How safe is the rear bumper hitch?

[JCD]

I was just wondering if anyone knew the load rating for towing with these types of bumpers?
Short of tying it to a tree and racing away..I have no idea how to safely test its strength?
I do have the camper package, and the wiring and plug are down there for a trailer.
I was hoping it would at least be able to tow a car carrier.

It's a California truck, solid bumper and frame, the supports are the type that are adjustable to make it sit further away from the truck if you put a camper on the bed.

J.

[Special-Ed]

i would not tow anything with that. i would get a class three installed and call it a day!

even if its secure and strong there is zero chance of getting the trailer tongue at proper height to trailer safely

[JCD]

Originally Posted by Special-Ed

even if its secure and strong there is zero chance of getting the trailer tongue at proper height to trailer safely

What's proper height?
You'd kinda think the makers of the bumper would have thought of that.
The center of this tow hitch ball is 20" exactly off the ground, I think Maximum height is 25".

J.

[BlackedOut67shorty]

I used the one of my dads s10 zr2 and pulled a 71 frame,cab, and bed on a trailer for 40 miles, worked fine.
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[SS Tim]

If that is a sliding bumper I would limit it to 1500lbs. If you actually plan on putting anything on your car carrier then buy a proper receiver hitch that mounts to the frame there under the bumper. Then you have a secure hitch and weight distribution capabilites that should be used with heavier loads in addition to electric brakes.

[oklalawnboy]

We hauled with those bumpers for YEARS. Worse thing ever happened we forgot to latch the trailer.... Your height seems okay to me. All 3 of my trailers are between 19-20 inches level (loaded) Disclaimer; yes a weight distribution hitch is safer but so are air bags, your truck got any of those? My 2 cents.

[Hardesty454]

I had one of those on my first 72 k10. It will tow a light duty trailer fine. Will be fine with a medium duty if you are careful but thats about it. I would not tow a car trailer with it.

[FirstOwner69]

I agree 100% with Tim and Special-Ed.

What weight are we talking for the car carrier and load? I'd guess at least 4500# with a vehicle on the trailer. Not safe, especially with an adjustable bumper. How is the bumper set up to telescope? Most were just held in place with a set screw/bolt. As Tim said you should also use a weight distributing hitch setup, especially if it's a 1/2 ton truck. AND, you will be required by law to also have trailer brakes. I don't know of any state that allows trailers over 3000# without brakes. There are some that have a 1000# limit.

"Proper height" of the ball is whatever it takes so the trailer is level when hitched to the truck.

Others have and will tell you that this or that is OK since they towed a huge trailer with a bumper hitch successfully. That doesn't mean they did it safely. Perhaps they were just lucky.

[In The Ten Ring]

I've seen A LOT of those type of bumpers nearly ripped off too. Myself, I won't tow anything unless the hitch is mounted to the frame.

[BlackedOut67shorty]

Originally Posted by FirstOwner69

I agree 100% with Tim and Special-Ed.

What weight are we talking for the car carrier and load? I'd guess at least 4500# with a vehicle on the trailer. Not safe, especially with an adjustable bumper. How is the bumper set up to telescope? Most were just held in place with a set screw/bolt. As Tim said you should also use a weight distributing hitch setup, especially if it's a 1/2 ton truck. AND, you will be required by law to also have trailer brakes. I don't know of any state that allows trailers over 3000# without brakes. There are some that have a 1000# limit.

"Proper height" of the ball is whatever it takes so the trailer is level when hitched to the truck.

Others have and will tell you that this or that is OK since they towed a huge trailer with a bumper hitch successfully. That doesn't mean they did it safely. Perhaps they were just lucky.

Then again I was not towing a lot of weight, the bumper style hitch can be used but to only a certain extent, I wouldn't be pulling anything beyond 1200 pounds with it
Just not trying to look like I was being wreckless. But frame hitch is the way to go if you will be truly hauling heavier loads, bumper style is fine if your towing fairly light loads.
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[jrdv]

As a cattle rancher who pulls a trailer almost every day, I think you are fine with pulling a trailer depending on how well the bumper is attached to the frame. I pulled trailers for over 30 years and have never seen a bumper ripped out of the frame.

I guess I was lucky, but considering I live in the boonies and am surrounded by ranchers who pull trailers full of cattle all the time, it would seem that if something bad were to happen, I would have seen it.

That being said, I would not pull more than about 5000 pounds with a bumper pull trailer. You need to consider that your truck only weighs about 5 grand and anything larger on a trailer will push you around when you try to stop.

If you want to pull a utility trailer with your truck, I wouldn't worry about it.

That's my experience and 2 cents worth.

John

[SS Tim]

GM's take on trailering for 72.

[jjzepplin]

I thought mine was weak til I looked underneath and PO had reinforced it with a buttload of 1/4" plate steel. I bolted a 2" receiver and called it a day. Yanked a triple tree stump out with it no problem.

[cdowns]

if you r goin down the highway and what you're towin goes on by you can figure you've probally exceeded the load limit

[Special-Ed]

ive seen so many people towing things where the trailer tongue is not at proper ride height. and a 4 wheel tralier has only 2 wheels on the ground.

that is why god invented offset hitches for your receiver. you want the trailer to sit level as it sits on the ball of the receiver. also tongue weight is heighly important as well. as well as load distribution.

i personally dont care how someone fill's their trailer or what they use to tow, but if a persons ignorance hurts me or my kids.... we have a major problem.

in my 2005 suburban z71 i have close to 75000 miles of towing. everything from my buddy's 35 ft triple axle boat trailer, to my 30 ft dual axle boat trailer, 25 foot enclosed trailers, to our 12 foot single axle boy scout trailer and pretty much everything in between. i own probably 6 or 7 hitches at multiple heights and ball size for this exact reason. and typically its 10% on the tongue with equal distribution untill you get to the heavy stuff like cars and boats... then i try and keep it 100 lbs lower than max tongue (300lbs is my goal as 400 is max)) 300 is my max and the mass of load equally ditributed over the axles of the trailer. and as long as you do that you have very little worries. 70mph wth my 7600 pound boat was common. 80mph with the boy scout trailer, did even know it was there.

so if you use your bumper hitch to tow something, and something bad happens.... its on you! and that chart that got posted, that was not for a bumper hitch, those were for frame mounted receivers...

[Special-Ed]

my intention is not to sound like a doucher in my previous posts, but only stress how serious trailering really is and the responsibility one should take.

the funniest thing i have seen and its only funny because nobody got hurt, except some pride.

out in the california/navada desert (I10?) i was driving from san diego to vegas and this guy was so proud of himslef.... brand new honda suv and a brand new 30 foot camper trailer... the trailer was well withing spec's of what the honda could tow weight wise. but the ball height was not proper and the wheels did not set properly on the pavement.... ole boy hit an expansion joint in the road... trailer got squirrely... suv and trailer both totaled... when he could not control it and flipped both.

[71sierragrande]

1 to 1 and a half tons, yes. Those are bad ass bumpers. 2 tons and up, I want to go straight to the frame with square tubing

[71sierragrande]

Heres a funny story(because nobody got hurt).... I was 18 yrs old hauling an empty hydroseeder with a 78 chevy 4x4 half ton with bumper hitch, when it started dancin back and forth at 55 mph. I saw it sideways in the drivers mirror, and I turned my head and saw it sideways in the passenger mirror in a span of two seconds. The hydroseeder flipped right onto her side. Had the the left rear wheel of the chevy off the ground sittin in the middle of the road.

[jwinga]

In the 70's and 80's we pulled some big loads with bumpers that looked very similar to that. They bolted directly to the frame and we had shock hitches bolted to the bumper. We never had a frame mounted receiver hitch until 88 when they started putting those chrome plated sheetmetal bumpers on chevy pickups.The old steel step bumpers were pretty tough.
By big loads I mean peanut wagons two at the time. Best I remember an empty 4 wheel wagon was around 3500 and it would hold around 4-4.5 tons of peanuts. We went slowly loaded around 35 -40 max and you had to be very careful stopping especially on dirt or gravel. longer trips were 8-10 miles but most trips where shorter.Also pulled 40 ft cotton wagons with 8 to 10 bales of seed cotton depending on how much we packed it. Also pulled 2 125 bushel gravity flow wagons never tore off a bumper.Fried a few turbo 350s though. Sometimes we ran a flat iron brace from the bolts on the shock hitch to the frame sometimes not. The bolt holes in the shock hitches lined up with the outside of the three holes in the bumpers.In those days that was how you could tell if a truck belonged to a farmer was if it had a shock hitch on it.I wish we had taken some pics but we didnt think anything about it at the time it was just what everyone did.

[jjzepplin]

Could you draw up something? I want to see this! Shock bumper---yeah!

[jwinga]

Give me a day or two. I found an old pic of my truck from about 1985. I will get it scanned and post it. Its not very impressive looking but they did work. It made it a lot easier on the truck pulling loads like that.Wagons snatch back and forth a lot because they have a hitch pin instead of a ball.
They did make bumpers with built in shock hitches I guess they still do. Brother had one that came on his 83 K10 lwb 6.2. It had an arrangement on it where you could pull a handle and it would slide back and sie to side about 6 inches if you weren't lined up just right.Put the pin in the tounge then back up on it and it would lock back into place. Pretty sweet it saved a lot of work.

[JCD]

Interested in that myself..

J.

[jwinga]

Heres a pic, its not a good one but its what I got. We pulled /hauled all kinds of things with those hitches that we probably should have used a semi for. Never bent or lost one of those bumpers.The second pic is the same truck about a year later I just put on while I was at it.