200lbs tounge weight? are you kidding me?

[mattyhfd]

i have a 2dr 2009 wrangler. bought the rugged ridge reciever hitch and put it on today so that i could use my cargo carrier basket. but the tounge weight is only 200lbs (10% of the towing capacity). maybe its just me but that doesnt seem like much to me.

 

[wanderer-rrorc]

Ive towed with 500lbs of hitch weight..1500lb trailer..didnt even break a sweat...

its probably because it ties into the rear crossmember that the bumper plastic covers...

 

[Backwoods Rambler]

I always thought 10% was the norm??

I don't think I'd want too much more weight back there anyway.

 

[Black Dog]

The thing with Wranglers is that they are a pretty short wheel base, so if you put something with a heavy hitch weight on the back that will make the rear sag and will lift the front of the vehicle up. And the lifted front could negatively affect handling and be a safety problem if you need to do some quick evasive maneuvers. Thats why a lot of big trucks used for towing are so long is because then they have leverage that helps keep the front end down.

 

[matt s]

Short wheel base! You don't want to tow 5K with that anyway. My K5 blazer barely tows my 12' travel trailer and it weighs nowhere near 5K.

When that trailer gets the short wheel base moving it's scary stuff.

(I should note that the travel trailer is 1965 vintage and weighs a lot more than modern 12' would weigh)

 

[winkosmosis]

The cargo carrier basket has leverage unlike a trailer resting on the ball, so the actual capacity is even less! Can you even stand on the basket?

 

[The Swiss]

The cargo carrier basket has leverage unlike a trailer resting on the ball, so the actual capacity is even less! Can you even stand on the basket?

I'm standing on mine all the time without any problems, but I don't like staying out there when driving; it's kinda scary.

All kidding aside, I have the 4 door and am grossly overloading my hitch rack on regular basis with topsoil, bags of pie gravel and other stuff. Jeep squattes in the rear but I never have any problems. Do not drive more than 10 mile trips from Lowe's home though like this.

 

[sdjeep]

On road you might be able to get away with going a little over ( i don't recommend it), but off road, i would cut that number almost in half. I used my hitch carrier with close to 250lbs on it to do Mojave Road(fairly easy stuff) with my 06 LJ and i bent the hitch about 20 degrees after about 75 miles. The leverage of the carrier is different than a trailer since there is no second set of tires like on a trailer. I think the Mopar hitch on my LJ had a tongue rating of 300 lbs and it still bent.

 

[IdaSHO]

As mentioned, 10% is the norm.