Combo Hitch for Car + Bike Rack

[KrankyKoot]

This is a repeat of a post that I being a dumb newbie posted to the general discussion area before scrolling down.

Does anyone know of a combo towing receiver that will allow me to tow my car dolly and hitch mounted bike rack and that will also allow me to disconnect car dolly without removing the bike rack?

I have tried a dual extension receiver with a 5 1/4" drop ball insert for the dolly. Works like a champ but is almost a foot longer than safety chains, electric connector. Yes I know I could buy extensions but it adds more length than I would like.

My current solution is a combo unit with a hitch receiver on top and ball on bottom with a 2" drop. There are several on the market from Curt, Conner, etc. but all with the same drop. I like this better but need to take bikes down and pull rack to disconnect dolly.

So my question: Is there a combo unit with a 3.5 - 5" drop? Thanks for any help or advise.

[Easyrider]

Check out Roadmaster products, I think they'll have what you want.

[Lakehouse 2]

Originally Posted by KrankyKoot

This is a repeat of a post that I being a dumb newbie posted to the general discussion area before scrolling down.

Does anyone know of a combo towing receiver that will allow me to tow my car dolly and hitch mounted bike rack and that will also allow me to disconnect car dolly without removing the bike rack?

I have tried a dual extension receiver with a 5 1/4" drop ball insert for the dolly. Works like a champ but is almost a foot longer than safety chains, electric connector. Yes I know I could buy extensions but it adds more length than I would like.

My current solution is a combo unit with a hitch receiver on top and ball on bottom with a 2" drop. There are several on the market from Curt, Conner, etc. but all with the same drop. I like this better but need to take bikes down and pull rack to disconnect dolly.

So my question: Is there a combo unit with a 3.5 - 5" drop? Thanks for any help or advise.

I had a similar problem when we used a tow dolly. To un-hitch the dolly I had to remove the bikes and rack to get enough room to lift the coupler up and off the ball. To eliminate the problem I modified the part of the bike rack that goes into the receiver. By cutting it off just outside the receiver, off setting it about 2 1/2" to the left, adding gussets, and re-welding everything. This gave me enough room to un-hook the tow dolly without removing the bikes or the bike rack. I would send pics but I no longer have that bike rack or tow dolly and we have a new bike rack on the toad.
I hope you can visualize what I did. Good luck.

[BirchyBoy]

I have a Curt dual mount. Regular ball on the bottom rated for 7500 lbs. 2" receiver on top for the bike rack.

http://a.co/eYoYTQt

[KSagal]

You may want to consider a receiver mounted to the front of the RV for bikes, or even a simple bolt on receiver offset on the rear bumper of the RV for the bikes.

An off center tow receiver would clearly be inappropriate for towing, but you could use it for bikes easily enough.

On a previous RV, I had 3 receivers on the rear bumper. One was a full tow hitch in the center, but there were 2 receivers about 18 inches on either side of that hitch.

I used the two outside receivers for a rack, kind of a heavy shelf that could mount on the rear bumper, and it had two different 2 inch mounts for stability.

When I towed a car or trailer, I could still use these side receivers for a bike rack or the hitch mounted BBQ I had that the time.

Alas, I have a completely different set up on this current RV.

[KrankyKoot]

Thanks for the suggestions / alternatives. Roadmaster does have an offset dual extension that looks great but again i'm not really comfortable with the length and added stress that it brings. The Curt product is the same as what I am using. All it needs is a 3 - 5" drop instead of the 2". It seems that many manufactures have the solution at hand given that they market their products to bikers. I am going to send a suggestion to Curt, Roadmaster, etc.

I don't have welding capability so I can't modify and wouldn't be comfortable with it anyway. Four down is obviously the way to go but after just buying the RV we are not ready to trade our front driver YET. So this is a temp solution until we get some experience with RVing.

[sweetandsour]

Why not just buy the size drop hitch that you need and take it to a welding shop and have them add the extra receiver tube to the top of it. Or even just have them build the complete setup to your specs.

[kfriceman]

Look no further, drop hitches don't get any better than this:

https://genyhitch.com/product-category/10000-lbs/300-series/


-Kevin

[vettenuts]

I am using the Roadmaster 077-4 with the 2" drop and 4" receiver upwards eventually for a bike rack. Etrailer states you can't tow with it, which didn't make sense to me. I spoke with Roadmaster technical support who stated I could tow a dolly as long as the tongue weight, bike rack and bikes fall within the 400 lb weight limit. The tongue weight of my dolly with the car is less than 100 lbs, which provides enough capacity for the bike rack and bikes placing the setup well below the capacity.

Check the weight of your dolly with the car on it, I think you will find it is not very much. I have the ACME EZE Tow dolly.

[BrewdogMN]

I too am looking to use a combo hitch and have the same considerations with length of attachments for the AirForce One brake system and lighting/power cord attachment, and break away switch. I did talk to SMI about the AFO and they would pretty much at cost and shipping lengthen my air hose and break away cord. Blue Ox however was not as accommodating and would not make me a longer electrical cord. I do not have the coach at home right now and would like to know if anyone has dealt with this set up and if it worked without buying new accessory cords.
As to the original questions above I would agree with all the answers. There is endless options available. A custom hitch welded by our local trailer/welding shop is $159.00. So the Gen-Y-Hitch is in the ballpark price wise.