Hi guy's,
well we have just arrived home after 4 months of "outback travel" covering all States.
Your OZ HITCH has performed above and beyond ALL expectations! It was not your average grey nomad trip that we find the majority of "off road" vans/ campers doing, mainly bitumen.
We have covered over 10,000 km's on minor & major dirt tracks. It included many sections of serious four wheel driving in first low with both diff locks engaged.
Our OZ HITCH is as good as the day we left, with NO noticeable wear, even after being put to extreme angles and conditions!
The trailer in tow weighed between 1745kg's and 2250kg's as we can carry up to 390liter's of water and 3x 9kg gas bottles. It is a serious custom camper fitted with 3000 kg Sugar Glide suspension. At times the angles of difference between vehicle and trailer were truly unbelievable..
What a hitch! If ever you need for me to speak to an interested person i would be only too glad to give a truly honest view.
I will never use any other hitch except an OZ HITCH on any future trailers.
My reason for making it easy on my best mate (my wife) is that I am a complete r/h leg amputee. NOTHING stops us!!
regards, Ray Willis
Ray Willis
Stay away from off road tow hitches that don’t have some type of nylon or urethane bushing (not another metal) in all major joints (especially the main rotational body on the trailer side) as these tow hitches may seem nice and firm now but a few thousand kilometres of off road and you will need a set of earmuffs so you don’t go crazy. Grease in these joints only lasts a few seconds on corrugations and it all gets pumped out. If you buy one without bushing you “WILL” experience rattling and clanking.
Avoid towing hitches that have small fiddly parts and too many moving bits. KISS (Keep It Simple Silly). The more functions your tow hitch has, other than being a simple hitching devise the less reliable it will be. Complicated off road hitches cost more, complicate hitching up, have potential for problems and easy damage, loosing bits and do they do the job better? do some homework and make up your own mind.
Be careful of buying an off road hitch that doesn’t have enough off road angle ability. There are a couple tow hitches out there that just don’t have enough ability of road. To start with the standard tow ball hitch. If you are going to do any outback adventure chuck out the tow ball and get a proper off road coupling. A couple others have limited off-road ability as I have experienced. During a trip in the Bungle Bungles I crossed a simple small washout that most anyone on a trip would encounter and I bent the connecting pin so badly I could not get it out of the hitch. I suggest making sure the off-road hitch you choose gets to at lease 45 degrees minimum and don’t be to adamant of getting over 70 degrees you most likely will never use it.
The last one is I recommend an off road hitch that has the pin load from the side not the top, as hitches that have connecting pins that load from the top have a handle sticking up that can limit off road angles, prevent easy hitch up due to overhanging ute trays and spare wheels being in the way, they will also fowl with barn doors and tail-gates. Just one misjudgement with one of these off road hitches will cost you way more in repairs to your car, than the cost of the right hitch.
N.B. Whatever you do and whichever off road coupling you choose, please only use brand name hitches by the original manufacturers. Some poly block couplings amongst others are being copied and are NOT as good in quality. Original manufacturers have a whole lot of experience and time invested in giving you a better safer product. The copies may be cheap to buy but what is the real cost if it breaks and leaves you stranded or even hurts someone. I can assure you from being in the industry for 25+ years and having seen a whole lot of broken ones.
