this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
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Anything that makes you apply your hand to your face.
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There are companies now that make adjustable height hitches for what I believe is that exact reason
Granted I've never seen a truck with one of those towing anything, but it at least adds a little bit of functionality back!
Mixing ride height to that extent is something no one that knows what they're doing would do...
So they'll probably sell a lot to the idiots buying lifted trucks who just want to be able to say they could tow something but still never will.
Most likely the case, a lot like the lifted 4 wheel drive jeeps that only ever see parking lots. They could go off-road, but likely never will
My mother-in-law is one of these. She drives a 4WD jeep, which has never willingly been off of the pavement. They were doing some construction outside of her neighborhood, and the turn into her street was filled with gravel for a few months while the concrete was torn up. She would slowly crawl over the gravel section at like half a mile an hour, because she was afraid of breaking something on her jeep. Even I went faster than she did, and I drive a midsize sedan.
My wife and I joked that she could have hopped the curb and driven across the adjacent field, and still made it to the main road faster than if she had creeped across the gravel.
Legit fear. Jeeps are dog shit.
Jeeps are perfectly fine vehicles… Until they’re not. It’s like they have a built-in killswitch from the factory, where every single dashboard warning light is designed to turn on in the same three or four days.
In the early 2000s Jeep Australia had a policy of voiding warranty’s if the vehicle had 4WD engaged at any time.
I have seen several towing.
One was the owner of a Health Drink company and had a mobile kitchen for events.
Another was an oversized-palatial-mansion-suite-on-wheels (caravan). It was too big to fit in the caravan park.
Adjustable height hitches are practical for most tow vehicles to get a safe and level load.
The ADR 62 and Australian Standard 4177 also dictate legal ball heights for towing (basically a 50mm ball has to be no more than 400mm from the road surface).
Even the factory Towbar that was supplied with my Suzuki Jimny mounted the ball at 395mm (which was barely legal).
(Articulated Hitches like pin hitches or block hitches don’t have this restriction. I use a ball for my little garden trailer and a DO35 for my lightweight off-road camper. I have different height drop-hitches for each type of trailer.)