Hitch Haul with 2" and 1.25" Receiver Bars

works really well and is worth the money

Last week I bought the Hitch Haul for $60 at WalMart, along with the cargo bag ($60) and the cargo net ($10). I also bought a 4-pak of reflective strips to put along the edge of the carrier. Assembly was straightforward and was a one man job. We have a 1.25" Reese hitch on the back of our Honda Accord which has a tongue weight bearing capacity of 200 pounds, so the capacity of our hitch at 200 lbs was less than the capacity of the Hitch Haul which is 300 lbs. I expected some play based on other reviews but we drove it empty from Charlotte to Chicago without so much as a squeak or rattle. Once there we loaded the cargo bag with filled Sterilite bins and other stuff from our son's dorm room (over 100 lbs of stuff), zipped up the bag, and secured the bag to the cargo carrier with the 4 integral snaps. Then I bungied it once laterally, and three times depth-wise, left-center-right just to make sure things were snug. To make sure that the exhaust didn't melt the bag and plastic bins I got an exhaust turn-down extension pipe and clamp from O'Reilly's for about $10. The ride back to Charlotte was fully loaded and over 800 miles, and we made it with no problems at all. Everything was snug. No rattles. We ran into rain and everything stayed dry. The system presents 3 problems. First, be careful with the zipper on the bag. It catches, so you have to be patient. I'm not sure how durable it will be over the long haul, but in addition to the zipper you also have velcro on the overlap so it should stay dry even if the zipper isn't fully functional. The 2nd issue we encountered was that we bottomed out a little sometimes when we would cross a gutter to to reenter the highway from a gas station parking lot, so drive slow at these places and try to hit it at less than a 90-degree angle as you reenter the highway. The third is the cargo net. The hooks are bendable plastic that are bizarrely shaped. The net is fine and will stretch over the entire carrier, but I don't think the hooks would take much jostling. I may just buy a few metal S-Hooks to make sure things don't pop loose. Detaching the system is easy and the carrier is light. I had no problems carrying it myself. I'm impressed enough with the performance of the unit that I want to keep it awhile, so I considered a spray-on bedliner to protect it from rust, but that costs $150 to have done professionally. There is an alternative, though. The bedliner guy told me that they use a spray on bedliner from O'Reilly's for touch ups on their own work, and he suggested that for $20 I could buy two cans of the aerosol bedliner and paint the rack myself. Just make sure to have it disassembled so that you don't spray the nuts and bolts. Also make sure that the surface has no dirt, and that you have lightly sanded it to help the adhesion. I'm also going to tape down the reflective strips that I attached since they will adhere better to the current surface than they would to the rough bedliner surface once I spray it. If the surface gets dinged from time to time, hit it again with the aerosol. I like the product a lot. It adds good capacity to our sedan. I may upgrade our shocks at some point to accommodate the extra weight. We will probably use this system at least 3-4 times per year for the next several years to take our son back and forth to college. The price point made it a wise purchase that will save us from renting a trailer. It will also be good for camping, tail gating, and that occasional Saturday morning yard sales.

Bought this hitch carrier to carry a small generator and firewood for camping behind my cabover camper. After placing the small coleman generator on it, it started to bend in the middle where it mounts to the reciever tube. Wasnt impressed wit hthe quality. Would be much better if they just made the box a little bigger and made the deck one complete piece. So I drug out the welder and basically made the deck one piece and reinforced almost every attachment point. Much stronger now. Ive built these units in the past, but was pressed for time, and for $60, I thought it might be faster. Next time, I'll just build one. Im sure it would be fine for light stuff, no way I would try to put 500# on it. We camp in remote areas, off road, so I need one that is strong enough to endure what we do. For highway use, I'd say it would work fine. For rough travel, not so much.

I purchased this for my tiny Smart Car. It is well constructed and would also be great for a larger car. The package includes a 2 inch and a 1 1/4 inch receiver bar. Spacers are included for using the 1 1/4 inch square tube which is what I use for My Smart Car. The user must keep in mind all the design limitations for the vehicle hitch weight limits, ground clearance and slop in the hitch receiver itself. The Smart car has a 75 pound weight limitation for the hitch receiver along with very low ground clearance. The carrier wobbles a little bit in the 1 1/4 inch receiver but nothing serious. But I do have to watch the ground clearance very carefully. This is due to my car and not the carrier design. The Smart car has 2 threaded sockets for towing eyes which could be used to stabilize the rack and increase the 75 pound rated receiver capacity if needed but it does not take much weight in the rear to overload the rear suspension. While my little car has some limitations, especially ground clearance, I can see this carrier being used to its full rated capacity with the 2 inch receiver bar.

Fit my needs good for haulin extras. Also use another companies 2 bike add on and works perfect for bikes on back of camper.