'95-'97 are virtually the same truck. But yes, 21 years makes a big difference, but I put my hitch on about 10 years ago now. It's the heaviest duty one they made for the Ranger (again, at the time). I have a feeling if it has the bend in it so it'll contour around the tire, it'll be fine.
Thanks. I know. I found one with a bend and it will work fine. I don't like the looks of it although it will have to do if its all I can find. My spare has a hinged bar that swings down with a 19 mm fastener that points towards the back that holds it on. The curved bar on the curt hitch just clears the fastener so you can't remove it with a tire iron or socket wrench. You have to use a box end wrench.
Other years of the ranger just had a plate in the center of the wheel that bolted up to some structure above it. You had to man handle the tire to get it out. The positive was that the structure could be relocated forward a bit and you could move the tire forward a bit to accommodation any interference. I could relocate mine also but not without making a big project out of it.
I would like a class 4 hitch and have found that there is nothing currently sold that's a class 4 for my 21 year old truck. I don't have time to go looking for an old one at a junk yard. I've looked on ebay and there are no used class 4 hitches for sale for my truck
So I'm stuck with only a few choices. etrailers has a 3 or 4 and most of them say they won't work with the spare.
The point of my post was to find out if there was anything else out there that I would work that I might have missed. I'd rather not spend over $100 to get something that I don't like that doesn't quite do the job (special wrench needed).