The Invention Story

The Drama Begins… Getting Bogged

My problems started when I was travelling through the Finke River Gorge in the blistering Outback Australia heat around midday when I met with a stretch of really soft, coarse river bed sand that got me badly bogged!!

It was stinking hot and there was nothing to hook the winch to… I knew it was bad considering the rigs overall weight, and river bed sand doesn’t let you out easily. So after tyres down almost flat, lockers in, some cursing, I realised I wasn’t going to get out unless I un-hitched. It was getting worse and by this time I was P****D Off and HOT. So I decided to disconnect the trailer from my 4WD to reposition it on firmer soil and away from the boggy wheel tracks.

The Hitch Was Almost Impossible To Connect…

Man, I tried everything… reversing & repositioning the car a dozen times, trying to push the trailer around, just about breaking my fingers, wrestling with the pin and the 2 hitch halves…. The worst part about this situation was that no matter what I did, I’m damned if I could get the two halves of the off road hitch to line up, so I could connect it up. Talk about frustrated, I was out of my mind.

I Had To Get Heavy Handed…

This damn tow hitch just wouldn’t line up. So, like any Aussie bloke, when I got it reasonably close I used a tyre lever and my big hammer and bashed that bugger into place! Tired and worn out with the stress of the hitch not lining up, I got back on the track again.

The Drama Continues… The Biggest Problem Was My Hitch!

A half an hour later I got bogged again in another section of sand, and knew I that I was going to have to deal with the same problems again. So getting bogged and having to unhitch can be a pain, but its nothing compared to getting hitched back up again. Just recovering from my last ordeal, I was feeling the frustration before even getting out of the car. I was hot, tired and crazy out of my mind with this ridiculous so called off-road hitch. What The HELL..!! It would have made a better anchor for my tinny.

How Do You Connect A Pin With Less Than Half A Millimetre Tolerance?

The third time I was coming into a sharp uphill turn out of the riverbed and well… The drama went on for 45 minutes. No joke I nearly pulled my hair out trying to get the hitch realigned. Just imagine trying to reverse a 4WD in sliding and shifting river bed sand on an angles, while reversing, and then trying to line up hitch halves – with less than half a millimetre of tolerance to put the pin through it. I was getting good with the tyre lever and hammer and the hitch was looking bashed. I was buggered, you know that feeling when your hands are kind of ringing or buzzing from the vibration after hanging on to metal that has been hit over and over with a hammer.

Surely There Had To Be A Better Way

This is what got me thinking there has got to be a better way. I have worked in and been a business owner in the camper trailer industry since 1980, and with the experience and knowledge I have, I set about reinventing the off road hitch. I thought about the situation I was in that caused me so much grief and all the little things like lining up the holes, having to reverse the car to near perfection, the danger of a possible collapsing jockey, being that the front of the trailer was getting shoved about heavily in very soft sand and having my feet under it…!!! and simply the hard work and stress you just don’t want on a holiday.

I Created The Dream 15 Second Hitch

So after some brain crunching, I came up with the ultimate 15 second hitch. The hitch guides itself together, loading from above, with far less accuracy needed than the tow hitches currently on the market. The other great thing is that hitch self locates because of the alignment tool which simply lines the two halves of the hitch together in the cradle. Presto! OZHITCH is the simplest 15 second off-road hitch that’s easy to use.