Mud-club
Vehicle & Technical => Defender => Topic started by: Mark_Solesbury on November 27, 2007, 21:25:14
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Hiya
Ive just got a nato hitch and am wondering about how to mount it..
My 90 has one of these on it...
(http://www.dixonbate.co.uk/assets/images/adjustbar.jpg)
i dont know whether to remove it completely and fix the nato straight to the xmember, or fit the nato to this one - at least i can easily put a ball back on if i need to.......
Thoughts?
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I used to have my NATO on the crossmember (as supplied from the MOD) but when I wanted to ability to swop between hitches I fitted a DB kit (as your photo) and carry three plates, each with a different hitch on.
Ok I could have got it down to two plates by using a combined pin/ball but I already had the separate ball & pin hitches and plates are so cheap (£15 new and around £5 S/H) it was easier & cheaper to use what I had.
The Sankey rides perfectly behind the slightly lower hitch.
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stuck mine straight on the crossmember.
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A NATO trailer will want the hitch as high as possible, it's probably why all Defenders get the reinforced holes in the rear crossmember, you rarely see a MOD Defender with a tow-hitch right?
Plus if you want a 50mm ball and NATO you need them to be a long way apart, 50mm ball should be about 16v inches from the floor, the NATOD wants to just miss the bottom of your back door :wink:
Otherwise put them both on removeable saddle slike in your picture, but a Sankey will sit really nose down.
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My NATO hitch sits just a couple of inches lower on the DB hitch than it did on the crossmember and it makes no difference to the ride.
My Sankey runs on 7.50's rather than the normal 6.50's (a mod I did over 10-years ago when I was running it behind my 101) and it still sits quite level even though the vehicle isn't lifted.
One advantage of using a DB hitch is that it puts the NATO hitch a few inches further behind the vehicle which means I can now open the side-hinged tailgate easier as before it used to get too close to the trailer.