One thing to keep in mind for all of these hitch mod ideas: the book says the tongue weight should not exceed 120#, AND that the ball should be mounted no further than 4" from the end of the hitch sleeve. If you look in the Pure Polaris accessory catalog, the standard Polaris hitch does, in fact, have only a 4" fulcrum length. As you can see in the photo of my homebrew 6" drop hitch, I'm exceeding that 4" distance by a factor of about 2.5, which definitely increases the load on the sleeve. I'm aware of that and will pay close attention to tongue weights when I'm pulling a cart so as not to bell the mouth or otherwise deform the the hitch sleeve.
I think the 120# hitch limit has little to do with axle/spring capacity, considering the rear cargo capacity for the X2 tilt bed is 400#. Instead, I think it relates to the lightweight hitch sleeve tubing they used, combined with the 1200# trailer gross weight limit (120# is exactly 10% of the 1200# gross trailer weight limit). The most I'll ever have loaded in a yard cart might be 500-600 pounds of dirt or gravel anyway, so I should be ok.
It still appears to me the weak point is the hitch sleeve itself. Seems to me it should have been made of stouter stuff, although maybe it's chrome moly tubing instead of mild steel, which would help. The hitch setup is the only place on this entire machine that appears to me to have been under-engineered.
__________________
2009 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI X2, Green/black. Front brush guard, Front cargo bars, Warn RT-30 winch, rear bumper, rear work lights.
|