After our review of the Tow-N-Stow™ trailer, Greg Hopper, VP, Marketing and Product Development, Williams Innovations, LLC, extended an invitation to me to visit their Corporate Office & Technology Center in Durham, NC. At this research and development facility, Greg gave me a walking tour of how theTeleSwivel™ hitch became “the fastest, easiest, and safest way to connect a trailer”; he also put together a hands-on demo of their full line of products for military applications.
No sooner had I left my car, the folks at Williams went right to work with a demo trailer of military hitches and landing leg products. The hitch and landing leg combination work like an Erector set, running in high gear. It was like watching a Monster Truck competition – big, powerful, a few bumps and grinds, and fast-moving machinery running a rugged course. Watching their videos made me think about the need for speed and safety when serving in harm’s way.
The trailer stability and support technology of the TeleSwivel™ hitch all work in concert with each other; it reduces the strain of aligning heavy equipment, helps minimize potential injury to the operator(s), and speeds the transfer of trailers from resting state to mobility; release is just as fast and efficient as the hookup. Fewer operators are required to perform the work, and the amount of lift and release is greatly reduced in the task at hand. You can see safety as paramount in the entire operation; both in design, and in the use of the product.
It’s from this foundation of strength, safety, and design that the TeleSwivel™ for consumers and commercial businesses came to be. An evolutionary step of sorts, Williams discovered the same time-consuming task of lining up the vehicle with the trailer existed for businesses and consumers, too. It would be a matter of downsizing the heft of the military hitch to meet the needs of these markets.
The TeleSwivel™ Model 200 (MSRP: $349.00) is rated for consumer and commercial towing up to 10,000 lbs. The Model 300 (MSRP: $799.00) is well-suited to a commercial operation that requires a rating of 14,000 lbs GTW. From the average homeowner towing recreational trailers or boats, to the commercial operation like a rental equipment dealer, the obvious advantages to the TeleSwivel™ is the potential of a one-person operation. Rather than having someone guide the alignment of the ball to the trailer mount, or get in and out of the vehicle a hundred times, you can aim in a general vicinity with your mirrors, then adjust the hitch to the proximity of the trailer. The other benefit is you can avoid the sore back syndrome from feeling perky enough to manhandle the trailer onto the more traditional, rigid mount hitch, only to find yourself bent over or not moving well for weeks to come.
The mechanism for moving the TeleSwivel™, whose movement can be categorized as an articulating or proximity hitch, is simple enough. Assuming you have inserted the adapter into any 2” receiver (the Model 300 will fit a 2 1⁄2-inch receiver with an adapter sleeve), you back up in the general range of your trailer mount, release the hitch’s extension plate by pulling on a lever, telescope and swivel the hitch and ball to the trailer’s connection, then back up your vehicle to ‘lock’ back into the position for your journey.
No more waving of hands, second and third attempts, or yelling and shouting “left, right, or stop” – or the occasional, “Oh, no!” (some other, stronger phrases come to mind, too). If ladies are smiling at this point, I am guessing it’s two-fold: they are either smiling as a reflection of the experience they’ve had with men and boat trailers at the lake, or at the notion that now they have an easier way to hook-up trailers on their own, without having to deal with moving the trailer - or another back-up attempt. The TeleSwivel™ is a great gift idea for both men and women!
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