Agree 100% . Have been using my Class 6 Airsafe hitch since early 2016. I've modified it though. I've removed the Schrader valve and plumbed it up to a paddle switch and gauge in the cab. Now, with the aid of an extra rear camera mounted under the tail light cluster, I can monitor the action of the Airsafe and make pressure adjustments on the fly. I also have a dump valve and inflation valve at the towbar to aid with unhitching and hitching up.
Thank you for putting this together. I have a gen y hitch and without a camera can’t say whether it’s pivoting like it should or not . However on the quality of NSW roads after the last wet winter I do feel that it is delivering a smoother ride behind my Isuzu truck .it does flex down when coupled up so binding won’t be an issue for mine.
Hi Henry, If you look carefully on the video, you can see that our Gen Y hitch also flexed down when the trailer weight was connected to it. The little stainless steel indicator on the hitch shows this, but it did not move at all while travelling along. Cheers, karl
Ty very much Super helpful and your effort much appreciated I had shocker hitch on the top of my list. My only concern was perhaps needing a WDH , but maybe I dont. I will speak to them when the time comes.
😊 hello, I am using my wife's account here on TH-cam. The shocker hitches an outstanding hitch. I owned one two years ago. Really good hitch. I look at maybe purchasing a air safe model. Four hitch smaller but we'll see what happens. Yes Gen y high quality. Beautiful finish. Good people but just don't work and the 500 mi break in is absolutely ridiculous if it even ever breaks in again. Torsion is usually not for hitches. It's usually for axles with three or four thousand pounds on them or whatever. They even have a little hitch called the glider which actually works but you just can't change anything. We have the ability with the air safe and with the shocker hitch to adjust the air to our individual needs. That's a good thing
Interesting on the Gen Y I have been running it for 2 years now. I agree my use is totally different than yours. I run it in a F-350 and 99% of time on pavement. I do agree it does not seem to move near as much as you might think. Great video
Hi William, We just documented exactly what we found, some Gen Y advocates are not impressed, but that is how it performed for us. Thanks for watching and commenting. 👍
Another happy gen y user. We can see plenty of movement with our hitch. We did notice you had the ball mount upside down, the flat side should be facing up. So there’s no obstruction when turning. We were corrected by hitch ezy. Love the BT and your truck.
Great video. I run the shocker hitch and completely agree about the bump stop limitations. Looks like an upgrade might be on the cards in time. Thanks again
Hi Nicholas, I added a rubber bush to the bump stop to make it “longer” so that it started to act as soon as the hitch moved up. It was better. Cheers, karl
(in the US) Thanks for this! Our problem is the tongue weight. The camper weighs 23,500 lbs loaded (10659.4 Kg) 20,600 pounds unloaded (9344Kg) with tongue weight of 2,700 lbs (1224.6 Kg). We currently use a Torklift 30k WD hitch on our F550. This had a negative effect on the front axle weight regardless of where we tried to adjust the hitch. Previous owner used a Freightliner M2 for a tow vehicle. Our new to us tow vehicle is a retired class 8 Freightliner Cascadia. I was looking to soften up the ride for the trailer and this truly helped me make a decision. Also thank you for the discount code!
Hi Chip, I’m glad we could help you. We found the difference between the hitches greatly affected how our truck felt. We were very happy with the AirSafe. Cheers from Au 👍
Great Video, I wasn’t sure how these hitches would perform. I’ll throw a couple of others into the mix. I have an earlier model NPS than yours rated at 6.5T GVM and I started with an OzGlide. I really loved it. It works great and is a quality Australian made hitch. I towed a “value for money” van with it for over 4 years, without the suspension hitch I’m sure I would have broken the drawbar on the old van. When I upgraded the van to a better quality 4T van the OzGlide at 3.5T needed to be replaced. I looked at the Airsafe as it has a great reputation but ended up with an Airglide, this towbar is heavy and does reduce the departure angle but otherwise is an excellent solution. It has more vertical movement than the AirSafe and is made in Australia. When we changed vans we did 2 trips without a suspension hitch. I was surprised how bad the ride in the truck was with a fixed hitch. Honestly I don’t know how you would tow without one, I would probably have sold the truck the ride was so bad when towing.
Gday Brad, It’s good to hear the other two hitch set up worked great. We have the same thoughts as you, no hitch or bad hitch setup is a terrible ride in the truck. Cheers, karl
Great video we have gone with the Ozglide with our light truck as our van is under 3500kg and gotta say it is a game changer.Not cheap but worth the investment
THANK YOU FOR DETAILED VIDEO AS GREAT WATCHING ALL TIME YES AGREE 100% THAT BEST HITCH ON MARKET REMEMBER YEARS BACK USE TYPE HITCH WITH TRUCKS AND TRAILER USE RTA FOR TOW TRAILER WHICH LOAN UP FULLTIME FOR JOBS TRAVEL LOT OUTBACK NSW DO REPAIRS WORK ON ROADS
Thanks for this! We are currently working on an NPS build and was leaning towards the Gen Y hitch. Our 15ft off road van is only 2.7T fully loaded, looks like the Shocker hitch will work great.
Hi Guys, From our experience I think the shocker hitch will work great for you. Make sure you get the correct one to fit your tow bar ( the dimension underneath the bar is critical). Cheers, karl
Hello, my name is Stuart. I live in Naples, Florida. I'm using my wife's TH-cam channel. We actually owned a shocker 12K hitch. It actually worked very well. We had a newmar and Honda motor coach with a featherlite trailer and our golf cart and our Jeep on it and it really really did a good job. I have been to the Gen y factory. Great people. Well made stuff but torsion axles do not work when it comes to hitches. They may work on axles on vehicles. That's great. I have never seen a gen y work correctly. There's a reason 99% of the 18 wheelers in the United States use airbags because airbags work very well. You can also all through the pressure you can raise and lower your height at will if you want to in my opinion. Gen y nice Amish people Mennonite people making these hitches but they just don't work the way they should. It's just a shame. Beautiful powder coating. It looks great but it doesn't work. It is not active enough in my opinion. Carl, thank you so much for the video. I am looking at getting an air safe series 4 hitch. What is that one? I was just curious???? Excellent video. It really shows that the Gen. Y just doesn't really work. Great stuff! Great finish! Everything's great. It just doesn't work!!!!!!!!!
I even mentioned to the people at Gen. Y at the shocker works a lot better when I stop by the factory cuz I did have my motorcoach with me and they didn't want to hear it and let's just say I didn't go by there again!!!!😢
Thanks for your comments, we appreciate them. We had a 4500kg ( so about 10 000lbs) hitch. It was the correct size for our trailer and tongue weight . As you said, it was constructed very solidly and finished well, but did not work. Some viewers have passionately commented that there is a “500 mile” break in period for the hitch. From our experience, I’m not sure this is reasonable. Anyway, we have just documented what was fact, and what worked for us. Cheers and happy travels, Karl & katty
Very well done again thank you for sharing I’m currently using a shocker hitch after trying others on the market and must say it works very good behind my NPS 👍🍻🇦🇺
Gday boat buddy, The wheel carrier and rear winch is made by All Terrain Warriors. It is good, although it doesn’t make it all the way to the ground, so you still need to lift the wheels about 300mm. Cheers
Great video comparing the hitches. TH-camr "Travelling Australia" fitted an Ozglide Hitch which has an airbag. This hitch is fitted to the caravan and has the advantage of not increasing the axel to hitch distance which increases the leverage the caravan places on the tow vehicle. Possibly more suited to smaller tow vehicles than your truck.
Have tried the shocker hitch and the GY and just dont like the GY is to stiff the SH give you more flexibility right out the box it is a way better product IMO , can you tell me please what is the name brand of your coupling ball?
Hi Lu En, The coupling is a Hitch EZY. It is made in Aus. We have a video going over the coupling. th-cam.com/video/EJjgUZV_s_g/w-d-xo.html Cheers, karl
Hmm something doesn’t look right with the Gen-y hitch. We’ve been using one for over three years and love it. When we turn the towbar camera on we can see it doing it’s job. 🤷🏽♂️
Gday guys, Hmmm, thanks for the feed back. Unfortunately we just had one new unit to try, and that was the result. Maybe it had an issue ? Gen Y retailer commented on our post, regarding a bed in period for the hitch, but I can not find any information on their web site reguards this, but I will follow it up. Cheers
Really surprised with the Gen Y hitch on your truck, I have been running one for the last 5 years after breaking an a frame and the caravan just floats along behind moving up and down independent of the tow vehicle It looks like that hitch was bound up. I liked it so much I run a lighter version on my 4wd.
@@nowhereboundtouring thanks for the response Karl it looks similar to your only it connects onto the A frame th-cam.com/video/xghzYNxZq70/w-d-xo.htmlsi=f4HaHeuDdCHROyKu
Shame about the gen y as this was probably going to be my go to for our new 4.5t van. We currently use and ozglide which I’m extremely happy with but they’re only rated to 3.5t.
Hi Shane, Yes we were surprised about the Gen Y as well, but it didn’t work at all! Depending on you set up I’d suggest the Shocker or AirSafe hitch. Cheers
Great info thanks. I’d love that air safe hitch it appears to do a wonderful job, so different to the GenY. My only concern is the weight and the extra it sticks out. Is it also lower like the Shocker hitch? How much maintenance is there on them please? Do they come with a locking system?
Hi Jenni, I was also concerned with the extra weight, and that it hanks out further. I thought that this may have an excessive negative effect on it performance, but I was wrong. The overall performance is way better than anything else we have used. There is no maintenance on the hitch, but it does have moving parts. These will wear over time, but I assume that it would take mor than a few years before they require replacement. There is no lock, but if you pump the hair bag up a lot, it would stop any movement. Cheers, karl
I think the tolerances for Gen-Y torsion hitches are all over the place. Their factory in Indiana is 25 miles from me. I took one back to them tp be checked out and they said it was fine but I didn’t not buy the 1100-1700 tongue weight range. Mine seemed too weak and compressed too easy all the way to the bottom with modest tongue weight. The one in this video seemed like it was too stiff and not giving any flexing action. Got rid of it and now have a Shocker HD and seems to be better because you can dial in the bag pressure for any trailer and the tongue connection is closer to the truck. The polyurethane bushing that squishes down when the bag is filled seems like it bottoms out a little too fast and should be a little wider but overall it rides pretty good and seems well built. Having to inflate and deflate the bag every time if you hitch and move multiple trailers in a day can be a little extra time consuming though. I think you are supposed to deflate the bag before setting the trailer down
Gday Brandon, Interesting to know about the Gen Y hitches. Ours did not work at all. I replaced the Shocker hitch bumper bush with longer tougher rubber one. This started to slow the hitch movement down sooner, helping prevent it from “ bottoming” out so much. It worked well for us 👍 Cheers
Well-presented video mate, subscription earnt. I have a 5.6 tonne truck/mobile home (rated to 8.5) with a 3.5 tonne enclosed trailer (workshop) on behind, I rarely go off bitumen roads. Do you know what size Airfsafe would suit my use, or is it a question I should be asking them?
Thanks, and glad you liked it. I believe a class 6 hitch would suit ( the same hitch as we have 3.5 to 4.5t), but it is best to speak with AirSafe to confirm this. The hitch down from this size does not have the shock absorbers on it ( I think that they may be able to be fitted). I think that the shock absorbers are one of the most important features for us, to control the hitch movement. Cheers, karl
What size Tow bar do you run. I am building a Fuso Canter full GVM and am thinking going 4.5t Towbar for longevity as we will be travelling full time as well. Eventually. lol
Hi Karl , love the review. We’re about to buy an NPS . We will be towing a boat weighing about 1 ton . We have been looking at numerous hitches and now we are wondering what we should buy . Just wondering What would be your recommendation? Cheers
We would recommend the shocker hitch, without a doubt if that is all you intend to tow. It is easily adjustable via the airbag pressure, to suit your tow ball weight. Cheers Karl and Katty
@@nowhereboundtouring Thanks for reply, much appreciated. Any recommendations where to purchase one . We looked on line and do wonder if there are Chinese copies , much cheaper but we do wonder if they may not be as good . Regards Liz
Hi Liz, I assume you like the Shocker Hitch. Phone Roger, 0457814997. He is easy to deal with and the direct Australian importer for Shocker Hitch based in lower QLD. He will be able to send it to you. Mention that we put you onto him and he may help you out with a good price… it’s worth a try. Cheers, karl
Thanks again Karl . We are about to receive our truck so the info we can get helps . Another question if you don’t mind , what system do you use for airing up your tyres after deflation? Maybe a review on your channel ? Cheers Liz
Hey Liz, Feel free to give me a call if you prefer 0419470650. We had lots of issues with our original compressors. We had an ARB twin unit. It was rebuilt twice and replaced under warranty once. We have done a video on our new compressor ( almost one year old now). We have a compressor from Jed Air in QLD. This was the only compressor I could find on the market that was good enough to handle the truck tyre pressures. It is actually industrial rated ( and is priced accordingly). It is so good that I still smile when I use it ( I only cringed when I first payed, for it after that it is all smiles). It takes less 7 min to pump up the truck tyres. Truck and van, 15 min. The ARB took longer than 45min for just the truck, and almost melted every time. Cheers, karl
Hi Jonno, The hitch made no noticeable difference, but out tyre alignment did. We did use to have even wearing tyres on the back. After we had a front end alignment and a rear axle adjustment, we now have uneven wear on the back. Cheers, karl
@@nowhereboundtouring Cheers mate, we seem to get uneven wear with the van on, were up to 110psi (rear truck tyres) which seems to help, i was thinking the jolt of the van may have contributed. PS were running Founders tyres.
Gday Mark, I would assume a F350 would perform great, but it is way out of our price range. Spare parts are harder to Source in AUS ( and way higher cost) and their reliability is lower. Gen y, why would I recommend it, its performance was way lower than a standard hitch. Have a look at our video on the hitch. The un edited video says it all. I am happy to elaborate on our experiences to any one that would I like further information, on the four hitches we have used. Cheers, Karl
@ridge69 Yes correct, that is why we had the correct hitch for the tongue weight. There is no way that hitch was going to work. The video says it all. The Gen Y was trying to rip/ twist the tow bar off the back of the truck. Just a bad design. Cheers
@@nowhereboundtouring that's too bad. Just got one. Mine works wonderfully. 30ft 7950lb travel trailer has a 850lb tongue weight. Got the 10k boss hitch
Hi Karl and Katty. Good informative video for folks towing with vehicles with heavier suspensions. We believe all the products you reviewed have their place in the, saving the van and smoothing the ride market. Just to clear up a couple of things about ShockerHitch, the weight of an air hitch is 18kgs and the current price is $1345.00 plus postage from Brisbane. The airline guard, ShockerHitch Aust. made for Australian conditions and it is supplied as an optional extra. We don't have a guard for the airbags but a couple of customers have made their own, we have only replaced two punctured airbags in 17 years. Keep Bounding around to Nowhere. 😃🤠 Roger & Val
Hi Rodger & Val, I hope you are both well. The shocker hitch is a great product, and it worked well for us. From experience, I would highly recommend it for anyone towing. I have seen the airline guard ( although it looked a little light for our application). The hitch had very little wear evident after 3.5 years on the road 👍 Cheers, karl
One thing I am not entirely clear on with these air-ride hitches is why they offer them in different weight ratings at all. The Gen-Y torsion hitches it makes perfect sense how they have lighter rated ones and heavier rated ones to suit different trailering needs, and is in fact one of the big reasons I don't prefer them for my specific application where I haul different trailers all the time, some of them light, some medium, and some heavy tongue weights. Theoretically shouldn't the air bag hitches be infinitely adjustable to suit any trailer from light to heavy just by adjusting the bag pressure? Assuming the trailer does not exceed the design limitations of the hitch of course. For example why does Shocker need to offer a 12k rated AND a 20k rated version of the same hitch? Isn't the 20k rated hitch also a 12k rated hitch, so why bother making the lighter one? Air Safe does the same thing I notice by offering different tongue weight rated versions...but wait a minute. Isn't that what the adjustable air bag is for?
Gday Brendon, With our shocker hitch it has two ratings, 3.5t and 4.5t. The rating is determined by what coupling it has fitted. A 25mm shaft ( on a 50mm tow ball is only rated to 3.5t in Aus) a 32mm shaft is rated to 4.5t. These are maximum ratings. The Airsafe hitch has maximum design load ratings. You can always operate a hitch at a lower load, but most people would not want to pay for a much larger, higher rated and heavier hitch when they don’t need it. Hence all the different sizes and ratings. The same with the Gen Y, except it has a minimum weight for it to perform correctly as it will be too stiff to operate. Cheers, karl
@@nowhereboundtouring Yes with the Gen-Y torsion deals, they are not adjustable like an air hitch is. It could either be too stiff to flex at all, or not stiff enough and get smooshed all the way down to the bottom of the travel and not have any left underneath of it. I have one now and that seems to be the main problem because I move trailers that are light, medium, and heavy on the tongue weights and it does not work as well with all of them. Also it moves the ball mount too far back in my opinion which takes more weight off the steering axle. I'm going to try the HD Shocker and I bet I will be a little happier with it.
Yes, you are correct. We found the Airsafe hitch to be far better than any of the others we had. It has more than double the movement of the shocker hitch, which was the issue we had to resolve.
Hi Ken, we appreciate a good review that is unbiased but yours just seems like an advertisement for one particular brand which others seem to have picked up on already. A few things, firstly which dealer did you purchase our Gen-Y hitch from? We want to reach out to them and say thank you for upholding a fantastic return policy on a used product - good on them. Secondly, we’d like to educate them and everyone else that our hitches do need a few hundred km’s to begin to work from new as the way the torsion rubbers are inserted frozen means they need to loosen a little to be working optimally. We are concerned that whoever you bought it off was not aware of that so we’d love to offer them some more training. Also, thanks for the positive support from everyone else. We don’t need to defend our products as there are soo many of you that are happy with the hitches, we love hearing your kind words seeing your videos ✌🏼
Hi Gen Y, We just say it how it is. If your product happened to be the best performing for our application, then we would pass that information onto our viewers. I have checked your website but could not find any information regarding the “ loosening up period” . Can you please forward the information to us regarding this, so we can make reference to it. Cheers, Katty & karl.
@@nowhereboundtouring Cant say I saw any information on the box or inside regarding any " Loosening up" period either. Mine also seems a bit stiff and its had around 8 months work full time. Think I might chuck the go pro on the back and get some video of it like you did just to see where we are at.
An interesting comment if this is indeed coming from an official representative of Gen-Y Hitches. Did you run this past your engineers and lawyers before posting it I wonder? Starting with your second point first, I would respectfully suggest that the education needed is by your engineers to your marketing staff. The 'freezing process' used to make it easier to install torsion rubbers has no residual effect on their torque resistance once their fitting temperature normalises. Shore is shore, and whilst durometer readings will decrease gradually over time with wear, the effect of the 'freezing process' is only during assembly. Further on that same point: If you are suggesting your product needs a 'running in period', do you actually provide written advice to customers to this effect and suggest their caravan/trailer may not be fully protected by your product during this time? No-one who has commented seems to have received or seen such advice. What happens if their caravan/trailer or tow vehicle is damaged due to shock loadings during the 'running in period'? Would they be able to make a warranty claim for damage resulting from the hitch not fully protecting the tow combination since this 'running in period' doesn't seem easy to find documented anywhere? On the first point of 'congratulating the dealer who took back the used product'. In Australia we have consumer protection laws and the dealer simply complied with those laws. Are you suggesting you need to congratulate a dealer for complying with Australian consumer laws? Complying with Australian consumer law is not optional, so it makes me wonder why the congratulations are needed - is it the exception rather than the rule for your onsellers? If so, perhaps you should be more choosy about who sells your product. Finally, I don't see anyone suggesting this is a video marketing one brand, rather they are just pointing out that their hitches work as they should. Those comments could easily be construed by a reasonable and prudent person to be further evidence the hitch the NBT crew were using was perhaps not functioning correctly just as the video evidence showed. Looking at how badly the drawbar was flexing where it joined the caravan frame rails, I doubt I would have any problem having the particular hitch they purchased declared 'not reasonably fit for purpose' in a hearing under Australian consumer law. Perhaps, rather than 'not defending your product', it might be better to reach out and get more information and try to determine why that particular hitch might not have been functioning correctly. Was it something unique to the NBT configuration? Given the comments of others who say their hitches can clearly be seen functioning, and the NBT hitch clearly isn't, it might be better to try to find out why. In my humble opinion, suggesting 'bias' is a lazy way out if you really do stand behind your product. If it were my product I would be doing all I could to find out why it wasn't working in this instance.
@nowhereboundtouring I'm interested to know what hitch tongue weight was? There is supposedly a guage on the side of the gen y that tells you when it is loaded with enough tongue weight. Did u use that guage when test this video? Or get weighed on scale to see how much actual tongue weight you have? Thanks!
Unfortunately, The hitch was the correct one for the trailer and tongue weight it was operating at about 80% of its maximum capacity and well within the Gen Y recommend spec. It just did not work. Cheers
Agree 100% .
Have been using my Class 6 Airsafe hitch since early 2016.
I've modified it though. I've removed the Schrader valve and plumbed it up to a paddle switch and gauge in the cab.
Now, with the aid of an extra rear camera mounted under the tail light cluster, I can monitor the action of the Airsafe and make pressure adjustments on the fly.
I also have a dump valve and inflation valve at the towbar to aid with unhitching and hitching up.
Gday Bill,
That would work great. Sounds like you have got it all sorted.
Cheers, karl.
man power
Man power ? 🤷♂️
Thank you for putting this together. I have a gen y hitch and without a camera can’t say whether it’s pivoting like it should or not . However on the quality of NSW roads after the last wet winter I do feel that it is delivering a smoother ride behind my Isuzu truck .it does flex down when coupled up so binding won’t be an issue for mine.
Hi Henry,
If you look carefully on the video, you can see that our Gen Y hitch also flexed down when the trailer weight was connected to it. The little stainless steel indicator on the hitch shows this, but it did not move at all while travelling along.
Cheers, karl
Ty very much Super helpful and your effort much appreciated
I had shocker hitch on the top of my list. My only concern was perhaps needing a WDH , but maybe I dont. I will speak to them when the time comes.
Hi Charlie,
We’re glad we could help.
Cheers, karl & katty
Thank you for the videos I almost got the gen/y hitch
You are welcome, and glad we can help.
Cheers,
Karl & katty
😊 hello, I am using my wife's account here on TH-cam. The shocker hitches an outstanding hitch. I owned one two years ago. Really good hitch. I look at maybe purchasing a air safe model. Four hitch smaller but we'll see what happens. Yes Gen y high quality. Beautiful finish. Good people but just don't work and the 500 mi break in is absolutely ridiculous if it even ever breaks in again. Torsion is usually not for hitches. It's usually for axles with three or four thousand pounds on them or whatever. They even have a little hitch called the glider which actually works but you just can't change anything. We have the ability with the air safe and with the shocker hitch to adjust the air to our individual needs. That's a good thing
Interesting on the Gen Y
I have been running it for 2 years now. I agree my use is totally different than yours. I run it in a F-350 and 99% of time on pavement. I do agree it does not seem to move near as much as you might think.
Great video
Hi William,
We just documented exactly what we found, some Gen Y advocates are not impressed, but that is how it performed for us.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
👍
@
I am not saying you’re incorrect. I do agree it does not move as much as I thought it would that’s for sure.
All good 👍 thanks again 😀
Awesome content once again 👏 thanks for sharing and taking time to have a cold one with me 😊Greetings from south africa 🇿🇦
Thanks Yusuf, and we appreciated the beer 👍
Cheers from Oz,
Karl & Katty
Another happy gen y user. We can see plenty of movement with our hitch. We did notice you had the ball mount upside down, the flat side should be facing up. So there’s no obstruction when turning. We were corrected by hitch ezy. Love the BT and your truck.
👍
Great video. I run the shocker hitch and completely agree about the bump stop limitations. Looks like an upgrade might be on the cards in time. Thanks again
Hi Nicholas,
I added a rubber bush to the bump stop to make it “longer” so that it started to act as soon as the hitch moved up. It was better.
Cheers, karl
(in the US) Thanks for this! Our problem is the tongue weight. The camper weighs 23,500 lbs loaded (10659.4 Kg) 20,600 pounds unloaded (9344Kg) with tongue weight of 2,700 lbs (1224.6 Kg). We currently use a Torklift 30k WD hitch on our F550. This had a negative effect on the front axle weight regardless of where we tried to adjust the hitch. Previous owner used a Freightliner M2 for a tow vehicle. Our new to us tow vehicle is a retired class 8 Freightliner Cascadia. I was looking to soften up the ride for the trailer and this truly helped me make a decision. Also thank you for the discount code!
Hi Chip,
I’m glad we could help you. We found the difference between the hitches greatly affected how our truck felt. We were very happy with the AirSafe. Cheers from Au 👍
Great Video, I wasn’t sure how these hitches would perform.
I’ll throw a couple of others into the mix. I have an earlier model NPS than yours rated at 6.5T GVM and I started with an OzGlide. I really loved it. It works great and is a quality Australian made hitch. I towed a “value for money” van with it for over 4 years, without the suspension hitch I’m sure I would have broken the drawbar on the old van. When I upgraded the van to a better quality 4T van the OzGlide at 3.5T needed to be replaced.
I looked at the Airsafe as it has a great reputation but ended up with an Airglide, this towbar is heavy and does reduce the departure angle but otherwise is an excellent solution. It has more vertical movement than the AirSafe and is made in Australia.
When we changed vans we did 2 trips without a suspension hitch. I was surprised how bad the ride in the truck was with a fixed hitch. Honestly I don’t know how you would tow without one, I would probably have sold the truck the ride was so bad when towing.
Gday Brad,
It’s good to hear the other two hitch set up worked great. We have the same thoughts as you, no hitch or bad hitch setup is a terrible ride in the truck.
Cheers, karl
Good stuff guys.. excellent and practically tested information there.
Thanks Wayne.
Thanks for sharing this info. We have an Air hitch and LOVE it
Gday Dianne,
We agree, it’s great.
Cheers
Hi Dianne, is your air hitch the Air Safe brand?
Great video we have gone with the Ozglide with our light truck as our van is under 3500kg and gotta say it is a game changer.Not cheap but worth the investment
Hi Shane,
That is what we found as well. When we went back to a standard hitch, it was nasty.
Cheers
Great vid Carl, very informative.
Thanks 👍
THANK YOU FOR DETAILED VIDEO AS GREAT WATCHING ALL TIME
YES AGREE 100% THAT BEST HITCH ON MARKET
REMEMBER YEARS BACK USE TYPE HITCH WITH TRUCKS AND TRAILER USE RTA FOR TOW TRAILER WHICH LOAN UP FULLTIME FOR JOBS TRAVEL LOT OUTBACK NSW DO REPAIRS WORK ON ROADS
Hi Robert,
We are glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching.
We run an Oz-glide hitch on the caravan. It makes a huge difference to the overall handling
We found the same, a good hitch does make lots of difference.
Cheers
Thanks for this!
We are currently working on an NPS build and was leaning towards the Gen Y hitch.
Our 15ft off road van is only 2.7T fully loaded, looks like the Shocker hitch will work great.
Hi Guys,
From our experience I think the shocker hitch will work great for you. Make sure you get the correct one to fit your tow bar ( the dimension underneath the bar is critical).
Cheers, karl
@@nowhereboundtouring Thanks Karl!
Hello, my name is Stuart. I live in Naples, Florida. I'm using my wife's TH-cam channel. We actually owned a shocker 12K hitch. It actually worked very well. We had a newmar and Honda motor coach with a featherlite trailer and our golf cart and our Jeep on it and it really really did a good job. I have been to the Gen y factory. Great people. Well made stuff but torsion axles do not work when it comes to hitches. They may work on axles on vehicles. That's great. I have never seen a gen y work correctly. There's a reason 99% of the 18 wheelers in the United States use airbags because airbags work very well. You can also all through the pressure you can raise and lower your height at will if you want to in my opinion. Gen y nice Amish people Mennonite people making these hitches but they just don't work the way they should. It's just a shame. Beautiful powder coating. It looks great but it doesn't work. It is not active enough in my opinion. Carl, thank you so much for the video. I am looking at getting an air safe series 4 hitch. What is that one? I was just curious????
Excellent video. It really shows that the Gen. Y just doesn't really work. Great stuff! Great finish! Everything's great. It just doesn't work!!!!!!!!!
I even mentioned to the people at Gen. Y at the shocker works a lot better when I stop by the factory cuz I did have my motorcoach with me and they didn't want to hear it and let's just say I didn't go by there again!!!!😢
Thanks for your comments, we appreciate them.
We had a 4500kg ( so about 10 000lbs) hitch. It was the correct size for our trailer and tongue weight . As you said, it was constructed very solidly and finished well, but did not work. Some viewers have passionately commented that there is a “500 mile” break in period for the hitch. From our experience, I’m not sure this is reasonable. Anyway, we have just documented what was fact, and what worked for us.
Cheers and happy travels,
Karl & katty
Very well done again thank you for sharing I’m currently using a shocker hitch after trying others on the market and must say it works very good behind my NPS 👍🍻🇦🇺
Hi Amos & Banjo,
Our shocker hitch did do a good job for 3.5years. It’s good value for the money 👍
Cheers
Great informative video Karl, might be worthwhile letting ATW know your thoughts on these hitches.
Hi Tim,
Hope you are well, and glad you liked the video 👍
This vid is top notch !! Good content! So I’m guessing the air safe hitch your using is the 4.5kg one?
Thanks Breno 👍
Please do a review on the rear dual wheel carier and where we can purchase it from. Thx for sharing all your vids and reviews.
Gday boat buddy,
The wheel carrier and rear winch is made by All Terrain Warriors. It is good, although it doesn’t make it all the way to the ground, so you still need to lift the wheels about 300mm.
Cheers
@@nowhereboundtouring thanks alot.
👍
Great video comparing the hitches.
TH-camr "Travelling Australia" fitted an Ozglide Hitch which has an airbag. This hitch is fitted to the caravan and has the advantage of not increasing the axel to hitch distance which increases the leverage the caravan places on the tow vehicle. Possibly more suited to smaller tow vehicles than your truck.
Hi Jeb,
I have seen the oz glide in pictures, but never actually seen one in action. It may also be a good option.
Cheers
Have tried the shocker hitch and the GY and just dont like the GY is to stiff the SH give you more flexibility right out the box it is a way better product IMO , can you tell me please what is the name brand of your coupling ball?
Hi Lu En,
The coupling is a Hitch EZY. It is made in Aus. We have a video going over the coupling.
th-cam.com/video/EJjgUZV_s_g/w-d-xo.html
Cheers, karl
Hmm something doesn’t look right with the Gen-y hitch. We’ve been using one for over three years and love it. When we turn the towbar camera on we can see it doing it’s job. 🤷🏽♂️
Gday guys,
Hmmm, thanks for the feed back. Unfortunately we just had one new unit to try, and that was the result. Maybe it had an issue ?
Gen Y retailer commented on our post, regarding a bed in period for the hitch, but I can not find any information on their web site reguards this, but I will follow it up.
Cheers
So confused on the gen y. Other reviews show it moving well. Are we sure this was the proper rated unit and hitch weight of unit was adequate?
Yes,
This was the correct one for our application as per the Gen Y guidelines.
Cheers, karl.
Really surprised with the Gen Y hitch on your truck, I have been running one for the last 5 years after breaking an a frame and the caravan just floats along behind moving up and down independent of the tow vehicle It looks like that hitch was bound up. I liked it so much I run a lighter version on my 4wd.
Hi John,
We were very surprised 😮.
Cheers
Great info, cheers.
Thanks Wayde.
G'day,
Great info, what do you think of the DO 35 OZ Glide Scorpion MK2? DO 45 on the way.
Keep up the great work, love your channel. 👍👍👍😎
Gday Hans,
I have not used an oz glide, so I can’t help you with any opinions.
Cheers, karl
@@nowhereboundtouring thanks for the response Karl it looks similar to your only it connects onto the A frame
th-cam.com/video/xghzYNxZq70/w-d-xo.htmlsi=f4HaHeuDdCHROyKu
Very interesting vid thanks
👍
Shame about the gen y as this was probably going to be my go to for our new 4.5t van. We currently use and ozglide which I’m extremely happy with but they’re only rated to 3.5t.
Hi Shane,
Yes we were surprised about the Gen Y as well, but it didn’t work at all! Depending on you set up I’d suggest the Shocker or AirSafe hitch.
Cheers
Great info thanks. I’d love that air safe hitch it appears to do a wonderful job, so different to the GenY. My only concern is the weight and the extra it sticks out. Is it also lower like the Shocker hitch? How much maintenance is there on them please? Do they come with a locking system?
Hi Jenni,
I was also concerned with the extra weight, and that it hanks out further. I thought that this may have an excessive negative effect on it performance, but I was wrong. The overall performance is way better than anything else we have used. There is no maintenance on the hitch, but it does have moving parts. These will wear over time, but I assume that it would take mor than a few years before they require replacement. There is no lock, but if you pump the hair bag up a lot, it would stop any movement.
Cheers, karl
What about the air glide hitch,please have this test then do another video,thank you
Hi Annette,
We won’t be doing any more hitch test for some time 😀
I think the tolerances for Gen-Y torsion hitches are all over the place. Their factory in Indiana is 25 miles from me. I took one back to them tp be checked out and they said it was fine but I didn’t not buy the 1100-1700 tongue weight range. Mine seemed too weak and compressed too easy all the way to the bottom with modest tongue weight. The one in this video seemed like it was too stiff and not giving any flexing action. Got rid of it and now have a Shocker HD and seems to be better because you can dial in the bag pressure for any trailer and the tongue connection is closer to the truck. The polyurethane bushing that squishes down when the bag is filled seems like it bottoms out a little too fast and should be a little wider but overall it rides pretty good and seems well built. Having to inflate and deflate the bag every time if you hitch and move multiple trailers in a day can be a little extra time consuming though. I think you are supposed to deflate the bag before setting the trailer down
Gday Brandon,
Interesting to know about the Gen Y hitches. Ours did not work at all.
I replaced the Shocker hitch bumper bush with longer tougher rubber one. This started to slow the hitch movement down sooner, helping prevent it from “ bottoming” out so much. It worked well for us 👍
Cheers
Well-presented video mate, subscription earnt.
I have a 5.6 tonne truck/mobile home (rated to 8.5) with a 3.5 tonne enclosed trailer (workshop) on behind, I rarely go off bitumen roads.
Do you know what size Airfsafe would suit my use, or is it a question I should be asking them?
Thanks, and glad you liked it.
I believe a class 6 hitch would suit ( the same hitch as we have 3.5 to 4.5t), but it is best to speak with AirSafe to confirm this.
The hitch down from this size does not have the shock absorbers on it ( I think that they may be able to be fitted). I think that the shock absorbers are one of the most important features for us, to control the hitch movement.
Cheers, karl
What size Tow bar do you run.
I am building a Fuso Canter full GVM and am thinking going 4.5t Towbar for longevity as we will be travelling full time as well.
Eventually. lol
Gday Ned,
We have a 4.5t rated tow bar.
Cheers
Hi Karl , love the review. We’re about to buy an NPS . We will be towing a boat weighing about 1 ton . We have been looking at numerous hitches and now we are wondering what we should buy . Just wondering What would be your recommendation? Cheers
We would recommend the shocker hitch, without a doubt if that is all you intend to tow. It is easily adjustable via the airbag pressure, to suit your tow ball weight. Cheers Karl and Katty
@@nowhereboundtouring Thanks for reply, much appreciated. Any recommendations where to purchase one . We looked on line and do wonder if there are Chinese copies , much cheaper but we do wonder if they may not be as good . Regards Liz
Hi Liz,
I assume you like the Shocker Hitch.
Phone Roger, 0457814997. He is easy to deal with and the direct Australian importer for Shocker Hitch based in lower QLD. He will be able to send it to you.
Mention that we put you onto him and he may help you out with a good price… it’s worth a try.
Cheers, karl
Thanks again Karl . We are about to receive our truck so the info we can get helps . Another question if you don’t mind , what system do you use for airing up your tyres after deflation? Maybe a review on your channel ? Cheers Liz
Hey Liz,
Feel free to give me a call if you prefer 0419470650.
We had lots of issues with our original compressors. We had an ARB twin unit. It was rebuilt twice and replaced under warranty once.
We have done a video on our new compressor ( almost one year old now). We have a compressor from Jed Air in QLD. This was the only compressor I could find on the market that was good enough to handle the truck tyre pressures. It is actually industrial rated ( and is priced accordingly). It is so good that I still smile when I use it ( I only cringed when I first payed, for it after that it is all smiles). It takes less 7 min to pump up the truck tyres. Truck and van, 15 min. The ARB took longer than 45min for just the truck, and almost melted every time.
Cheers, karl
Air glide towbar hitch, especially for a truck,
👍, I have never tried one.
Cheers, karl
Hey Guys great video, quick question did the Air Safe Hitch make any difference to the rear tyre wear? Cheers Jonno
Hi Jonno,
The hitch made no noticeable difference, but out tyre alignment did. We did use to have even wearing tyres on the back. After we had a front end alignment and a rear axle adjustment, we now have uneven wear on the back.
Cheers, karl
@@nowhereboundtouring Cheers mate, we seem to get uneven wear with the van on, were up to 110psi (rear truck tyres) which seems to help, i was thinking the jolt of the van may have contributed. PS were running Founders tyres.
Hey Jonno,
I assume the extra 400kg from your van will exaggerate any issues that are already there.
What about F350 dually, what would you recommend. Wow not the gen-y.
Gday Mark,
I would assume a F350 would perform great, but it is way out of our price range. Spare parts are harder to Source in AUS ( and way higher cost) and their reliability is lower.
Gen y, why would I recommend it, its performance was way lower than a standard hitch. Have a look at our video on the hitch. The un edited video says it all.
I am happy to elaborate on our experiences to any one that would I like further information, on the four hitches we have used.
Cheers,
Karl
Did you see on the gen y they have a 500 mile break in period?
🤣
@@nowhereboundtouring not sure why that's funny. It has a break in period for the torsion bars.
@@nowhereboundtouring also if you had the 16k gen y and tongue weight was under 1200lbs it won't work. You need 10k gen y for that.
@ridge69
Yes correct, that is why we had the correct hitch for the tongue weight. There is no way that hitch was going to work. The video says it all. The Gen Y was trying to rip/ twist the tow bar off the back of the truck.
Just a bad design.
Cheers
@@nowhereboundtouring that's too bad. Just got one. Mine works wonderfully. 30ft 7950lb travel trailer has a 850lb tongue weight. Got the 10k boss hitch
You can see the towbar of the truck flexing.
Hi Peter,
Yes I agree, it did not look good at all.
Hi Karl and Katty.
Good informative video for folks towing with vehicles with heavier suspensions. We believe all the products you reviewed have their place in the, saving the van and smoothing the ride market.
Just to clear up a couple of things about ShockerHitch, the weight of an air hitch is 18kgs and the current price is $1345.00 plus postage from Brisbane. The airline guard, ShockerHitch Aust. made for Australian conditions and it is supplied as an optional extra. We don't have a guard for the airbags but a couple of customers have made their own, we have only replaced two punctured airbags in 17 years.
Keep Bounding around to Nowhere. 😃🤠
Roger & Val
Hi Rodger & Val,
I hope you are both well.
The shocker hitch is a great product, and it worked well for us. From experience, I would highly recommend it for anyone towing. I have seen the airline guard ( although it looked a little light for our application). The hitch had very little wear evident after 3.5 years on the road 👍
Cheers, karl
straight up show no bull
Thanks Mark, we like it like that 👍
One thing I am not entirely clear on with these air-ride hitches is why they offer them in different weight ratings at all. The Gen-Y torsion hitches it makes perfect sense how they have lighter rated ones and heavier rated ones to suit different trailering needs, and is in fact one of the big reasons I don't prefer them for my specific application where I haul different trailers all the time, some of them light, some medium, and some heavy tongue weights. Theoretically shouldn't the air bag hitches be infinitely adjustable to suit any trailer from light to heavy just by adjusting the bag pressure? Assuming the trailer does not exceed the design limitations of the hitch of course. For example why does Shocker need to offer a 12k rated AND a 20k rated version of the same hitch? Isn't the 20k rated hitch also a 12k rated hitch, so why bother making the lighter one? Air Safe does the same thing I notice by offering different tongue weight rated versions...but wait a minute. Isn't that what the adjustable air bag is for?
Gday Brendon,
With our shocker hitch it has two ratings, 3.5t and 4.5t. The rating is determined by what coupling it has fitted. A 25mm shaft ( on a 50mm tow ball is only rated to 3.5t in Aus) a 32mm shaft is rated to 4.5t. These are maximum ratings.
The Airsafe hitch has maximum design load ratings. You can always operate a hitch at a lower load, but most people would not want to pay for a much larger, higher rated and heavier hitch when they don’t need it. Hence all the different sizes and ratings. The same with the Gen Y, except it has a minimum weight for it to perform correctly as it will be too stiff to operate.
Cheers, karl
@@nowhereboundtouring Yes with the Gen-Y torsion deals, they are not adjustable like an air hitch is. It could either be too stiff to flex at all, or not stiff enough and get smooshed all the way down to the bottom of the travel and not have any left underneath of it. I have one now and that seems to be the main problem because I move trailers that are light, medium, and heavy on the tongue weights and it does not work as well with all of them. Also it moves the ball mount too far back in my opinion which takes more weight off the steering axle. I'm going to try the HD Shocker and I bet I will be a little happier with it.
Yes, you are correct. We found the Airsafe hitch to be far better than any of the others we had. It has more than double the movement of the shocker hitch, which was the issue we had to resolve.
Wow that Gen-Y hitch was horrible. It's like the bolts were so tight it was one solid unit.
Yes, and Gen Y actually left a few comments. They were not happy but the truth is the truth.
Cheers👍
Hi Ken, we appreciate a good review that is unbiased but yours just seems like an advertisement for one particular brand which others seem to have picked up on already.
A few things, firstly which dealer did you purchase our Gen-Y hitch from? We want to reach out to them and say thank you for upholding a fantastic return policy on a used product - good on them.
Secondly, we’d like to educate them and everyone else that our hitches do need a few hundred km’s to begin to work from new as the way the torsion rubbers are inserted frozen means they need to loosen a little to be working optimally. We are concerned that whoever you bought it off was not aware of that so we’d love to offer them some more training.
Also, thanks for the positive support from everyone else. We don’t need to defend our products as there are soo many of you that are happy with the hitches, we love hearing your kind words seeing your videos ✌🏼
Hi Gen Y,
We just say it how it is.
If your product happened to be the best performing for our application, then we would pass that information onto our viewers.
I have checked your website but could not find any information regarding the “ loosening up period” . Can you please forward the information to us regarding this, so we can make reference to it.
Cheers, Katty & karl.
@@nowhereboundtouring Cant say I saw any information on the box or inside regarding any " Loosening up" period either. Mine also seems a bit stiff and its had around 8 months work full time. Think I might chuck the go pro on the back and get some video of it like you did just to see where we are at.
Hi Alan,
A bit stiff after 8 months of use does not sound great. I would be interested in what you find with your hitch.
Cheers, karl
An interesting comment if this is indeed coming from an official representative of Gen-Y Hitches. Did you run this past your engineers and lawyers before posting it I wonder?
Starting with your second point first, I would respectfully suggest that the education needed is by your engineers to your marketing staff. The 'freezing process' used to make it easier to install torsion rubbers has no residual effect on their torque resistance once their fitting temperature normalises. Shore is shore, and whilst durometer readings will decrease gradually over time with wear, the effect of the 'freezing process' is only during assembly.
Further on that same point: If you are suggesting your product needs a 'running in period', do you actually provide written advice to customers to this effect and suggest their caravan/trailer may not be fully protected by your product during this time? No-one who has commented seems to have received or seen such advice. What happens if their caravan/trailer or tow vehicle is damaged due to shock loadings during the 'running in period'? Would they be able to make a warranty claim for damage resulting from the hitch not fully protecting the tow combination since this 'running in period' doesn't seem easy to find documented anywhere?
On the first point of 'congratulating the dealer who took back the used product'. In Australia we have consumer protection laws and the dealer simply complied with those laws. Are you suggesting you need to congratulate a dealer for complying with Australian consumer laws? Complying with Australian consumer law is not optional, so it makes me wonder why the congratulations are needed - is it the exception rather than the rule for your onsellers? If so, perhaps you should be more choosy about who sells your product.
Finally, I don't see anyone suggesting this is a video marketing one brand, rather they are just pointing out that their hitches work as they should. Those comments could easily be construed by a reasonable and prudent person to be further evidence the hitch the NBT crew were using was perhaps not functioning correctly just as the video evidence showed. Looking at how badly the drawbar was flexing where it joined the caravan frame rails, I doubt I would have any problem having the particular hitch they purchased declared 'not reasonably fit for purpose' in a hearing under Australian consumer law.
Perhaps, rather than 'not defending your product', it might be better to reach out and get more information and try to determine why that particular hitch might not have been functioning correctly. Was it something unique to the NBT configuration? Given the comments of others who say their hitches can clearly be seen functioning, and the NBT hitch clearly isn't, it might be better to try to find out why. In my humble opinion, suggesting 'bias' is a lazy way out if you really do stand behind your product. If it were my product I would be doing all I could to find out why it wasn't working in this instance.
We agree completely…. It is a shame that Gen Y has not provided any more feed back.
Cheers, Katty & karl
The gen y is stressing the tow gear massively
Hi Shawn,
Yep, it didn’t perform well 😬
Not enough weight for the gen y to work
4.5t rated Gen Y hitch with a 4.1t van attached. I’m sure that would be in their specified weight range for the hitch we used.
Cheers, karl
@nowhereboundtouring I'm interested to know what hitch tongue weight was? There is supposedly a guage on the side of the gen y that tells you when it is loaded with enough tongue weight. Did u use that guage when test this video? Or get weighed on scale to see how much actual tongue weight you have? Thanks!
@Tech4Ten
Hi,
Our tongue weight was 430kg. The Gen y hitch we had was suited to this weight and a max trailer weight of 4500kg.
Cheers
Be careful attaching tow straps to tow hitches to recover vehicles. The hitch can break and come flying and kill.
Yes, totally correct 👍
My guess on the Gen-Y hitch you used was too heavy duty maybe? Not enough tongue weight applied by your trailer?
Unfortunately, The hitch was the correct one for the trailer and tongue weight it was operating at about 80% of its maximum capacity and well within the Gen Y recommend spec. It just did not work.
Cheers