Hauling Wheelhouse with an ATV?

[Smellson]

Finally got an atv to haul my wheelhouse out during the early season and I've got a question for people who have done this. The atv I have is an arctic cat 500 but it doesn't have a real beefy hitch, its essentially just a hitch ball mounted in a flat piece of metal. Im nervous it may not be strong enough to support the tongue weight of my house. Ive got a 6x12 ice castle but there is easily 200lbs + at the tongue. Anyone have a similar setup? Suggestions?

[dfeste]

When I use my wheeler to pull my boat out of the garage I have a heavy duty caster that is attaced to the hitch. This supports the tongue weight instead of bottoming out the wheeler. Would it be possible for you to rig a ski up under the tongue or tongue jack of the wheelhouse to take that weight off the wheeler?

[eyebjim]

I have a polaris 500 sportsman with hitch. It is a similar type hitch I think just flat metal with a ball in it. I have a 6.5 x 12 king crow and it pulls just fine with it. I am not sure how much tongue weight it has but I would say it has to be about 150lbs. I also tow my boat around my yard with the ATV (for organizing not recreation) and it handles that. The tongue weight on the boat is at least 200lbs.

[Biggerfish]

I used a hand trailer mover with two wheels on it. Any local hardware store has them and they are about 40 bucks. I welded a arm on it with the hitch. All the wgt from ice house was on that and not on my wheeler. I had a small 335 ATV. Worked well for many years?

[deadduk]

Smellson-- I have a Sportsman 700 that I tow a 6.5X 14 Ice Castle with and learned the hard way last winter in some deeper snow and bent the tow hitch on mine completely down. I took it to a fab shop and they beefed it up for about $75 bucks. It is now super strong. Something that you might look into, is Polaris makes rubber discs that fit in your rear coil springs that will beef up your suspension that will eleviate the low rider look while towing. Try two sets of them, they cost about $20 bucks a pair. This will also keep your chains from rubbing the fenders on your wheeler. Good luck.

[dougger222]

I ran Cabelas hitch adaptor on the 02 700 Polaris for years without an issue. There was so much tounge weight pulling my heavy home made house I had to put the 100 pounder in the back of the house and have one or two guys sit on the front rack of the atv.

Then I got the 06 800 Polaris and put a hitch expander on the factory minivan hitch. First time I used it the factory hitch mount broke. My mechanic looked at it and thought it was sheet metal! Him and another guy bolted a 2in reciever under the factory mount and it's been rock solid ever since. Didn't want them welding on the frame in fear of voiding the warranty.

Tried like others have mentioned a third wheel on the tounge of the trailer and that worked ok for a while.