Be careful if the bike tires are below the hitch receiver. Under some circumstances, it is possible to scrape the hitch receiver on the ground. I had that happen to me once on a fire road and once leaving a strip mall parking lot. In the strip mall situation I also scraped the battery tray on the front.
I have only scraped the battery tray and rear hitch receiver exiting via a driveway once since I bought the 2005 TM 2720 in March 2005. On fire roads I have scraped them both several times. I consider it to be a safety feature to drag the rear hitch receiver on fire roads because it helps protect the plumbing.
If you scrape the rear hitch receiver then either the bike tires will be pushed back, resulting in the upper part of the bike leaning forward a bit, or the bikes will lift a little.
You quite likely do not go on the fire roads that I do. But some driveways could be a problem. Just be careful.
This is not a problem unique to the TM. It can happen with almost any trailer where the rear hitch receiver is not high enough to accommodate the height of the bikes. It could also happen when the bikes are on the rear of a vehicle, such as my son's Subaru. Children's bikes are short. Bikes for tall adults (my son is 6 foot 5) are a bigger risk.
I'm not trying to make you paranoid or convince you to not purchase a TM. I just want to contribute a bit of details from my experience. Your, or anyone elses experience, may be completely different than mine.
|