Engineer crew: Trailer hitch hardware help
 

This is my trailer hitch:
Attachment 185580
This is my bike rack:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1237682583.jpg
The hitch weighs about 40lb, bikes weigh roughly 20lb each with water bottles and bags so we are looking at a combined weight of 80lb hanging out back. How do I know if the hardware I used to attach the hitch is sufficient? Sadly, I used the two long intake plenum bolts (four total) because they were the right thread pitch with a nut on the back-side. Should I drill the holes out and use some fatties in there or will these bolts work?

Thanks.

Same set-up, can carry two bikes though.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1365858642
I'm worried about sheering those four bolts.

Size and grade of bolts or should we guess which intake bolts you were referring to? Lol.

they are standard m8. Grade is whatever mazda has from factory. probably 5.8 or 8.8 I would think. I wouldn't change the size necessarily, but I would go buy some 10.9 or 12.9 grade just for peace of mind. I doubt you would break those.

You could jump up and down on that and not break the bolts.

Yeah, it would have to shear all 4 bolts combined in order for it to be a problem. I think the combined strength of the four should be sufficient.

a 16 penny nail has 1000 lb shear strength. No worries.

Grade 8.8 has the following properties:

Ultimate Stress (Tension) = 80Kg/mm^2
Yield Stress (Tension) = 80% of Ultimate = 64Kg/mm^2
Yield Stress (Shear) = 60% of Yield Stress (Tension) = 38Kg/mm^2

The minor diameter area of an M8 bolt is 32.8mm^2 (coarse) or 36mm^2 (fine).

Your bolts are loaded in shear. In that direction, each bolt (if it's an 8.8) can support 1,246Kg/2,741lbs (coarse) or 1,368Kg/3,009lbs (fine).

So, yeah, I think you're fine.

Thanks, I feel better now. Unfortunately this think keeps flopping up and down and when I was loosening one of the bolts, the welded nut broke loose...so it's permanently stuck, lol.

bolts should not be loaded in shear. They are loaded in tension and maybe bending in most applications. The point of a bolt is to hold the two pieces together such that the shear forces are only applicable to the joint interface by virtue of the normal force applied by the tightening of the bolt.

That's why your 15 ft-lb tight skinny clutch bolts don't shear right off when you do a burnout.

This guy gets it.

I get it too, but not when drunk-posting.

short version:

99% of all bolt applications you'll run into on a car will require a grade 5 standard or 8.8 metric bolt. Spending more for a grade 8 or 10.9 or 12.9 is a waste and in some cases, the additional brittleness may work against you.