Meet the "Hitch Hotel"

whitenoise

Adventurer
Clueless hipsters backing this will be in for a rude shock when their Subaru's rear shock punches through the shock tower the first instant they hit a large sized pothole. 340lbs of weight on the hitch receiver? Hmmmm.

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JDoan

Member
I wanted to dislike this, but it's actually pretty clever. Hopefully people abide by their hitch class ratings. It's probably not too much heavier (empty) than a hitch carrier loaded down with a family's cooler and mountain of fireworks.
 

john61ct

Adventurer
The hitch rating is rarely an issue for consumer not-trucks.

It's the **vehicle'****** tow ball max, often a mere 200lbs. Being completely empty behind the front row would help for sure, but few can do that.

If regularly overloaded, saggy rear end will become chronic.

Even only occasional, definitely dangerous at speed when things go sideways in conditions.

And insurance can of course wipe their hands, so not for the risk averse, who should just get a truck.
 

whitenoise

Adventurer
The thing is, following just the tow vehicle's tongue weight rating is not going to be enough. Tongue weight is concentrated at the tow ball, which sits probably 2-3" behind the rear bumper. This hitch hotel monstrosity is 35" long, which means the CG is at least 17" from its front edge, and potentially gets much worse when you load it with coolers and other junk. So worst case you could have those 350-ish lbs as far back as 18-20" behind the draw bar.

Some elementary math using the XV Crosstrek in their video as an example:

XV Crosstrek Curb Weight = 3200lbs.

Since it's a FWD-based car, let's assume only 45% of this is on the rear axle. Let's say you have an average-sized family of 4 in the vehicle. That's 500lbs. At 500+350 lbs you're already at the GVW of the poor Subaru with the cargo area (and most likely, the fuel tank) completely empty, but let's ignore that for a second.

Wheelbase = 2835mm
Overall Length = 4450mm
Rear overhang (approx) = 0.5* (4450-2835) = 807.5mm
Hitch hotel worst case CG = 20" = 508

Total distance from rear axle to load center(add 2" for drawbar) = 1317.5 mm

Actual load on rear axle = 350* [(2835+1317.5) / 2835] = 350*1.5 = 525lbs!! You decide whether a Class 2 hitch is strong enough at this point!

Further, the effect on the suspension and dynamics of the vehicle:
Typically 50% of front passenger weight is on the rear axle, and rear seat passengers are 90%. So that's an easy 310lbs on the rear axle.

Curb rear axle load = 1440 lbs (45% of total)
Passengers = 310lbs
Hitch hotel = 525lbs
Total rear axle load = 2275lbs

According to Subaru, rear GAWR = 2200lbs . OEMs don't joke with their GAWR numbers, it isn't a guideline, it's a hard-stop. Actually you can somewhat exceed GVW as long as you don't exceed the individual GAWRs (practically, not legally). When you exceed the axle ratings you start bending or breaking suspension parts in rough service, period.

In this example the vehicle isnt even physically full yet except for 4 warm bodies, and it's already close or over the rear GAWR.

People are free to bolt on whatever they want, but you can bet when I see this thing on the freeway, I'm going to make myself scarce from it's vicinity...
 
Last edited:

Geremy846

New member
Hello all,

I am one of the Mechanical Engineers at Hitch Hotel Inc. and I would just like to put some rest to any questions that may have been brought up in this forum.

Myself and a team of highly-qualified engineers have done both theoretical calculations and real-world testing with the Hitch Hotel. I won't dive in to any math here, but all we can say is to let the video speak for itself. The Hitch Hotel has been towed and tested on each of the vehicles shown in our Kickstarter campaign.

For anyone that is skeptical of our product, I hope we can show you how safe, practical, and fun the Hitch Hotel will be! For any questions, send us an email at info@hitchhotel.com.
 

whitenoise

Adventurer
Hello all,

I am one of the Mechanical Engineers at Hitch Hotel Inc. and I would just like to put some rest to any questions that may have been brought up in this forum.

Myself and a team of highly-qualified engineers have done both theoretical calculations and real-world testing with the Hitch Hotel. I won't dive in to any math here, but all we can say is to let the video speak for itself. The Hitch Hotel has been towed and tested on each of the vehicles shown in our Kickstarter campaign.

For anyone that is skeptical of our product, I hope we can show you how safe, practical, and fun the Hitch Hotel will be! For any questions, send us an email at info@hitchhotel.com.
Hi Geremy,

Thank you for chiming in. To which video are you referring when you say it puts to rest the questions discussed above, and you don't need to add any further details? The one on the Kickstarter page, or is there another one which shows all the due diligence you did before making the claims in that video/page?

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john61ct

Adventurer
And I think most would agree that exceeding manufacturers ratings is done all the time, and on its own doing that does not necessarily mean instant catastrophe.

But in most other developed countries, doing so is illegal and enforced with very hefty penalties.

Here we rely on consumers being punished by their insurance company taking the opportunity to withhold payouts, getting sued for damages and getting charged after the fact with reckless endangerment or vehicular manslaughter.

If you aren't educating your customers about these issues properly, then your company will share in those risks.

In most other developed countries, their more stringent consumer protection laws would make it impossible to fail to do so.
 

Phxdsrtrat

Observer
Being an engineer myself that really sounds like a product manager that replied above, not an engineer. Numbers speak for themselves after all.

That aside, a vehicle with a 3500lbs tow rating should be able to handle a 350lbs hitch weight. However, personally I would not want to put that to the test. My truck has a 7000lbs tow rating and with a hitch weight of my current trailer at around 300lbs I'm not sure I would really want to go much higher. Granted, my truck and trailer go places you likely wouldn't take the Hitch Hotel unless it's on the back of a full size pickup.

-Curtiss
 

Florida Native

Active member
Cute idea, but a small trailer (such as teardrop or similar) will be much safer and put much less stress on the tow vehicle.

-Mike

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Geoff Patterson

New member
I normally don’t respond to comments on websites, as there are far too many people out there that comment on things they just don't understand. While I appreciate the elementary math and the comments that the Hitch Hotel is too heavy, or that it may be dangerous, I can assure you it is not. We will be providing detailed information via math, data, and videos within 2 weeks. After all, as they say, "A picture can paint a thousand words."

I am no stranger to showing people with qualified questions and concerns how an innovative, forward thinking product works. We look forward to doing the same with the Hitch Hotel. One of our largest markets will be in the Jeep and off-road world, so it's important that we try to get you all to see what we're doing. We already have 5 different products in R&D that we'll be introducing starting in early 2019. From now until then, we'll do our best to inform our customer base about how cool (and safe) the Hitch Hotel line of products are.

We'll post something on this site in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if anybody has any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me directly.

Respectfully,
Geoff Patterson
Co-Founder / CEO
geoff@hitchhotel.com
 

motoboss

Bad Influence
I really like the unit but not the mounting, persay. I'd really like to see it on a wheeled axle being a pull behind expandable camper. The hitch mount looks to be severly limiting the departure angle, especially off road. Definitely will wait for the upcoming info presentation to pass any judgment. Good luck.
 

crazysccrmd

Observer
Trying to go offroad anywhere with that would get it smashed. The departure angle is terrible. In the video it comes within a couple inches of hitting just pulling into a parking garage.
 

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