Curious if anyone else had issues with this or recommendations/suggestions to fix?

I recently had a curt hitch (11493) installed on my 2009 coupe to haul a 2-bike platform rack from thule. After 2 trips (1 with 2 bikes and 1 with 1 bike), the supports for the aluminum beam that the hitch is mounted to have started to fail. The hitch has started to angle slightly towards the ground and the bumper fascia is now slightly out of alignment. With just 1 bike on the rack it was incredibly "bouncy" going down the road. I would estimate a total of 90 lbs with 1 bike and 120 lbs with 2 bikes.

The hitch is rated class 1 w/ 150lb tongue weight.

Question: When you have the rack down and the bikes on, that much distance away from the tongue are you effectively adding more weight because of leverage?

I am taking the car to the hitch installer and letting them know of issue and to see if I can recoup some of the expense.

I would caution anyone looking to mount a hitch/hitch rack due to how fragile that aluminum beam is.

I would appreciate any suggestions as I would prefer to keep the hitch rack and not go to a roof rack.

Thanks!!

 

i THINK your problem could be the weight of your rack.. arent thule racks heavier duty, therefore heavier? i have a swagman xc2 rack and a draw tite hitch. 90lbs seems really heavy for these hitches the way theyre mounted. the swagman i have is probably 20-30lbs plus my mtn bike adds another 30lbs. i noticed with my setup that the rack sags with 2 bikes but it sags from the tongue not the actual hitch. i avoid transporting 2 bikes now, especially freeway driving. 1 bike is perfectly okay! ive driven to mammoth a few times (5 hour drive from my location) with 1 bike on the back.

im no expert though. i went to a hitch installer locally. i would recommend re-securing the hitch and buying yourself a light weight rack.