hitchens97

I have the towing hitch on my Q7. I bought a Yakima bike rack for it. It's 40lbs, with the ability to carry 4 bikes of 40lb each. So 200lb in total. Obviously the towing weight is fine, but is there a spec for how how much downward weight it can take, and am I close with this?

NABS4

Nowhere close to being there. Maximum towing capacity for the car is 7700 lb and usually 10% is given as the maximum hitch weight. Which is obviously 770 lb.

gsobol

Nope, the tongue weight should be limited to 600 lbs. Max towing capacity of 7,700 lbs should only be done with the weight distribution setup, not a more common weight carrying setup (which is what we are discussing here).
Obviously OP will be fine with 200 lbs (including bikes and the rack).

AlbertQ7

Pretty sure 660 lbs tongue weight max was for the first gen Q7. The manual for the 2018s is very specific to NOT use a weight distribution setup and that we have a max tongue weight of 770 lbs. Where do you see otherwise?
(Regardless, the bike setup is fine, of course).

gsobol

That's why I don't like the misleading information in the car manual. 6,000/600 lbs limits are for class III hitch (weight carrying) regardless of vehicle it's installed in. The only way to increase this limit is to use weight distribution setup (up to 10,000/1,000 lbs), providing class III hitch is suitable for this setup (which apparently the one in Q7 is NOT, see bottom of the post). One more consideration to towing capacity is the engine size, that's why the towing limits are lower for 2.0T vs. 3.0T.




Both versions of Q7 are offered with THE SAME HITCH, if they are mechanically the same why would the mechanical weight limits in the manual be different, especially the tongue load ones?

If you look into manual carefully, you will notice legal disclaimers such as:

and another regarding suitability of the hitch (interesting disclaimer considering you can get the vehicle with OEM installed one)


So Audi is protecting themselves by saying, you should do your own research and know what you are doing.

However, you are right, there is a warning in the manual to NOT use WD setup. In which case, I'm not sure how you can safely achieve 7,700/770 lbs towing capacity.

AlbertQ7

gsobol - Interesting information and thoughts. I do not know why the 2.0 and 3.0 have different weight ratings, but the rating goes beyond just the hitch capacities and may also have to so with suspension components, etc. I have no idea if those differ with the 2.0, or they just want the tongue weight limit to remain consistent with the trailer weight limit. You seem concerned about the the fact that they are giving 7700/770 pound capacities for a class III hitch, since that class is usually limited to 6K/600. However, it seems like there are class III hitches with higher capacities, so maybe 6K/600 is no longer the automatic limit for class III hitches. An example of one is here: CURT Manufacturing - CURT Class 3 Trailer Hitch #13062 (8K/800 WC/TW capacity, 12K/1200 lbs with WDH).
I am HOPING that Audi has actually tested their hitch capacity and has it right - I am using the capacity for my travel trailer and certainly don't want it to fail!