I’m just returning to kayaking and due to a back injury decided to get a trailer. I have an F150 and that’s not a problem. My question comes up with using my Honda Civic to tow the Rack N Roll Yakima trailer.
From the top of the trailer hitch to the ground, on my Honda Civic, is 11 inches. My 2005 Yakima trailer, per the manual, needs to be 22 inches from the top of the trailer hitch to the ground. This means I need an 11-inch riser for the trailer to be at the proper level. They don’t sell a riser at that specification at the local hardware store and looking at my 4 inch riser and trying to imagine something twice the height and then some brings me to the point of thinking it’s ridiculous. But I’m new at this.
My question is… Has this been dealt with before? I’m hoping somebody out there can give me some advisement.
Be careful to too much of a rise as this is part of the load rating of the hitch attachment to the car. Places to check out would be etrailer.com or curt hitches. Somewhere on the hitch would be load ratings including tounge weight. Changing the raiser will cause leverage and load changes during braking this is fancy math to know how this addsto tounge weight.
Another option is get smaller tires for the little car to close the height difference.
The 4" riser will be fine. Not every trailer and vehicle will line up perfectly to spec. It is a light weight trailer carrying a light load. So long as the coupling has room to move on the ball without binding you will be ok.
I also wouldn’t worry about achieving 11 inches of rise. Assuming you have a 1 1/4 inch hitch, the largest rise of any ball mount on eTrailer is 5 1/2 inches. Having the trailer tongue sloping downward slightly won’t hurt. And, if you found a super-tall riser, your safety chains would end up needing to be awkwardly long. I’m with Oldboo - the 4 inch riser should be fine.