Remove your hitch when not towing?

[NewieCamper]

I see lots of cars with a shin smasher on the back. Personally I prefer to remove my hitch and stow it elsewhere until I need to tow. Made even more sense when we had a box trailer with a standard ball and a poly block for the camper. Switching cars, switch the hitch. Also found that when I bought a second hand tow bar for the navara the hitch had been in for so long it was not coming out without an oxy torch. All the road grime over the years had got in around it and it was stuck solid.  I figure keeping the hitch out allows the receiver to stay clean and easy to remove if required.

What are your thoughts? Take it off when not in use? Just remove the ball/coupling? Keep it on as a rear bumper protector in case someone behind decides not to stop soon enough?

[Bird]

I actually thought there was a law about removing them when not in use..

you need another option in your poll...

'i leave it there CBF removing it.

[Ben.Archer]

Can we get an extra option for - I remove the hitch but leave the (removable) receiver attached. 

[NewieCamper]

Bird: option 5
Ben: ran out of options!

[Traveller]

I voted yes, but there is a proviso.

When home I take it out and throw it in the shed. When away touring it stays on for the trip.

[Bird]

Interesting
http://www.asshat.com.au/moronsptyltd/Page.asp?PageID=558

[Pete79]

Mine usually only gets taken off when we're going out wheeling on the harder tracks.
Personally I couldn't really care less about other peoples shins, but I do get annoyed when the hitch drags along the ground wrecking the awesome departure angle on the JK...

Not to mention having to get dirty while removing the hitch out on the tracks so I can use the receiver to attached the snatch strap and drag out another stuck toyota....

[Moxley]

Mine usually only gets taken off when we're going out wheeling on the harder tracks.
Personally I couldn't really care less about other peoples shins, but I do get annoyed when the hitch drags along the ground wrecking the awesome departure angle on the JK...

Not to mention having to get dirty while removing the hitch out on the tracks so I can use the receiver to attached the snatch strap and drag out another stuck toyota....

I say leave it in for the so and so's who are happy to run up your bum while on their mobile or park too close behind you.

[Rumpig]

I say leave it in for the so and so's who are happy to run up your bum while on their mobile or park too close behind you.

a mate had some young fella in his borrowed girl friends sedan run up the back of his fourby whilst he had the tow hitch left in....reckons it opened the front of the vehicle and destroyed the radiator etc in the car, yet he only had a few scratches on his fourby. He drove off after swapping details, young fella who was apparently driving like a nob had plenty of explaining to do to his girl friend and a vehicle going to a holding yard on a tow truck...lol.
I leave mine in, it doesn't really stick out with the way my canopy is set up, and happy for it to help aid protection from those behind not paying attention or driving as they should.

[SEADOO]

I will usually leave it on. But with the addition of a nudge bar, I had remove it to fit in the shed.

[Ben.Archer]

Years ago I had something similar.  I was waiting at a set of lights, and some girl to busy being a ftard on tardbook ran straight into the back of me doing 50.

The brand new falcon she was driving went right under the rear of my lifted Prado.  My tow ball punched a hole through her bonnet diagonally piercing her radiator and only stopping after it had torn the engine of its mounts. 

The only damage to my car was some cherry red paint on the tow ball.

Hers was a total write off, especially after I added insult to injury and drove off her car bringing large sections of wiring loom, radiator and bonnet with me.   

[Pete79]

a mate had some young fella in his borrowed girl friends sedan run up the back of his fourby whilst he had the tow hitch left in....reckons it opened the front of the vehicle and destroyed the radiator etc in the car, yet he only had a few scratches on his fourby. He drove off after swapping details, young fella who was apparently driving like a nob had plenty of explaining to do to his girl friend and a vehicle going to a holding yard on a tow truck...lol.
I leave mine in, it doesn't really stick out with the way my canopy is set up, and happy for it to help aid protection from those behind not paying attention or driving as they should.

Wasn't a evo was it?
Our young parts guy at work wrote off his misses hot little Mitsi a while back.
Driving like a tool, rear ended a forby and made a real mess of it. Forby drove off with a scratch on one under tray tool box, evo left on a tilt tray.

[gronk]

Take it off as soon as I get home from camping. The 4wd doesn't fit in the garage with it on !!

[GeoffA]

I remove the hitch before someone else does.
It's not needed for protection. The Kaymar rear bar does a good job of that.

[Cruiser 105Tvan]

I'm with Geoff A on this, but I do get a bit forgetful sometimes.
I can get all worked up and mount a 50mm ball there, a VC AT3500 tow pin, or a billet recovery point.
Or just leave it empty.
Even if I leave any of them in the socket, none of them stick out further than the spare tyre on the swing arm.

[Snapman007]

Interesting
http://www.asshat.com.au/moronsptyltd/Page.asp?PageID=558

PMSL. 

[briann532]

Interesting
http://www.asshat.com.au/moronsptyltd/Page.asp?PageID=558

Harold screwloose is a twit!!!!

[Brodie Tas]

I leave mine in my ute has a trailer on it 90% of the time so couldn't be bothered taking it out, also I was rear ended by a sedan a couple of years ago wrote there car of and the tow ball took the impact not a scratch on mine 

[Black Diamond]

Mine comes straight off when at camp or back home. Not interested in smashing a knee cap. Just doesn't make sense leaving it on in my book 

[Rumpig]

Wasn't a evo was it?
Our young parts guy at work wrote off his misses hot little Mitsi a while back.
Driving like a tool, rear ended a forby and made a real mess of it. Forby drove off with a scratch on one under tray tool box, evo left on a tilt tray.

no idea of vehicle involved...it was a few years ago on Mccullough Rd at Suunybank, outside the Shell servo near Sunnybank Union club.

[Ragman]

I'm too lazy to take if off, but for those who take the hitch out where do you keep it, in the vehicle or in the shed?

I have been caught out when unexpectedly need to tow something and not having the hitch.

[NewieCamper]

I usually keep mine in the shed and have been caught once. Loaded the bike rack into my wife's car in the morning, then rode the rest of the family to dinner then had to leave the bikes because I couldn't put the bike rack on to bring everything home - no hitch.

[GeoffA]

I'm too lazy to take if off, but for those who take the hitch out where do you keep it, in the vehicle or in the shed?

I have been caught out when unexpectedly need to tow something and not having the hitch.

....in the car, in one of the rear drawers.

[Fathom]

I leave mine on.
(Ball hitch for the box trailer)
Have had two cars (that I am aware of- cause I was sitting in the car.) hit the back of my car while parked in a car park in the city.
They had a nice ding. I had nothing. Without the hitch on, I'd have dings in my rear bumper.
I'm happy for idiots to hit the hitch rather than my car.

I only change it if I'm going 4wding, then I grab the recovery hitch from the drawers and put that on.
Or going camping and put the treg hitch on.
So it gets changed regularly.
But the default is the ball hitch.

[Ben.Archer]

The sheer fact that that twit Scrubby complains about them being left in and the safety aspect of leaving them in has me planning to put my ball hitch back in.  I have to remove the Mc Hitch Auto Hitch coupler when not in use as it sends the reversing sensors nuts having such a large lump of metal behind them..