Hello,

I have a 1996 Ram 3500 Class B van, I'm considering building a hitch to bring my motorcycle with me when I'm traveling. The motorcycle is ~650lb but id like to build a rack that can hold some other things too. My van is the extended model and I'm wondering how drastically suspending ~750lb off the rear end would effect things. I'm not worried so much about the hitch itself because id build a setup that has 2 receivers mounted to the frame of the vehicle rather than the stock towing hitch, I'm more concerned about the weight that far back from the axel and if hitting bumps in the road are going to cause a pendulum effect while driving. I assume tongue weight would be the metric to use for this over towing capacity, but if there is another metric i could use that would be helpful.

Thanks

 

Whatever weight you put back there, is gonna have a long lever arm to exercise the rear suspension... Being a 1 ton though, its likely already pretty stiff, and with the right hitch, can support tongue weights north of a thousand pounds. Is the bike gonna be on the rack? Or on the trailer??? If it's on the trailer, then you are only adding likely less than 100 pounds of tongue weight there.... If you are hanging the bike off the back of the van though..... Just build the rack so it sits a little higher, to give you a bit more clearance when it bounces.

 

Do you know your van’s GVWR?

Have you weighed your van with all of the gear inside, water tanks, and gas tanks full?

The motorcycle alone, without the weight of the hitch itself, is like seven bags of concrete. That’s a lot of weight to be sitting behind the rear bumper. If you answer the first two questions and you still have room within the GVWR for another 800 pounds or so, then you can think about proceeding. If not, your question will be easily answered.

I shaved a lot of weight off of mine, and I pack pretty light, and I’m not sure I even have 800 pounds of overhead available.

I will say this, the spare tire weighs about 100 pounds with the wheel and tire, so you could maybe shave some weight off by ditching that. Replacing AGM batteries with lithium also helps.

 

Doing this will wreak havoc with your front-end alignment.

 

HeyYou,

I would like to put the bike on the rack, that's why id have to build a custom one because most reasonably priced racks i can find hold up to 600lb and my bike is a little over that and i like a nice margin of safety lol. I'm not super concerned about the suspension, i just replaced the factory 7 leaf pack and 5 leaf helper set up so I'm pretty confident in that. Worst case scenario i can get a small trailer if that's what it comes to, id just like a smaller footprint for camping.

 

this is the information i have from the camper company that made it a class B, although some of it will be greatly different because im refitting the entire interior space basically from scratch.

GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating): 8510lb
UVW (Unloaded Vehicle Weight, including all engine fluids, no cargo/passengers/or fresh water): 6520lb
NCC (Net Carrying Capacity): 1990lb (GVWR-UVW)
GCWR (Gross Combination Weight Rating, max weight of motorhome with its towed trailer or vehicle): 13000

I can also carry about 210lb of water on board so that would leave me with a from factory allowable carrying weight of 1780lb of all cargo, including the bike. now I'm sure i could shave a couple of lbs here or there during the rebuild but assuming i don't, what do you think the cargo weight of the van would take up? I'm also pretty sure the GCWR doesn't necessarily matter so much in the case of the rack mounted bike because im sure it factors in the other trailers wheels on the ground.

I also found this info (also just from the camper company):

Front Curb: 2495lb
Front Load: 990lb
GAWR (Gross Axle Weight Rating) Front: 3600lb
Rear Curb: 4025lb
Rear Load: 1000lb
GAWR Rear: 5360lb

 

Alloro,

When you say havoc, do you mean constantly havoc, like i will need to get re-aligned all the time, or just initially to account for the weight reduction (or weight lift i guess) on the front axel.

 

Think I would be more tempted to go with a small trailer..... Less load on the rear suspension, easier to get the bike onto it, etc. Yes, it's a larger footprint..... but, overall, I think it's a better solution......

 

Yeah i think i agree. or i suppose i could just buy a second smaller bike for traveling lol.

 

If you are only using it for local travel where you happen to be at, that would be a viable option. Get something large enough to be street legal, but, small enough that you can load it on the rack yourself, without being in danger of killing yourself.