Video Transcript for Draw-Tite Reducer Sleeve Review

Hi, everyone. Aiden here at etrailer. Today, we're gonna be taking a look at this Draw-Tite hitch reducer that will adapt your three-inch hitch down to a two-and-a-half-inch hitch. Let's check it out. Here's what that reducer sleeve will look like while it's in use. If you've got yourself a two-and-a-half-inch accessory, whether it be a pintle hook like this or a ball mount, and you wanna use it with a three-inch hitch, this is the way to do it.

Why you might want to do this is, well, maybe you got a new truck and you're taking your old ball mount from the old truck to the new one because the new one has a larger hitch. It allows you to still use the ball mount you already own. Or let's say you've got multiple trucks or maybe a fleet of vehicles that have different hitch sizes. Again, in that case, it would allow you to use the same ball mount across those different hitch sizes. So whatever your case might be, a hitch reducer is a great way to get what you already have working with the larger hitch size.

This does not include pin and clip or anything like that, it's just the reducer sleeve. So I'll pull this all out and you can see that. Here it is. Pretty basic. The one thing I will say is that this does have a 5/8-inch diameter pin hole.

Certain three-inch reducers might have a 3/4-inch diameter hole, and it's important to check what you have on your hitch. In our case today, it's a 5/8-inch diameter, so I know we're good there. And the one thing that is a little finicky is that you just have to line up more than just the one set of pin holes on your accessory. You've gotta line up the accessory and the reducer altogether to get it pinned in place, but it's really not too bad. With this one being pretty simple and small, it's not that big of a concern and it's pretty easy to get lined up.

It's a black powder-coated steel, so that'll help protect it against rust and corrosion over time. It blends in with our ball mount and the hitch perfectly fine, doesn't stick out, and since it's not anything that you're actually hooking a trailer to, I don't expect that that powder coat's gonna wear away that much. So I think it'll be pretty good for longevity. One thing you might not be thinking about, but might be a little bit annoying is any extra rattle that you might find, that's gonna be pretty normal for anything you put in your hitch to begin with, but adding a reducer sleeve just means there's now more layers with all their own tolerances. And when you combine that all together, there's just more points for movement and noise, and it might just get a bit obnoxious if you do leave your accessory in the hitch full time. If you've got the weight of a trailer on here, you're probably not gonna hear it as much. You're more than likely just gonna hear the trailer noise above all else, but with no weight on here, if you hit a speed bump or something, there's probably gonna be extra noise and it's just something to be mindful of. That's really all there is to it. These hitch reducers are gonna be pretty straightforward. Most of 'em are gonna be the same. The one thing to watch out for, like I mentioned, is just the pin hole diameter. Whether you need that 3/4-inch diameter or the 5/8-inch diameter, that'll determine which options you need to be looking at. But this was just our look at this option from Draw-Tite. Thanks for watching.