I am leaving Thursday for a little over 2500 mile trip from CA to MS. We are pulling our camper, and will be utilizing Harvest Host stops along the way. We are taking 7 days for the drive. I have decided to carry my generator on my front hitch, but I will admit, I am a little nervous about it. I have seen lots of other posts of folks doing it fine, but it's a bit unnerving when I sit in the driver seat and can't even see it... I just picture the rack falling off and me running it over... taking out everything...

As far as what I have:

• Forklift North Hitch. Rated at 1000 lb tongue weight. I have no concerns about the hitch.
• MaxHaul Cargo Carrier
  MaxHaul Cargo Carrier
  . Rated at 500 lbs. Honestly, I feel like this is the weakest link...
• Rhino Hitch Tightener
  Rhino Hitch Tightener
  . Takes the slop out of the fit, hopefully minimizing movement and potential for failure...
• Champion Dual Fuel 3400W Generator. Approximately 96 lbs.

And here are some photos:


Front view.

Side view.

Up close view of attachment.

So, the biggest reason I have for wanting to carry the generator on the front hitch is ease of use/convenience. I have carried it in the bed of the truck and then tried to man that thing out while not being able to open the tailgate all the way... I don't want to have to do that again... plus, the truck bed is full for our trip there. It will be open on the way back to CA though. Also, I cannot turn the head on my jack to allow me to fully open the tailgate... trust me, I have tried, but it's a jack stand that can't be turned... As far as transport, the only other option I have is to stick it inside the camper. manageable, but not ideal either. I have a rack on the back of the camper, but I trust it less back there since it's not a real bumper... it's the aluminum tube, which I have used the brackets to reinforce it. It will have a gas can and a propane tank on it though, which is the fuel for the generator.

My plan is to never take the generator off the rack though. When I get to a harvest host stop, I can run my cord from the generator on the rack to my plug on the camper. This is the ease part... It's there, and ideally I won't move it until we get to our destination.

As you can see in the photo above, I did use a hitch tightener, and I also used two "silencing pads." I used these pads to make butting the hitch tightener up to it easy. Using the hitch tightener on the front hitch is a little tricky... because of the ends of the U bolt I can't go too far in, which is why I used the silencing pads. The pads placed the U bolt at a good spot to keep the bolt ends off the front bumper, but still allowed the end of the tightening plate to rest fully on the lip of the hitch reciever.

Also, I plan to strap it down more... I just threw that strap on there for the time being. I also have a locking cable around it and the rack, but under the cover. And yes, I know those are easily defeated... it is what it is though...

Anyway, just curious what others thoughts are. If you have towed a generator on front, any advice. Or does anyone see anything wrong with my set up?

Also, I am not concerned about decreasing air flow. The generator is only 25" wide and 18" tall, and there is still plenty of front grill that isn't blocked. Also, our camper is far from maxing out the trucks ability... but I will of course watch all of my gauges. We will be traveling I70 from the beginning/end in UT all the way to St Louis, so there will be a few climbs in there!

 

You can run the gen while in the bed of the truck. No need to juggle it. You might have to move all that other junk out of the way though.


Take the tail gate off, and leave it at home. Then no clearance issue with the jack.

 

There is no room for the generator in the bed, so that won't work. Also, we don't technically have a home right now. We are at a campground in CA where we have been for 10 months. Most of our furniture is in a storage unit in FL, and some other stuff in MS. So at this point, taking the tailgate off and leaving it isn't an option anyway.

And yeah, if I could lower the tailgate and had plenty of room for the generator, I would be quite fine with running it that way. Would even prefer it, but it's just not an option. I am not interested in removing the tailgate either way though. I like the tailgate!

 

I'm surprised by how much the shank of the carrier appears to droop down in the last photo. I would expect a tighter fit in the receiver.

I have zero experience with front mounted stuff so can't offer any info. It appears there is red reflective tape on the carrier. Good for a rear mount but likely violates the traffic law. Probably never be an issue but good idea to cover them over.

 

I would have the strap fore/aft, not left/right. If you insist on having left/right, put a twist on the strap so it does not vibrate in the airflow at speed.

A trivial concern is the red reflectors. I would get rid of them. The red is used because it's meant to be installed at the rear. I do not know know the legal requirements, but there are no red reflectors/lights in the front of a vehicle. None that I recall seeing.

 

Good call, those 2 red reflectors are easy to remove so I will take them off today.

As for the straps, I was actually thinking about putting one across in both directions... just in case something were to happen to one! If I do leave the one across left to right I will put a twist in it though.

And I agree, the hitch does seem to be sloped down more than I thought it would, especially since I used that hitch tightener... I figured it would have raised it up level, but it didn't, even when the rack was empty. So it's not the weight of the generator making it slope. I don't think it's a problem though because the rack has those rails and the generator is secured inside the rack, so I am not worried about it falling off. But, the hitch tightener is doing what it is intended to do, which is tighten the rack. There is no movement in it! I do plan to check it often to make sure the hitch tightener doesn't move around while driving though since I used those spacers in there.

 

You hit on all my concerns and and I understand your need for the front mount. For straps, I am no engineer, but I would run two straps front to rear since those are the directions you don't want the weight moving. I also think it is best to anchor straps low and close and not anchor high and wide. Give it a test run shake down if you can before departing for the big trip.

 

Thanks! That is a good idea to run 2 front to back. I think I will do that instead of one front to back and one side to side. I just knew I wanted 2 instead of 1!

 

I carried a 300 pound motorcycle about 20,000 miles on a front hitch, never had a problem. Maybe bugs on the motorcycle.

 

cool to see the same hitch i have
i have used this exact model on 2 super duties, superb hitch.
1k tongue wt cap is a great thing
i would run some straps over to the tow hooks to help stabilize the cargo carrier to minimize the bouncing around, maybe front corner on pass side over the genny and than down to the tow hook to get max support for movement, remember the highways suck with ups and downs on pavement
if you do find the genny blocks air
move it to the light side of the front
good luck on your trip

 

I have only ever carried bikes on the front hitch, so this is the first time carrying something a bit heftier… the 2 bikes were about 60 lbs together. The generator is about 40 lbs more.

I have all the confidence in the world in the hitch… it’s the cargo carrier I wonder about… however I think that is just me worrying. The carrier is rated for 500 lbs, and the generator is centered over the center shank which is where it is the strongest I’d imagine. Part of it too is that I can’t see it when inside the truck… not that that matters I guess. I wish I would have gotten a flag marker to attach so I could kind of see it…

Thats a great idea to utilize the tow hooks on the truck. I could attach one end of the shackle straps to each tow hook and bring them over to the front of the carrier to make an X. That may even help support the cargo carrier in some way too…