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Tilt-A-Hitch Makes Trailer Loading Easy
Instead of buying an expensive tilting trailer, Lane Smith designed and built a tilting trailer hitch to load low-clearance classic cars on his trailer. Since welding up that first prototype five years ago, he's patented the Tilt-A-Hitch. He says it's valuable for three primary uses.
  "First and foremost is the ability to tilt any trailer," Smith says. "The second is the ability to connect almost any height trailer to any height truck with 12 different towing positions over 14 in. of travel. The third use is the ability to shift weight and adjust a load simply by changing the pin position."
  To tilt the back of a trailer down, you lower the trailer jack to support the load. Then take out the Tilt-A-Hitch pin and move it to a higher hole. Crank the jack up and the trailer back tilts down for easy loading and unloading.
  Smith initially built the tilting hitch to haul his '32 Coupe on a trailer behind his Kenworth motor home. Despite adding boards and blocks to extend the ramp, the angle was too steep to load the coupe without damaging it. Tilt-A-Hitch solved the problem.
  The hitch works well for load leveling or to put more weight on the vehicle's hitch to avoid fishtailing with heavy loads.
  Smith has even put the hitch on horse trailers for horses that are nervous about backing out of a trailer.
  "I overbuilt it to be bullet proof," Smith says. The U.S.-made hitch is made of 1/4 and 5/16-in. steel, and mounts to any 2-in. receiver. It has a powder coat finish, weighs 32 lbs. and is rated for 8,000-lb. loads. Cost is about $160 through Smith's website and at dealerships. Smith is interested in adding more dealers.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lane Smith, Tilt-A-Hitch, P.O. Box 27366, Knoxville, Tenn. 37927 (ph 618 616-1790; Smithmgmt@aol.com; www.tiltahitch.com).


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2009 - Volume #33, Issue #2