Tow bar pin - too small?

[tsch993]

Just checking if anyone else has noticed that in the genuine Nissan Navara D40 tow package, the tow hitch is too wide to allow a standard sized pin? I can't get the lock through on my new recovery shackle, it's too short.

Seems the car came with the genuine tow bar and ball merely secured in with a nut on the underside too.

 

[GunMentalGrey]

Bugs me that what should be a standard type part isn't. The hitch from my new d40 towbar doesn't fit our r51, it's marginally too big and the pin holes don't line up anyway.

When I lost the original hitch for the R51 (left on side of the road) I had to lop about 50mm off the back of the hitch from the forester I had at the time.

Bought another hitch to replace the lost one and had to have a second hole drilled in it as the pin holes weren't far enough from the ball end to fit into the forester bar.

Makes it a PIA to switch between regular tow ball, poly block hitch and bike rack despite having 3 50mm hitches.

So not really surprising in my experience.

 

[Old.Tony]

For my 2009 D40 I ordered the Hayman Reese hitch because at the time, the "Nissan" hitch was a 3-bolt affair (since replaced under recall) which didn't support the use of a WDH. My HR hitch uses standard 50mm receivers and I've used snatch blocks, WDH heads and normal tow ball mounts (Nissan and others) in mine.

This means that Nissan must have moved away from HR again? I wonder who they're getting to manufacture their hitches now? And why, Mr Nissan, did someone not check that they were being manufactured to a standard?

 

[tsch993]

Well the guy who sold it to me reckons it has fit for everyone else including other Navaras he's sold to.
I just can't get it through, the hitch is too wide and it misses by probably 5mm at most. Incredibly frustrating now I have to get a replacement pin that's rated high enough for recovery. I'll look at some lockable HR ones.