If you are talking about the 30 or so screws that hold the rear panel on, they are not bedded in aluminum. It is fairly thin fiber glass back there. You would have to go inside and remove the inner panel. Then reinforce the areas where you want to change screws.

Be very careful how you load the basket, putting a few pounds 6 feet behind
the rear bumper can mess up your center of gravity loading. Look at the
leaver from 6 feet behind the bumper to the center of your rear wheels. I
did not do the measurements but my ruff guess is one lb 6 feet back is
equivalent to adding three lbs to the tongue weight. Our coaches have a
limited tongue weight as it is.
Have you looked at towing a small trailer or adding a pod to the roof?

Dave,

If it has a Blain through the bumper hitch
Matt

Matt Colie wrote on Wed, 16 December 2020 11:57

Dave,

If it has a Blain through the bumper hitch
Matt

Huh?

I am not too worried but i put a large camping box on a heavy duty hitch basket on an Explorer. It worked great but the side to side motion of the load warped the basket a bit.

And of course, i want the option to overload should i spot a 455 at a yard sale in COlorado for $100 or a vintage Chambers Range (390 LB)

But i really want to work out how to attach cargo straps to the top.

Where can i find frame under the ski?

Hah, i wonder if my stud finder would work ?

Hanging a 455 off the rear could be a real killer, something I'd never recomend.
JMO, Hal

Hal StClair wrote on Wed, 16 December 2020 13:01

Hanging a 455 off the rear could be a real killer, something I'd never recomend.
JMO, Hal

Well it's certainly not my plan but now i'm curious, what kind of tongue weight can it handle?

the skin on the side by the door is 1/16" (0.063") AA6063.

BTW - I removed all 32 of the Hi-Lo screws and removed the back panel. They are a thread designed for screwing directly into soft material and mount into the SMC rear cap. I would not recommend putting any other loads into them. I suppose you could drill a couple out oversize, use structural adhesive to hold a threaded insert in, and use a machine threaded fastener.

Let me point out something. The body and the frame are not directly connected. There are rubber isolators between the two and the body moves some on the frame.

I routinely carry a 350 pound motorcycle and have carried a 450 pound motorcycle on a hitch mounted carrier that I made years ago. I tie down the motorcycle diagonally from the handle bars down diagonally to frame piece behind the bumper.