? This means the swinging Yakima arm would attach to the car followed by the extender then the bike rack. The reason is they want to put a propane tank 11 lb mount a propane tank outside the truck between the Thule swing and bike rack when they are car camping. They’d only have it there when parked so the propane is outside the vehicle. They just want to be able to swing the entire thing bike rack and propane mount so the tail gate can come down. They wouldn’t carry the propane outside while driving.

asked by: Norm A

Expert Reply:

You are correct that using a hitch extender such as the #e88YR will reduce the hitch's total tongue weight capacity by 50%, so if your daughter's hitch normally supports 350 lbs TW, with the adapter it can support only 175 lbs.

I contacted Yakima in regard to using a hitch extender off of a swinging arm such as the the Yakima BackSwing Swing Away Hitch Extender for Bike Racks - 2" Hitches # Y02483, and they are strongly against using it this way. Although the arm is rated to support up to 250 lbs (so theoretically 125 lbs with the hitch extender), moving the bike rack further out away from the arm puts more strain on the components in the arm and could be a safety hazard. I can't condone going against the manufacturer's recommendations. Plus, the 11 lb propane tank would put your equipment well over the 125 lbs tongue weight rating. I recommend looking for another solution for how to store the propane tank at the campsite over adding on more components to your hitch.

expert reply by: John R