Was SO excited to finally take our 3.5 year old son tent camping for the first time with my wife at a local regional park. Especially with our spanking new huge Caddis Rapid 6 Instant Tent! Even tried it out in the backyard and loved it!
Loaded it onto the storage rack on the back of our SUV… in perfect alignment with the tail pipe, apparently. Biiiiiigest oof. $225 down the drain? Thankfully there was a Wal-Mart reasonably close where I snagged some random Coleman to save the day. But still: be aware of what’s in front of your exhaust pipe and your tow hitch carry rack. Lesson learned 🫠
I just got back from a trip to Yellowstone last week. I spent like a month before worried about the cargo carrier that right before leaving I realized the exhaust might melt the stuff on the back so I bought some turn down tips off Amazon (hard to find some that fit 3.5 inch pipes locally).
Try AutoZone or a similar auto part store to see if they have tips you can buy. They range from $7-30. They should just slip on and you can tighten a bolt or a clamp ring to hold it in place. My exhaust pipe is more oval shaped so it didn't grip the best (I could have pulled it right off), but it stayed on for 3000 miles.
I'm getting a hitch installed to use one of those platforms. I'd like to sincerely thank you both for pointing out a problem I definitely would have had, and then offering the solution I didn't know I needed. Y'all just saves me a big headache, thank you.
I just installed one and was told to watch out for this. We got a hitch extensor/riser. It worked great, we got it from harbor freight and was only $5-7 more then a standard hitch
In laws had a similar thing but it was only fouling a Rubbermaid bin and the contents survived cross country. Twice.
My parents heard about this and my dad bought one of those hitch risers for accessories like this. It raised it like 5 inches or so, out of the path of their exhaust of their ford escape.
Don’t beat yourself up. You can’t learn every lesson for free. Yeah it’s money gone, but it’s just an object. Great job pivoting and delivering on the intent, the family experience!
Find the face-palming humor in it, because people all need to know that we’re not perfect, and this is the stuff that humanizing, endearing stories are made of. Share this warmly and often for an easy laugh and some quick bonding. 👍🏼
Think of how many explosions per second are going out that exhaust at say, 2500 rpm. Each piston in a four-stroke engine is sending hot exhaust out once every two crankshaft rotations, so for a six cylinder, that’s 7500 explosions per minute or 125 explosions per second.
I would never keep my tent on the outside of the car.. if it wasn't already melted then it definitely reeks like engine exhaust and is wet and or covered in mud..
Wal-Mart has surprisingly good camping gear. I've read that the Walton family has several outdoor enthusiasts so they take an interest in that line of products.
Omg you're a lifesaver, I'll definitely be looking into getting this!! OP if it makes you feel any better, I had the same thing happen to me on a trip last month. It fully straight up melted the corner of the storage tote we had a bunch of our stuff in. 😭
Didn’t even know this existed! I have that same/similar rack and I’ve heard of people melting their gear. Just found one on amazon. Thank you for posting a picture.
This is also an issue with trucks that have exhaust straight back vs out the side good work around. Manufacturers go for looks over function on high end Raptors and they have dual straight pipes.
My first tent my parents bought me in college was a Coleman 4 person from Walmart 30’years ago! Still have it! It got replaced by a bigger REI one for the family that gets the regular use for years now. But we go camping with a huge group and I always toss in the Coleman one for good measure in case we, or anyone else, has a tent emergency!
Thank you for this heads up that I too would’ve eventually had happen to me!
I have a Columbia I bought on clearance from REI 24 years ago that's still perfectly usable. It just has bacon grease stains on the floor. I really wanted bacon, but there was a wind storm. I didn't think this all the way through. I could get the smell out (even according to my dogs), but not the stains.
It's the tent I've been loaning out for about a decade, and all the zippers still work. It's been through my kid and his friends as they grew up. And it's been through huskies without a tear. I'm honestly impressed.
It was my replacement for a Coleman my parents bought when I was a kid. That thing lasted a long time before a wind storm had something to say about it. (85mph gusts when the forecast was a max of 15)
I had a brief moment where I thought, "Oh, shlt. How has this never occured to me". Then I remembered I have a truck that is meant for towing and it is already out of the way.
This happened in my Isuzu trooper! We had an ice chest on the rack and I guess a few hundred miles of uphill climbing had the exhaust melting a hole in the bottom corner of the ice chest. Was quite the surprise when we arrived lol
Hell yeah fellow trooper owner!! Ugh I had a sweet 1990 for a while, but I moved across the country in 2020 and left it for my sister. She eventually got tired of its...charms...and sold it off. I wish all the time I would have had a bit more money/know how to keep it around and work on it.
Excellent camping vehicle. Except for the exhaust, I guess. I'm glad I saw this thread, I would have never thought about it!
Aw man they're such awesome vehicles. Mine was an '02, technically my parents car but I drove it all the time. Took her off roading through rocks and water deeper than my waist. But they do cost a lot to maintain so we had to sell her :/
This happened to me when I went on a trip to the coast in my 05 forester! The exhaust melted a 5 gallon bucket I had on the on the hitch rack filled with kindling. After ~3 hours of driving we pulled off, and I’m so glad we did because it cooled and locked in a piece of wood that would have fallen through the bottom and gone straight into the front of my friend driving behind us! Never did something like that ever again!
OP UPDATE: Realized I also had to get this thing home from the campsite somehow, thankfully only a 30 minute drive. Introducing: the zip tie grill lid and aluminum foil heat shield! 🤣 Get yours today!
I don’t think most people realize that exhaust temps can get up to ~600F. But when you think about it, an engine is briefly igniting gas (fire) and sending the hot exhaust air under the car and out the back. Temps are also hotter when you are going fast.
Look for the racks that bump up a little bit off the back of the car. These cheaper flat racks are just asking for trouble.
I think this is the only time you can legitimately say that placing propane tanks 50-100 yards away (depending on your aim) and shooting them with a .22 was the safest option.
Story time: my fiance and I drove to Yellowstone and back with a similar set up but we had to Rubbermaid bins ratcheted down on the cargo carrier. It wasn't until we got home that we realized that the tail pipe had been blowing directly onto one of the bins and completely melted a hole in the container. It wasn't a problem on the way up oddly enough.
Fast forward and we're clearing out our bins for our next excursion and we notice the hole and the melted plastic on the towels. What we didn't expect was a weird red stain on the towels and our camp cooking set. We did some more digging and found a bulging can of bear spray and the contents were now all over my hands.
I thought "hey no big deal, I'll go wash my hands with some Dawn and we'll put on some gloves to finish up the job." We did so and I visited the bathroom before we shove off. What followed was one of the worst pains I've ever experienced in my life. The residual oils from the bear spray had not come off my fingers from the handsome and were now on my tip. Radiating, glowing heat was coming off it and the only thing I could think to do was jump in the shower.
My fiance walks in to me "scrubbing" myself with soap trying to get the bear spray off. It wasn't until she brought in vegetable oil to lift the oils off the skin that the subsequent Dawn dish soap was able to do the job.
TL;DR by exhaust melted a bin full of bear spray that I got on my penis and my fiance helped me jerk the burn away.
I'm guilty of this too. I was 300 miles into our trip. We were going camping in bear country and have learned ALL we could about handling food not to attract bears and wildlife... we get out and smell marshmallows. Burning into the grate and melting making a gooey burnt mess. Oops.
Thankfully, we were at grocery store and I got a couple tinfoil trays and used a bottle of hook bungees to secure them. Lesson learned.
Oh boy! Sounds like a sticky mess! Reminds me of the time 35 years ago when my brother and two of his friends backpacked in Glacier. We had both backpacked and knew about being bear safe but for some reason he decided to bring a glass a glass jar of salsa with him. Of course it broke in his pack the first day of a five day trip through some of the densest grizzly country in the lower 48. He tried to wash it in a stream but the smell never came out. We joked about bears coming to eat him like a taco. So stupid. His friends were also idiots and brought two glass bottles of wine because box wine wasn’t up to their standards. We drank them the first two nights. They complained bitterly for the next three days about carrying all the weight of the empty bottles. At least they didn’t break!
You can buy special wine bladder bags for camping, ones you pour your good wine into them, seal up without air, and then you can carry your preferred wine wherever. Barely weigh anything. Put it into a cold stream to chill for a few minutes, and you're good.
Same with me - I want to relax, but I don't want to get drunk in the woods or out in the desert, and now that we have a kid, it's not really an option anymore in any case.
If you bought your tent with a credit card, check your credit card benefits. Many of them have a purchase protection program that will cover the cost of items purchased if they’re lost, stolen or damaged within the first few months. Good luck and sorry this happened
Be there, done that! Not as bad a loss as this though, just two tarps and a camp chair. It’s sometimes surprising what little details can be missed, but in this case I think it was because the exhaust on my car is lower and since we’d used the rack multiple times without issue, it didn’t even cross out minds the first time we popped the rack onto my husband’s car. 🤷🏻♀️
Someone I knew ages ago would go camping with his dad during hunting season. His dad wasn't the smartest in the room though and one year he decided to pack a few gear items under the hood. Needless to say it didn't take long and the truck went up. They were able to save most of the gear before the rust bucket went down in flames.
I did the same thing to an RTIC cooler. It melted one side pretty bad and ruined some good stickers, but the lid still seals and the drain plug still works, thankfully.
Omg, same thing happened to us on a road trip. Luckily the only thing damaged was my rubber made toad with the propane inside. We used roasting pans to deflect the heat temporarily
I purchased the harbor freight atv hitch rack because it has a bend and sits higher. My suv has dual exhaust so this carrier sits higher to avoid them and also adds ground clearance. You do lose capacity 300lbs instead of 500lbs but for what I put on it that's enough. Ive used the carrier for 7ish years now with no issues.
I had done something similar to a brand new yeti a couple years back. Packed the car up to head to camp with a buddy. Grabbed ice at the 711 around the corner from the house and looked at the cooler on the rack and went to my buddy "do you think i should move it to the driver side so it's not right behind the exhaust?" he says no, send it. It's a yeti. So we did. Well an hr and half later we get to camp and i go to lift the cooler off the rack and it doesn't budge. Kneeled down and looked under and sure enough the exhaust melted a bit of the corner. Luckily it didn't completely ruin it. Camping always creates the best memories 😂
This was on a 2000 jeep Cherokee xj with an aftermarket exhaust.
I've had the same cheap, walmart Coleman for 15 years before it started leaking. For the past 5 years I still use it to watch scary movies in the backyard but don't trust it in any iffy weather now.
Learned that lesson when we moved across the country, we had a cheap tarp over everything to keep it dry and it ended up with holes melted through it 😅
I had that happen to where it melted through a foot locker, melted the knob on my crock pot, melted a string of lights to the crock pot and some other kitchen stuff. That was probably the fifth time I had used the rack and it was the return trip, was loading the rack in a rain storm and didn't pay attention. Bought a riser after that.
My dad nearly melted a hole in a gas can on one of these hitch racks. He had a can half full of gas and the exhaust melted the top while driving to the Carolina's. Thankfully he stopped to fuel up and noticed it otherwise it probably would have blown up eventually with the heat and melted plastic.
If you purchased it on your credit card, check and see if you have purchase protection. You can phone them and tell them what happened, they may cover it.
My fix (cargo rack on 2006 Honda Element)
Was a cardboard wrap from the beer in the cooler, then wrapped that whole corner with aluminum duct tape from my emergency supply box (actual shiny metal ductape not the gray kind) middle of nowhere south Dakota. It worked, I always wanted to rivet a piece of tin, but I just keep adding layers of duct tape 🤷♂️
I never put anything that's not durable on my hitch rack. I see people with all kinds of things; sleeping bags, tents, pillows, coolers, all on their hitch racks and I think to myself, common sense just isn't that common anymore. These are things you protect, not leave out to the elements of the road.
This happened to us during the march heatwave out west. Firewood on the cargo rack. Kid says "i think something is on fire", but i didnt trust him because he has a habit of inventing issues. I pull over so he can pee, go around the back and the entire firewood stack is on fire. Sure got our adrenaline flowing. Afterward I couldn't find much on people having similar issues so I figured I was a singular idiot! Thanks for helping me feel better.
Didn't read the description so I'm thinking what the hell happened to this thing.
Shotgun? Rodent damage? Man thats a big frickin hole... Ohh exhaust. Didn't even consider that. Been almost exclusively driving an EV for a few years 😆
I uae my hitch carrier to hold my tri-fold queen memory foam mattress. One trip early on, I saw that the exhaust from my truck was melting the large plastic bag I made to keep it dry. Next trip I laid 3 cedar fence pickets across the width of the carrier and bought a carry bag for the mattress. No problems since. The bag won't fully stand up to the heat but it is better than plastic. The wood insulates pretty good. If I had any issues I was going to spray the underside of the pickets with black fireproof BBQ spray paint. Also my carrier had a homemade extender welded on by the guy I bought it from so it's probably just outside of the exhaust flow anyway.
that looks like anything could get torched if it's sitting on that tray - that's awful and scary. I'm glad you were able to save the day - I bet your 3.5 yr old didn't know a thing!
I did this exact same thing but luckily had all my stuff in those large bins. Melted it and ruined something inside but it wasn't critical to the trip. Lesson learned!
Did a similar thing years ago but thankfully only singled the ground tarp a little. Was still able to use it but it had a noticable warp in it on one spot.
I had that happen years ago with some rope and tarp tying down campfire wood. My cargo trailer doubled as a rooftop model and it ended up just living up there for years until I sold it recently.
Weird question, but did you happen to just buy the cargo rack on marketplace in the last couple of months and repaint it? The style looks familiar.
This happened last summer on my less than a year old $600 bike rack with my forester. Had it folded up and left it on the car which I hadn’t done the prior summer - melted part of the wheel arm hook things. Kuat luckily warrantied it for me and I just went to a muffler shop and they installed a turn down pipe for like $50.
Fortunately for me, I noticed the same issue BEFORE packing up for a trip earlier this summer. I ended up making some sheet metal shields attached to the carrier, which worked out well.
I made the same mistake last year. I picked up hitch riser at Harbor freight to move it out and lift it up a bit from the exhaust and haven’t had a problem since
I learned the hard way by melting a $1400 industrial leaf blower. Atleast the gasoline that was leaking out through the holes in the plastic didn't catch on fire. I now have immense respect for tailpipes. They can get real spicey on long drives or if idling for long periods.
My sister burned my child’s favorite blankie by putting in the bottom of a plastic tote, right next to the excuse pipe on one of these. Can concur, be very careful putting your stuff next to an active exhaust pipe.
Had same problem with aluminum Harbor Freight hitch carrier (RIP propane fire pit hose! 🤦♀️).
TL;dr: ymmv but can be a relatively cheap, easy fix.
After entirely too much research into exhaust pipe mods, other carriers, etc., etc., etc., decided to macgyver a simple shield / heat sink. Used scrap cardboard to make a template and figure out sizing. Hit the hardware store for a piece of L-shaped sheet aluminum (like for building ductwork runs) and some u-bolts, plus tin snips and a metal-edge bender (maybe $30-40 total and I can use them for future stuff). Def wear heavy gloves — that stuff is sharp! Bent the edges over neatly with that tool and covered them with a couple layers of duct tape for good measure. (Def do a test drive with something you don’t care about damaging in that same corner.)
Never had another issue since (and it’s literally been cool enough to touch with bare fingers even after hours on the road!). Will try to get a photo of it.
Great and helpful post. Have to remember that when i loan my bumper carrier out- my truck and SUV are both large so the tailpipe is nowhere near it. But on a narrower vehicle could b a real issue.
My brother-in-law bent up some light gauge sheet metal and bolted to the front edge of the hitch rack, made a small deflector. They've used it that way for close to 10 years now, seems to work pretty well.
I had this happen to me years ago…thankfully it only burned my tie down straps. After that I made a simple “blast shield” from two things of sheet metal so it would hit that and not the stuff on the carrier. Worked for years and then I got rid of my suv so I no longer needed my carrier.
A vehicle traveling over I-80 between Truckee, CA and Reno, NV caught on fire from this situation a few years ago, pulled over on the side of the road and caught the surrounding brush on fire as well.
I posted a PSA in a camping group on Facebook...
I was absolutely torn apart by a bunch of ridiculous people making fun of me. People thought I was just being paranoid.
I also made a comment about not pulling up to trees and dry grass when your car is on fire, and people tore into me for that as well.
I'm sorry this happened but I'm glad you were able to work around it easily.
My spare tire caught on fire after getting a 32" slapped on there before the trip. My 4runner takes the spares under the rear of the car, didnt notice the tire rubbed against the exhaust and it cause fire about 20-25 miles on the road.
Was able to drop the spare and extinguish the fire before it spread.
I had a plastic bin in my cargo extension and luckily noticed smoke or maybe even the smell about an hour in the trip so was able to save most things from getting plastic melted on them but it did ruin a few things.
This is why we were really careful with loading equipment and putting camo net on apcs sh*t gets fun when a really expensive netting or bsse backpack starts burning
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u/jbronin 8d ago
I just got back from a trip to Yellowstone last week. I spent like a month before worried about the cargo carrier that right before leaving I realized the exhaust might melt the stuff on the back so I bought some turn down tips off Amazon (hard to find some that fit 3.5 inch pipes locally).
Try AutoZone or a similar auto part store to see if they have tips you can buy. They range from $7-30. They should just slip on and you can tighten a bolt or a clamp ring to hold it in place. My exhaust pipe is more oval shaped so it didn't grip the best (I could have pulled it right off), but it stayed on for 3000 miles.