Tested: Gen-Y adjustable hitch

After many thousands of kilometres hauling caravans and trailers of all sizes on- and off-road around Australia, I’m pretty fussy about how things sit behind me.

For this this reason, I have an aftermarket Sydney-made 3500kg-rated Mitchell Bros hitch fitted to my own Land-Rover Discovery 3 TDV6. The ‘Mitch-Hitch’ yoke may look a little agricultural, jutting out from the centre of the rear bumper, as it does, but it’s perfectly suited to towing an off-road caravan where you don’t want your hitch to emulate a plough in the process.

I even went to the trouble to rifle through the Hayman-Reese tongue range until I found one that slid right up to the hilt of the yoke of the Mitch Hitch and allowed my tandem axle caravan to tow just a smidgen on the nose down of level.

I believe that a tandem axle van should have its rear wheels in constant contact with the road for maximum stability to counter sway.

That’s all fine, but the problem comes when I need to tow an on-road caravan or a small rubbish trailer, when the hitch is too high. We’ve all seen caravans like that dragging their bums behind big 4WDs, or conversely, off-road caravans tilted the other way behind 'faux' 4WDs and crew cabs.

I have an adjustable five-position Hayman-Reese hitch for this purpose, but it’s only rated to tow 2000kg and most caravans I review above that weight are off-road or semi-off road specced, so I use a standard tongue with a longer ‘drop’ for these.

However when it came to put Nissan’s V8-engined patrol Ti-L ahead of my off-road Trakmaster Pilbara, the rear end of the Nissan sagged under my 240kg ball weight and I could see my drawbar being too low for unsealed roads I had in mind, while its nose-down stance reduced its bitumen stability at the speed-limit towing I was planning on the way there.

I could have fitted a weight distribution hitch to counter the tail droop, but while they work brilliantly on the bitumen, I’m not a great fan of these off-road and begrudge the time to fit and unfit them when changing surfaces.

The solution had been kicking around my shed in the form of an American-made Gen-Y Hitch and it proved ideal for the job.

Rated at 7000kg because it’s used behind big American pickups to haul heavy trailers loaded with earthmoving equipment, it’s built like the Brooklyn Bridge and is no lightweight at 11kg (4kg more than by 2000kg-rated Hayman-Reese equivalent).

But its advantage was that my usual tongue and Hitch-Easy coupling just slotted straight in the top slot and could be inserted and removed in a flash by simply removing the spring on the standard-diameter locking pin. Flipping it the other way up allows you to micro-adjust the level, although I decided against this to avoid it hanging too low.

As you can see from the accompanying pictures, it allowed my caravan to not only tow level, but also raised its drawbar sufficiently to ensure plenty of off-road clearance. And because the Gen-Y Hitch sits further back than a standard hitch, there was no clearance issue for the Nissan’s top-hinged rear tailgate.

Initially I thought that this extra length might impact on caravan stability, but my van was rock solid behind it at speeds that shouldn’t be mentioned here. The only issue is that your standard caravan wiring or safety chains may be a little short to connect with your  tow vehicle, so you may need to extend them for safe towing.

As another benefit, with the tongue removed when on site, the main vertical shaft of the Gen-Y serves as a handy parking deterrent against those who might want to deny you access to your luggage area by parking too close to your rear end -- with much less menace than a sharp tow bar tongue.

The Gen-Y Hitch is beautifully built and finished in tough stove-plate stone-resistant dark grey enamel, so I’d be very surprised to see one rusting in a few years like most black enamel-painted tongues do.

At present they are only available in Australia in either a three, or five-slot form, although a 3500kg torsion version of the hitch is currently undergoing type approval.

Their price at $690 and $790 respectively are somewhat higher than the other variable height hitches on the market, but the quality difference is clear. Moreover, each of these adjustable drop hitches comes with a lifetime guarantee.

If you tow caravans, campers or trailer of different drawbar heights, it’s a simple high quality solution to your level towing needs.

The Gen-Y Mega-Duty Adjustable Drop Hitches are available from their Australian distributor, Chris Rosch, email chris@genyhitch.com.au or call 0407 954 060.