Top 8 Hitch Accessories Holiday Gift Guide

By Larry Edsall

With the holiday season upon us, here's our guide to the Top 8 Hitch Accessories for the truck owners in your life:

No. 8: The Ad Hitch ($4,995)

The company’s slogan is "The Power of Driving Sales." The driving is literal, because Ad Hitch is an electric-advertising billboard that plugs into a trailer hitch.

Ad Hitch was created by three partners in a company in Murray, Utah, that operated billboard trucks. After a while, they realized those trucks were cumbersome, required hiring drivers — and paying for their insurance — and, quite frankly, were only accessible to customers with significant advertising budgets.

Ad Hitch CEO Nat Bottomly said they asked themselves how they could make the process easier.

The answer was the Ad Hitch, which has louvers that rotate to show different messages and an available radio transmitter so those messages can suggest that drivers tune their radios to a short-distance frequency to hear more of your message.

The unit retails for $4,995, which business development manager Jay Palmer says makes it affordable for small and medium businesses (or civic groups) as well as larger companies.

The Ad Hitch (www.adhitch.com) has brake and turn-signal lights and weighs 70-75 pounds.

No. 7: Extend-A-Truck ($129)

As pickup trucks get longer passenger compartments, they also get shorter beds. Thus when Larry Darby’s father loaded his fishing boat into his new pickup truck and headed off for the lake, the boat slid out of the bed as the truck headed up a hill.

Darby started tinkering around and welded together what looked like a football goal post with a base that locked into the trailer hitch on his dad’s truck. Next time his father went fishing, he was stopped and asked where he’d gotten that thing.

Thus was born the Extend-A-Truck, which can support the back end of a boat, ladder or other long cargo at either the height of the bed or the roof of the cab.

For more information, visit www.extendatruck.com.

No. 6: Hitch Basket ($149.95)

No more room in your bed to haul presents? The Hitch Basket was designed for a 1.25-inch ATV receiver, but it also fits a 2-inch truck receiver.

The Hitch Basket is produced by Woodshed Technologies (www.woodshedtech.com), which also makes the Ramp Rack and XTen-D-Gate. Hitch Baskets are available in two sizes: 14x14x41 or 24x24x41.

No. 5: HitchSafe ($69.95)

This all-metal device turns your trailer hitch into a secure place to store keys, cash, credit cards or you driver’s license while you’re away from your truck. It includes a cover that hides the combination lock so people won’t know what it is.

The device locks into the hitch via sliding bars that can only be released from inside the safe compartment, which is accessed by a four-digit code you select.

For information, see www.hitchsafe.com.

No. 4: Freedom Grill ($379)

Scott Salter and his buddies loved to tailgate at San Diego Chargers games, but when his wife got a new SUV she refused to let him put that dirty, smelly grill into the cargo area. So Salter got busy and figured out a way to attach a grill on a swing-out arm attached to the SUV’s trailer hitch. That was the first Freedom Grill.

That was also several years ago. Now Freedom Grill has become such a popular trailer hitch accessory that we found this one at the General Motors display, attached to the back of a customized Saturn Vue Hybrid.

No. 3: Hammaka Sport Chairs ($129.99-$299.99)

Hanging around this holiday? If so, you're going to want to do so in Hammaka's Sport Chairs. Standard chairs come in a variety of colors, while Sport Chairs are imprinted with your favorite university's logo, like Michigan or Penn State. They're perfect for kicking it after you've unhitched your Freedom Grill at the pregame tailgate. Just don't eat too much fruitcake — they only support up to 250 pounds each.

Hammaka sells the Trailer Hitch Stand-Alone for $129.99 or with two Sport Chairs included for $299.99. You can find out more on their website.

No. 2: Deer Hanger ($195-$315)

Our hitch accessory gift guide isn't just for people, it's for nature's creatures, too. After a hard day romping through the fields (or a long night delivering presents), this deer hanger is perfect for helping sleeping deer return to their homes in the forest or the north pole. Shhh.

No. 1: Hitch Critters ($129.99-$299.99)

Hitch Critters are a cross between a Tickle-me-Elmo and a bobble-head doll. The various styles include a deer, duck and horse. They attach themselves rather uncomfortably to a 2-inch hitch ball. The fish, as Willie Nelson so eloquently once said, looks like it’s trying to “suck the chrome off a trailer hitch." There is no mechanism to secure or lock the critters. Officials suggest using the modern replacement for baling wire: tie downs. But we’re still trying to wonder who would want to steal one.

The critters come alive when the brakes are applied, flopping around or waving their paws. Some have target symbols and red lights that illuminate like a third brake light. This will surely provide a great show for people traveling behind Hitch Critters coming down a mountain pass.

Bonus Gift: Truck Antlers

OK, these antlers for your truck don’t fit into the trailer hitch, but they are the latest product from Hitch Critters.

Truck Antlers fit into a vehicle’s windows so, as the brochure puts it, “everyone will know that you’ve got the best rack in town.”