Difficult to Fit Some Off Road Hitches
I was recently at a car sound place having a stereo fitted when a couple in a 100 series cruiser came to pick up there Bush-tracker van after having some work done. I got chatting to them as the van had one of the old AT35 hitches on it which are a notoriously difficult hitch to use. I asked whether they had any troubles with it and if they found it easy or hard to use. (This is without them knowing I made the OzHitch) They told me they found it great and it was quite easy to hitch up. So after they had paid for the work they had done and we had finished chatting I sat back it the stereo shop and watched them at play trying to hook up their van. Oh My God!! if that was easy I wanna see struggle. It then dawned on me what people are prepared to put up with and what they think is easy.
These poor people backed up at least 5 times pushed and shoved, whacked with hammers and shoved the front of the van about with the torque geared jockey wheel trying to get this thing aligned. It took them no less than 10 minutes seriously! I scratched my head and finally took them out a card and introduced the OzHitch to them. It’s amazing you know they didn’t seem overjoyed at all. It’s like I interrupted there daily struggle with the hitch that they so looked forward to. I don’t know if it was ego at play or they genuinely liked the AT35 but if that was me I would have jumped at someone coming up with a solution for me on that problematic hitch. The funny thing was that they did all this 10 minutes without so much as a word to each other.
Common Problems of Off Road Couplings
Anyway… So what are some of the problems with these off road hitches. From the questions and comments I get in emails I find there as a few major reoccurring questions and problems.
- Difficult Alignment… Poly block hitches and the AT35 seem to be the worst offenders
- Almost all hitches are to high and interrupt the operation of tailgates and barn doors as the pin or connection loads from above. Especially the Pajero, Jeep and Suzuki’s
- Noise and rattle and I’ll add one after the above story…
- Take far to long to connect and to much mucking around.
Solve these Problems with our Off Road Hitches
Some hitches have solutions like the poly-blocks in general and the AT35… there is a conversion kit available for the AT35 and all polyblock units on this site which for a small price for the ease of use and simplicity will be worth your while. Unfortunately there isn’t any other solution for these bad boys, if you’ve had enough of the struggle I suggest do something about it. Purchase practical off road hitches here.