RE: Reese 350 & Bike Racks

[jstubbert]

 
I am considering purchasing a Reese Mini 350 WD Hitch. One of the things I need to consider is my bike rack. Currently I have a bike rack that is mounted on a sleeve that slides over the ball mount and sits between my tow vehicle and the trailer. This required me to track down a slightly longer ball mount (about 10-11"  in length). I am not sure if the ball mount for the Reese is long enough.
 
 My question are:
 (1) Anyone have this type of setup with a Reese Mini 350? If so any warnings?
 (2) If the ball mount is not long enough can it be safely modified?
 (3) Any good reason I should avoid this?
 
 Thanks

[mike4947]

 jstubbert
You can go to: http://www.reeseprod.com./  and click on products/weigh distribution/W.D. ball mounts to see the size for the wd350mini adj draw bar and see if it will give you clearance. Also there is a page describing the wd350 with parts listings and a page with the installation instructions.

[AustinBoston]

 jstubbert
In general, I don t think using an extended draw bar (aka stinger) is a good idea.  With a WDH (not just the Mini-350), I think it is a really bad idea.
 
 The forces on a WDH can be incredible.  If set to distribute 200 lbs of tongue weight, the hitch applies as much as 1,800 ft-lbs. (yes...one thousand eight hundred foot-pounds) of torque on the hitch.  This isn t something you want to play with by making the hitch longer.
 
 Austin

[YellowXterra]

 jstubbert
Here is a reply I left on a differenf board.
 
 Ok here we go. The hitch mounted bike racks do act as tongue weight as far as your van goes. Its adds dead weight on the hitch just like the trailer tongue, Its also true if you use a draw bar extension it decreases the capacity of your hitch. So here is what I did myself. I took a Reese Mini 350 WDH and my Yakima 4 Bike bike rack and went to welding on them. I decided to raise the bike rack to swing over the trailer tongue instead of using a drawbar extension. This does not reduce the hitch capacity it only adds to the hitch weight. The WDH stops rear end sag in my van so that everything rides level when fully loaded. It has worked very well over the last year. Here is a picture for what its worth. http://www.tpuc.com/images/reesehitch.jpg