No Bushing
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.
Fiddly Bits
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.
Angle restrictions
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.
Difficult Pin location
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.
The OzHitch was designed to overcome all of these above problems, so try one and see how much you love it.
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.
