Rear hitch

[trumpetguy]

Has anyone successfully added a rear hitch to their Ollie. If so please share photos of the installation.

[Greg and Janet Gato]

They offer a hitch. We ordered it on ours for our bikes. Email Anita, and she will send you a picture. I am not that technical to know how to put the picture on here. I think it was 400.00. janet gato

[trumpetguy]

Thanks for the info. Wow. I have been asking Robert for a hitch all year and he never let me know one was available.

 

Now let,s et them to offer a fridge upgrade. The 4 CF that is standard gets pretty small after a week. The reason I want a rear hitch is to tote my Yeti on a storage platform...a larger fridge would alleviate the need for that.

[Commanche]

Yea, that was one of the things I asked about when we placed the order, and it got nixed. It was for a bike rack, but then again we still don't have any bikes, so, so much for that idea.

 

Stan

[Overland]

Here's a photo of a rear hitch they were installing during our factory tour. I don't know if this is the standard bike rack hitch or something special they were doing for a customer. Nicely done, though. I was told that it's probably sturdy enough to hold a full-size or second spare if you want.

 

[Commanche]

It looks like a good idea, and I suppose the long bar is removable so you can remove the spare tire cover.

 

Stan

[trumpetguy]

This looks like a good solution.

[Maverick]

Yes, long bar is removable so you can remove the spare tire cover. The long bar is held on with four 1/2 inch pins which I have a lock holding on one of the pins. Our trailer which was delivered on September 2, 2015 was the first to have this hitch installed. It only takes a few minutes to remove the long bar or reinstall the bar, if you don't have anything attached to the hitch. I plan on using it to carry our bikes using a Yakima Holdup Bike Rack. We used this same Yakima bike rack on our previous trailer and we had no issues. Also I constructed a generator carries that we use for our Honda 2000i generator and It traveled many miles on our previous trailer.

 

Oliver placed a decal on the long bar for 150 lbs max load. Our bike rack and two bikes weight 122 lbs and our generator rack and generator with a few accessories weight is 125 lbs. So I see no issues with transporting equipment using this hitch that has been installed by Oliver.

[Overland]

Did they tell you how they calculated that weight limit? What I mean is that most of the loads you'd carry on the back would be supported by some sort of lever arm, and the further the load is from the hitch receiver, the greater the force on the receiver. For example, if they're calculating 150lbs at a distance 1' from the mount, like you might for a ball hitch, then at 2', for say a hitch mounted rack, your limit would really be 75lbs.

[Maverick]

I have no details as how they calculated that weight limit.

[bugeyedriver]

The Wonder Egg's rear bumper is too short to accommodate the new rear hitch option.  After almost having a front receiver hitch mounted on my truck, I went to a specialty hitch shop and found a 6000 lb tow rated, long tow bar with the correct rise for the main ball which can accommodate a 600 lb tongue weight.  We took some measurements and they firmly welded a hefty new receiver with a 17 inch rise for the bike rack.  My rack is a Swagman XC2 Platform.  I think this is going to work better than putting the bike in front of the truck where it would be the first item to hit the air, resulting in a huge parasitic drag issue.

[trumpetguy]

Pete.  That hitch looks good but would  not work for me because I access the bed of my pick up truck frequently during our camping trips. I did have a rear hitch fabricated at a local shop out of steel and it is working out well although it is so high I have a hard time lifting our bikes up to it so I'm putting a platform on that hitch to carry my extra black water tank now.

 

 

[trumpetguy]

Pete, your generator basket looks smaller than the standard factory version. Is it? The reason I make that comment is because you're not using the tongue extension which I have to with my larger generator basket. I would like to be able to eliminate that tongue extension because it adds some flex to the trailer we're going over bumpy roads. Can you comment as to the actual dimensions on your generator basket?

[bugeyedriver]

Trumpetguy, The Wonder Egg sports the very first generator basket Oliver ever made.  During the build, I was talking with Mountainborn, who was having a local welder in Arkansas make him up a monster basket with a solid cover so he could hide and secure his Yamaha 3000 generator.  (You know those mountainmen, they'll try anything). He said it kinda looked like a mailbox and I told him it looked more like a whole Post Office!   I thought that would be a great place for my 46lb Honda 2000, so I gave the Oliver folks some measurements and they fashioned my basket out of aluminum.  It's 19x23" rectangular and 8" high.  Now, however, I usually carry the generator in my truck bed and use the basket for my chocks & blocks or firewood.  The tongue actually is extended to the middle setting.

 

Because of the little bit of wiggle you mention on the earlier Ollies, I believe they are improving the newest frames coming off the line with a thicker, single piece extruded tongue, set at a nominal length wich can accomodate the newly designed, larger shiney aluminum basket with a cable pass-through cutout for a generator attachment.  They may be placing a recommended weight limit on it so's the mountaineers out there don't try to place a 20 ton nuclear generator on it.  hehehe

 

About my fabricated bike hitch . . . Because I have a short Tacoma and not a tall full sized truck, I'm able to lift the truck bed cover and reach inside for items. That would be difficult with a big truck.

 

 

[John E Davies]

Pete, That is a nifty bike rack but can you actually make a tight reverse turn without contract? It would be a shame to prang up both parts. The slightest grade (the trailer angled up) might make it impossible avoid damage, even with minimal stuff in the basket.....

Has anyone figured out a way to fabricate a vertical bike rack mounted on top of the trailer A frame, where your cargo basket is now? That might be a good alternative for a couple of bikes and it would allow full access to to the truck bed..

Thanks,

John Davies, Spokane WA

[bugeyedriver]

John, Good point of consideration.  There are actually several vertical inches of difference between the basket and anything on the arc of turn which might get close to the basket.  Now, if I was simultaneously making a very radical vertical angular change between the truck and trailer while in a very tight turn I may have an issue, but in all my years of travel, so far, anytime I've approached my left/right  turn limits I am on rather flat ground.  I should be very OK in 98% of my turns and cautious in the other 2%.