Anybody have a cargo carrier basket?

[OldPilot]

Sold my old Nissan Frontier and now have a Tellie. The main thing I have lost is the ability to take a couple of upright garbage cans from our lake place to the county dump. Hence I am looking at those cargo haulers that plug into the hitch receiver. Q1: Anyone using one of these, pluses and minuses? Q2: In reading user reviews I see some where the car exhaust is close enough to the basket that contents are sometimes melted or burned. Any experience or thoughts on this? I only need a 48" basket, not one of the bigger ones.

TIA

 

[Grapeking]

Sold my old Nissan Frontier and now have a Tellie. The main thing I have lost is the ability to take a couple of upright garbage cans from our lake place to the county dump. Hence I am looking at those cargo haulers that plug into the hitch receiver. Q1: Anyone using one of these, pluses and minuses? Q2: In reading user reviews I see some where the car exhaust is close enough to the basket that contents are sometimes melted or burned. Any experience or thoughts on this? I only need a 48" basket, not one of the bigger ones.

TIA

In response to your query:

Q1: we have one, the Ultra Tow aluminum cargo carrier, 48" so the same size you desire. It's rated at 500 lbs., we rarely put more than 250 - 300 lbs. or so on there. Typically have exactly what you describe: a couple of trash cans of recycling, or we bring back the trash cans filled with bark mulch, etc. Works really well. As it is aluminum it is light enough that Mrs. Grapeking can easily install/remove on her own.

Q2: Have had zero issues with interference from the exhaust, would estimate that the distance between the rear bumper and the front of the cargo carrier is 9"-10" so plenty of space there to allow excessive heat to dissipate.

We also have a large (maybe 40 gal??) waterproof box from the big orange box store that fits very nicely on the cargo carrier, comes in handy if you need to haul both people and luggage/camping gear/hand tools/whatever. Place the box on the carrier, fill it up, close it securely, and then ratchet it in place. Works really well.