[TalonTsi90]

All of that aside, it'd be bouncy, in my estimation.

Not remotely. I understand what youre saying now, but no. There would be zero flex in those bolts, and id be willing to bet money that you could bounce up and down on them and the car would bounce long before the sockets would distort. Id put more faith in those, than straps and hooks on to the trunk lid and i dont want anything touching my paint.

Regardless...

 

[Cdn17Sport6MT]

Just so folks understand, the use of the in-bumper anchor pts, with a structural member attaching one to the other, is primarily for fore/aft stabilization of the receiver tube mounted upright. The stabilizer straps (2 of them) would go, one each, to the leading edge (and corner) of the trunk, with, say, a 3"wide 1/4" plywood strut connecting the two trunk-leading-edge vinyl covered "hooks" to serve for transverse sway stabilization. The plywood strut would be necessary so the hooks don't migrate towards the centre of the leading edge - when under tension. Alternatively said vinyl covered hooks could go to the vertical / "down-comer" trunk edges... and then they would not migrate. But used on the leading edge (and notably the corners-) of the trunk the forces in the straps would "resolve" into both fore/aft AND side-to-side stabilization.

I believe my arrangement would indeed be stout. Also, the receiver tube would cater for my utility trailer 🙂.

 

[TalonTsi90]

Why do you need straps for a 20# bike though?

 

[tickerguy]

If your hitch is rated for 150lbs on the ball then its rated for 150lbs with said force at the distance of where the ball is location from the receiver tube. Now if the load is not balanced left/right such that it can impose a material twisting moment then that's to be taken into account too, but in the case of a bicycle rack the mount points for the hitch are wider than the applying moment, so there's no torque multiplication factor involved there.

Would I put something like a flat platform on that hitch with a big load? No; that would exceed the hitch's "ball" rating. But the rack plus my road bike are much less than the hitch is rated for in terms of mass on the ball. I've used it for years and there's no problem; it DOES tighten into the receiver so there's also no wobble.

BTW with unibody vehicles their receivers typically prohibit use of weight-distributing hitches. Side torque is the reason for the prohibition; the sway control on the trailer can apply a quite-material sideways load on the hitch; it's not the downward or fore/aft force, its the twisting moment that's the problem and the unibody area where they mount is not rated to take that. That's not a factor here.