Using A Troublesome Off-Road Hitch Frustrated
Me Enough To
CreateThe Ultimate 15
Second Hitch!
The OzHitch was designed to overcome some problems
with hitches in general. Off-road hitches don’t have an aligning
tool guiding the halves together into a cradle making them hard to use.
They have a pin from the top creating problems with centre mounted spare
wheels, overhanging Ute trays and visually have a side on line of sight
for connecting rather than from above. They take a long time to align,
are somewhat fiddly, have poor or difficult to use safety and locking
mechanisms, require two hands to operate and in a lot of cases have low
operational angles. The Be aware some hitches don't have ADR testing
and approval. The OzHitch has full ADR compliance exceeding all
Australian standard.
The Invention Story
Hi
I'm Norm Hudson, the creator of The OzHitch, which came about after a
challenging experience of mine in outback Australia...
How I Came Up With The Dream 15
Second Off-Road Hitch...
Hi
I'm Norm Hudson,
the creator of The OzHitch,
which came about after
a challenging experience of mine in outback Australia...
The
Drama Begins... Getting Bogged
My
problems started when I was travelling through the Finke River Gorge in
the blistering Outback Australia heat around midday when I met with a
stretch of really soft, course river
bed sand that got me badly bogged!!
It was stinking hot
and there was nothing to hook the winch
to…I knew it was bad considering the rigs overall weight, and river bed sand doesn’t let you out easily.
So after tyres down almost flat, lockers in, some cursing, I realised I
wasn’t going to get out unless I
un-hitched. It was getting worse and by this time I was P****D Off and HOT. So I decided
to disconnect the trailer from my 4WD to reposition it on firmer soil
and away from the boggy wheel tracks.
The Hitch Was Almost Impossible To Connect
Man, I tried everything… reversing & repositioning the car a dozen times,
trying to push the trailer around, just about breaking my fingers, wrestling with the pin and the 2
hitch halves…. The worst part about this situation was that no matter
what I did, I’m damned if I could get the two halves of the off-road
hitch to line up, so I could connect it
up. Talk about frustrated, I was out of my mind.
I Had To Get Heavy
Handed
This damn tow hitch just wouldn’t line up. So, like
any true blooded bloke, when I got it reasonably close I used a tyre
lever and my big hammer and bashed that
bugger into place! Tired and worn out with the stress of the
hitch not lining up, I got back on the track again.
The
Drama Continues... The Biggest Problem Was My Hitch!
A half an hour later I got bogged again in another section of sand, and knew I
that I was going to have to deal with the same problems again. So
getting bogged can be a pain, but its nothing compared to getting hitched back up again. Just
recovering from my last ordeal, I was feeling the frustration before
even getting out of the car. I was hot, tired and crazy out of my mind
with this ridiculous so called off-road hitch. What The HELL..!! It
would have made a better anchor for my tinny.
How
Do You Connect A Pin With Less Than Half A Millimetre Tolerance?
The third time I was coming into a sharp uphill
turn out of the riverbed and well… The drama went on for 45 minutes. No
joke I nearly pulled my hair out trying to get the hitch realigned. Just
imagine trying to reverse a 4WD in sliding and shifting river bed sand
on an angles, while reversing, and then trying to line up hitch halves - with less than half a millimetre of tolerance
to put the pin through it. I was getting good with the tyre
lever and hammer and the hitch was looking bashed. I was buggered, you
know that feeling when your hands are kind of ringing or buzzing they
are so worn out from hard struggle?
Surely There Had To Be A
Better Way
This is what got me thinking there has got to be a
better way. I have worked in and been a business owner in the camper
trailer industry since 1980, and with the experience and knowledge I
have, I set about reinventing the
off-road hitch. I thought about the situation I was in that
caused me so much grief and all the little things like lining up the
holes, having to reverse the car to near perfection, the danger of a
possible collapsing jockey, being that the front of the trailer was
getting shoved about heavily in very soft sand and having my feet under
it...!!! and simply the hard work and stress you just don’t want on a
holiday.
I Created The Dream 15 Second Hitch
So after some brain crunching, I came up
with the ultimate 15 second hitch. The hitch guides itself
together, loading from above, with far
less accuracy needed than the tow
hitches currently on the market. The other great thing is that hitch
self locates because of the alignment tool which simply lines the two
halves of the hitch together in the cradle. Presto! OZHITCH is the simplest 15 second off-road hitch that’s easy to use.
The
Drama Begins... Getting Bogged
The Hitch Was Almost Impossible To Connect
A half an hour later I got bogged again in 
Surely There Had To Be A
Better Way
