[Shop-talk] Trailer Hitch for 2009 Toyota Corolla

[John Miller]

> Has  anybody ever seen European car hitches?  They are
> pretty common there,  because people are less likely to
> have a big SUV for hauling stuff.   They always seem to
> be of a style that is never used here:  There is  a
> single curved, tapered, forged arm that curves up and
> back from under  the rear bumper, and it has the ball
> integral with  it.

A lot of them are retractable; we've got a guy locally who retrofitted 
the Euro hitch on his E39 M5 and tows a Beverly Hillbillies-style 
trailer with it.

Since most of the tow vehicles in Europe are unit-structure, it also 
looked to be common for the hitch mechanism on the trailer to have a 
shock-absorbing function.

John.