Hitches Review

Picture this: you need to get a load of 14 ft lumber from the lumber yard to the job site. You’ve got your 8 foot enclosed trailer hitched to your short bed pickup. That’s a problem.

Picture this: you’ve hitched the camping trailer up and are ready to head to the high country for a nice long weekend. The kids are throwing a fit because they want to take their bikes. That’s a problem.

Finally, picture this: you’re trying to fit your three golf buddies, four sets of golf clubs and everybody’s luggage into the back of your SUV. You have 300 miles and five hours before your first tee time. That’s a problem. . . .or maybe not. If you’ve got a tow package on the back of your vehicle with a receiver hitch and the right hitch accessories, you’ve got your problems solved.

Trailer hitches, like the vehicles they are attached to have come a long way in the past few years, and manufacturers have awakened to all kinds of new uses for them. New trailer hitch accessories are easier to use, more widely available, safer, and provide conveniences you might not have even thought of. Read on and find out that your receiver hitch can do so much more than the ball your daddy had mounted on his bumper.

First of all, make sure you have a receiver hitch. Unfortunately, those of you with just a ball mounted to your bumper are out of luck for anything except towing. A receiver hitch is a square tube generally mounted below your rear bumper (although a hitch mounted up front is really handy too). You should have a ball mount—the metal tube that slides in to your hitch and has a hole for a hitch ball to use in towing. You should also have a trailer hitch cover—a short, square metal “tube” that fits into your receiver with a decorative emblem on one end (think professional and college sports logos, outdoor hobbies, boat propellers, etc.) that protects your hitch and keeps it clean all the while showing the world a little bit of who you are.

Now, when you’re not towing anything, your receiver hitch can be fitted with all kinds of goodies to make your truck or SUV more functional and more comfortable when you need to transport your toys, or even do a little work.

You’ve probably seen a hitch mounted bike rack before. These handy items can carry up to five bikes, and some will let you tow a trailer or attach another accessory besides. There are adaptors that will change your hitch mounted bike carrier to a hitch mounted ski carrier for 6 pairs of skis or two snowboards. Some hitch mounted bike racks will fold down or swing away from the back of your vehicle to allow easy access to other cargo you may have back there. You can also find vertical bike carriers that fold down and allow you to mount the bike on the carrier without you having to lift the bike off the ground.

Similar to the bike carrier is the hitch mounted spare tire carrier, which I figure is pretty self explanatory. You can also get a receiver step which is basically a hitch mounted step that allows easier access to anything stored on the roof of your SUV or in the bed of your truck. I’m a big fan of trailer hitch winch mounts (handy on both the front and the back of your vehicle) and hitch mounted tow hooks.

If you need to transport something really long (think lumber, ladders, and canoes), you can purchase bed and roof extenders which are vertical metal supports with a crosspiece at the top which will support any cargo longer than the bed of your truck or the roof of your vehicle. I’ve even seen trucks with these roof extenders mounted on both front and back hitches for carrying extra long canoes.

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