[drzook]

Hi all,

I am wanting to use a tow ball 'rack n roll' carrier on my 1990 Suzuki Vitara 1.6l to transport a dirt bike from A to B between tracks.

Looking for any advice around shopping for tow balls on this car.. kerb weight, gross vehicle mass, lowball mass, payload.
My bike weighs approx. 130kg (give or take a couple kg).

Any advice and information would be appreciated. Cheers!

[Gwagensteve]

That's miles more tongue load than a Vitara tow bar was intended for, even more so when you consider the leverage added between the load and the ball. I would not recommend attempting this - it's not worth the risk of failure of the towbar or chassis, nor the handling consequences of that much weight so far behind the rear axle.

It's an option for large vehicles but they have over 250kg of legal tongue weight to play with. Even so, some of them look pretty sketchy. A light bike trailer is a better (and legal) option.

[Gwagensteve]

A quick check of Hayman Reece's website shows a light duty bar with a tongue weight of 80 kg maximum, which is actually more than I expected, but still well short of what you need. Also, I believe all these bike carriers require a 50mm receiver hitch. (which is smart) rather than the flat tongue a light duty towbar provides.

Again, I can't stress enough the leverage these generate is enormous and has higher than towing where the tongue weight doesn't vary significantly in use. The dynamic loads 130kg will create on a 400mm fulcrum are huge and well outside of the designed tongue weight for trailer towing.

[Joe]

I've seen one of these snap throwing a brand new bike down and dragged at 100kph on a country road, just get a small trailer.

[tanked]

My original weight on my camper trailer tongue was approx 70-80kgs and that bent the toungue after a 30min drive, and that didnt have to much extra leverage off the car.

[drzook]

Rightio, sounds like a trailer is the go!

Next... would it be wise to upgrade the zook's brakes, or put brakes on the trailer? Or both?

[drzook]

Sounds like a small trailer is the way to go!

Next... Would it be wise to upgrade the brakes on the zook, or put brakes onto the trailer? Or both?

[Gwagensteve]

For a light dirt bike trailer you shouldn't need to do either. Vitaras have pretty decent brakes standard. The obvious upgrade would be to fit ventilated rotors and calipers from a 1.6 LWB to the front, it's a bolt in upgrade. Anything beyond that will require more complex work which isn't justified.