Slime101 said:
Bumper mount??? Only in america
There are some cars that can only have a bumper mount, as there is nowhere else to mount it. Cars that have an overly large rear mounted petrol tank come to mind.
The hitch receiver is actually mounted to the bumper mounts themselves, not actually to the bumper.
My Toyota Tercel 4WD station wagon is one of them. It (the hitch) is bolted to the bottom of the bumper, and one point on each side to the bumper mounts. Between the rear drive assembly, the petrol tank, and the spare tyre, there's no room for the mount to go anywhere else. Hence the reason my car is only capable of hauling a maximum of 500 pounds with a 50 pound tongue weight. Not because the car itself is not strong enough or the brakes are too weak, but because the hitch mounting system can only handle that much.
But my wife's Neon, with only 2WD, no rear frame rails to mention, and only 85% the braking power of my Toyota can haul up to 1,500 pounds behind it. Why? Because it can have a true Class 1 receiver hitch mounted to the rear suspension pods.
Some cars can also only have a bumper mount due to ground clearance issues. Some aren't allowed to have any sort of hitch at all installed due to the positioning of crumple zones (Geo Metro). Others due to instability in handling (Jeep Wrangler comes to mind). And yet some of the most surprising vehicles can have ungodly sized hitches mounted for the size of the car.......
One of my many jobs I've had in my life was working at a U-Haul centre that installed hitches so that customers could use our trailers. It was amazing to me how many people didn't understand the concept of not trying to tow a 6,500 pound loaded dual axle gooseneck trailer with a 1,300 pound 1.3L 55bhp FWD car. Or the fact that a Dodge Caravan couldn't tow a 3,500 pound trailer, yet a Dodge Ram pickup with the same engine could.
