Hitch Tongue Weight: 500 lb Ascent, vs traditional 200 lb Outback (2000-2019)

smitopher said:

Can this tow bar from Australia fit on my USA outback?
Can this tow bar be legally installed on my USA outback?
Can I purchase this towbar and have it delivered to me in the USA?

I did not see the specs on the .au accessories web page, just the price.

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See with the frame extensions on that hitch they are saying it's good for 330+lbs. tongue weight. The USA OEM hitch only has 2 frame bolt on points instead of 3 but I still think it would hold more than 200lbs.

dmwarner said:

The way Subaru works in my experience is the limited = everything the premium has/does + extra. The touring = everything the limited has/does + extra.

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Can't understand why they have them different in Canada.

Here it is Convenience --> Touring --> Limited --> Premier

One thing about those tongue weights. You have to deduct those from the max allowable vehicle load.

Outback has max load of 900lbs (on driver side door pillar). With tongue weight of 200lb, allowable load is reduced to 700lb. Deduct say weight of family of four? 600lb?? Not much left for luggage weight!

Don't know the allowable load for Ascent, but if 500lb is deducted, then again, perhaps not much left after allowing for passengers?

This side of the pond, Max hitch load is 85kg (187lbs)..
We always tow with a balanced trailer, ie 50-80kg on the hitch.
From what I see most (if not all) trailers your side of the pond place a massive weight on the hitch.. fine if you have a big old pick up truck designed to take a ton or 2 load in the back, but not for a car..
Then I have seen these hitch force balancing devices used to correct overloading of the vehicle rear axle.... those twisting forces have to go somewhere....(through the chassis rails).
personally I have never had an issue towing at and beyond the Max tow weight of any of my vehicles, with a balanced loaded trailer..

Looking at the specs on the 2021, the 2.5 has a 270 tongue weight but the 2.4 has a 350 tongue weight. There aren’t any frame differences between the two options, so it seems to be more of a simple calculation.


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Tongue weight determination and trailer GVW capacily involves frame design, hitch technology, engine power, braking effectiveness of vehicle and trailer (if any), and yes, the market that the vehicle is sold into, competition, and finally pure marketing. Put these last three factors into the equation, and we are bound to find some things that don't always make sense.

I'm putting 2 60# ebikes and a 60# hitch on my 2021 OBT with a 2" receiver hitch and driving on a 1800 mile trip to Tuscon. It's supposed to have a tongue weight of 270#.
Hoping bumps won't exceed my tongue weight. Also will have luggage in back, enough for a month long trip. Anyone with any experience with this?

If you are mounting 120 pounds of bikes on a 60 pound carrier you are using approx 66% of the capacity, which sounds good to me.

dhawk said:

Hoping bumps won't exceed my tongue weight

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The published weight limits are static weight. The design includes accommodation and margin for dynamic loads based on the published static weight limit.

johnre said:

Tongue weight determination and trailer GVW capacily involves frame design, hitch technology, engine power, braking effectiveness of vehicle and trailer (if any), and yes, the market that the vehicle is sold into, competition, and finally pure marketing. Put these last three factors into the equation, and we are bound to find some things that don't always make sense.

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The Outback XT has a tongue weight of 350 pounds. A regular Outback has a tongue weight of 270 pounds. It’s a unibody car. “Frame design” in a car without a frame? The unibody is identical. The tongue weight is a CYA number. You need 1:10 tongue weight so the spec is 270 pounds on a 2.5 and 350 pounds on a 2.4 turbo with the same unibody and suspension. This is a lawsuit-prevention spec. No engineer carefully calculated that the max tongue weight on a 2.5 Outback should be 270 pounds.

Similarly, lots of cars in the US say you can’t tow with them while the identical car elsewhere in the world has a towing spec. This is lawyers, not the actual capability of the car.

This is a stale thread, but yes, I believe this is what I was essentially saying with my last sentence that you quoted.

And there is a frame of sorts to the Outbacks, even though unibody design. It's just not in the traditional sense, as you would have with most trucks and some SUVs that are still truck-based.

Follow the science:

Any trailer should have a minimum of 10% tongue weight for stability, so if older OBs can only have 200 lbs of tongue weight, then their effective tow limit is 2K lbs, not 2,700.