There’s a new breed of tow hitches available in Australia. Called the Stinger, it promises to be of genuine benefit to caravanners.
No doubt you are familiar with the steel variety of hitch. We have all just accepted their weight as a fact of caravanning life. However, as someone who frequently needs to swap hitches, from a straight hitch to a drop hitch, to suit whichever van I happen to be towing that day, I was thrilled to discover the Stinger hitch.
STINGER HITCH HAS NO WELDS
First and foremost, the Stinger is light. It is much lighter than the adjustable steel drop hitch I have been using for many years. It is manufactured from aluminium alloy – all one piece, with no welds. And besides being light and strong, it looks great. Being an alloy, it will never rust and will never need to be painted.
Now, unlike most steel drop hitches, which can be adjusted to suit your van’s ride height, the Stinger hitch is not adjustable.
However, it is available in three different drops: 50mm, 100mm, and 150mm. Unless you are frequently towing different vans, this does not seem like a drawback. Just choose the right one for your needs and away you go.
Further, the Stinger hitch is designed to be used in either a ‘drop’ or a ‘rise’ position, so if it’s height that you need to level your ride, just rotate the hitch.
It’s designed to suit standard 2in hitch receivers. The 100mm and 150mm hitches each have a couple of holes to provide some flexibility in where you locate the hitch pin; however, the 50mm hitch only has one hole for the pin. I fitted each of these units to our D-MAX without issue.
THE KIT
Each Stinger hitch is supplied with the hitch itself, along with a lockable hitch pin and a 50mm towball. It comes standard with a three-year warranty.
The ADR-compliant hitch is designed to accept a towball mass of 350kg, so it is well-suited to modern Australian caravans and 4WDs.
A small but relevant benefit to caravanners: because the Stinger is lighter than a typical steel hitch, there’s a couple of kilos saved that could theoretically go towards payload in the vehicle.
The weight of each Stinger hitch is as follows:
- 50mm hitch: 1.3kg
- 100mm hitch: 1.9kg
- 150mm hitch: 2.3kg
I haven’t weighed my hefty steel drop hitch but I wouldn’t hesitate to put it around 5kg, so I am particularly pleased to have these hitches.
From now on, I plan to keep them in my tub of towing gear, which I take on caravan reviews. It will be so much easier to simply swap the 50mm drop hitch to the 100mm drop hitch, for example, than it would be to get the spanners out to adjust the height of the ball on my steel drop hitch.
It’s also worth noting that the Stinger is compatible with some offroad couplings, which typically come with a ‘pin’ rather than a ball.
I’ve been impressed by this lightweight hitch and I think you will be too. It appears to be good value for money, too. Recommended.
Prices: $149.95 (50mm); 179.95 (100mm); $199.95 (150mm)
More information: www.hothitches.com.au
