Front Hitch Motorcycle Carrier?

Hi there I am new to this forum but ill get right to my questions
I have a 2017 short box 4x4 Tacoma...I put in the front receiver and bought a bike carrier ....what is your guys opinion on a 200lbs dirt bike loaded on the front when I need to tow my boat? besides losing a little bit of vision from the passenger front side of the truck ......is that weight to much for long distance travels (5 hours +)

 

I've never seen it done. Would be cool if you could make it work

 

Interesting. I have never seen this before, but a Google search and I was impressed. Saw mostly full size trucks, and did not see any tacomas, but here are a couple pics for those curious minds like mine.

 

it works I just wonder about the weight on smaller truck going long distances(about 250-300 lbs with bike and rack) in the front.......bike carriers works great in the back but when I go camping I need the bike and boat !

will post pic when I get around to loading it on the front

 

Pics will be sweet... Have you done any suspension work?

 

People put 120 lb steel bumper + 65 lb winch + 50-100 lb steel skid plates on their front. Granted the bike will be further out from the center so probably not exact comparison but close. You'd definitely need suspension, as you probably don't have options like airbags for front.

 

nope just stock suspension..... so I use the carrier on the back as it is now with no problems tbh I don't even notice it besides being paranoid thinking the bikes going to come lose

so I found this after some research says the tongue load is 350/640 for the 2017
is that referring to the load I would be putting on the truck(total newb here)

my bike is barely 200 if that (125 cc ) and the carrier isn't maybe 30 -40 pounds

would I be ok without upgrading suspension?

 

I mean people put bumpers with winches on the front so I would say it could support some weight

 

Tongue load to put in simple terms, is the weight on the tongue of the trailer. Say if you walked up to the front of the trailer and lifted up on the tongue, how heavy is it? That rating you found is for the rear hitch.
350 is without tow package, 640 is with factory tow package. There is probably not a rating for front weight printed, but that would be the number you need to know.

 

Not sure what hitch you got, but this is a curt front hitch for the 2016 tacoma and their spec shows 350 lbs vertical load.

 

I have the kurt ....with this info would you or wouldn't you? haha

seems like numbers work but I didn't read post above that on the definition of tongue weight ops...

 

Only down side is it does effect some vehicles cooling, but that's very vehicle specific. Since you'll also be pulling a trailer, I'd make sure you are monitoring the trans temp. As long as you have he tong weight correct, you'll be fine suspension wise.

 

I would hook everything up and take a ride and see how it feels. You could take some measurements of the wheel wells before and after the load to see how much it pulls down. I can't tell you what to do on your truck, but I would definitely do some test runs before going more than a few hours with it.

 

cheers guys thanks for the quick answers


I don't wanna start a new thread but one last question..... good brand/site for things like after market headlights taillights etc.... thanks again

 

I can't help you there, but there is a member here who loves all things lights.
@mesojdm

 

This is true!

 

I recently added a curt front hitch and a black widow dirt bike hitch carrier for my daughters dirt bike to my Gen 3 TRD off road and it’s worked perfectly.

Something to consider, the front hitch is because we are already using the back hitch. When you load up the back hitch it shifts the weight to the back and lightens the front. This takes away from the total weight of the bike in the front.

What I did was measure the front height with just the truck. Added the weight on the back hitch and noted the front went up 1/4 of an inch. When I then added the front hitch and bike the front went down 1/2 inch but only 1/4 of an inch from the normal truck empty height which is not much. It kind up helped balance out the truck.

I tested this before buying the hitch by measuring everything and putting weights in a back pack until I weighed the same as the bike+hitch+hitch carrier total about 200lbs and standing on the front bumper with what I planned on carrying on the back hitch.

Here are a couple of picture of the truck loaded.

I hope this helps anyone else considering a front hitch carrier.

 

Seems like a full size dirtbike on the front might block your view too much. Curious if anyone has tried with a standard sized dirtbike.

 

A bit late to the party. OP might never revisit.

 

Or anyone like I said.