I wanted to be able to use this without a real need for the extension. This is normally intended to give your vehicle more clearance from spare tires, bed campers, etc, and it would work great for that. What I used it for was slightly different though. I shoved the tray through the extension until there were three holes visible on the non vehicle side of the tray. On the vehicle side of the tray there are five or six holes still visible until it reaches the hitch. I then ran some 1/2 x 4" eye bolts with washers/nuts into a hole on each side of the extension. I now have the ability to clip my dirt bike's pegs to the carrier like most other carriers allow. This helps with loading and keeps the bike pinned down. Currently I'm running chain to carabiners that are rated for 1500 and 350 lbs respectively. I'll be swapping the chain out for turnbuckles soon.
If you're swapping out an old receiver for this one, be prepared to muscle/hammer/slam the heck out of it. The old receiver was really tightly in there, and the square 2" hole had been clamped millimeters too small for the new extended receiver. It took about 30 minutes of sledge hammering, prying, and slamming against my concrete garage floor to get the new receiver into the hole. If you're ordering a new MotoTote, order this with it and use it immediately.
It doesn't seem like it would add a lot of weight over the standard hitch, but it does add a few pounds, and it definitely makes it a bit more cumbersome. Either way, I don't care. This thing definitely does what I wanted it to do!