Ring & pintle hitch question

[PILOON]

Another point is that generally the vehicle that is hauling a pintle hitch trailer is so noisy in itself that the driver simply can't hear the noise that you do.

Think a 12 wheel dump truck towing a flatbed loaded with an excavator.

(like a big Cummings with air brakes and perhaps a Jackob brake system as well as a 12 yard dump box that rattles and clunks over every bump in the road, and that not counting on the loud exhaust )

 

[DK35vince]

My experience, some light trucks with pintle hitch have some slop and can move and bang around a little..
My work truck (tandem axle) I pull a 40,000 trailer with pintle moving equipment every day and it fits tight. There is not slop, no banging, nothing.

 

[TomSeller]

In my experience they only bang around when the trailer is loaded too far back and there is not enough weight on the hitch. When there isn't enough weight on the hitch they can be unnerving and a reminder to stop and re look at how the trailer is loaded/hitched. Height of the pintle can play into weight distribution as well.

 

[j.lwelding]

i love pintle style hitches, more forgiving when hooking up, I find that with proper tongue weight they are not noisy, I have 4 trailers now and two with pintles, and am going to convert the other two to pintles as well.

 

[mcfarmall]

Thanks for all the helpful replies!

 

[dickfoster]

Being legal for over the road use and being meant for it are two separate things. I think Dick was trying to say that they were originally designed for off road use due to the horizontal articulation they provide. Pintle hooks are noisier than a ball because the eye can move back and forth in the pintle. Its not dramatic and not bothersome; its not like its back there banging around as if somone's hitting your truck with a hammer. With anything a common pickup can tow, I don't think "additional tongue weight" is an issue. You can get a ball to handle anything a pintle will, within that trucks weight limits. Now if you happen to own a deuce and a half or a 5K that would be a different issue. I pulled a pintle hooked trailer through a couple of trails in moab that a ball wouldn't have survived.

Rock crawling with a trailer is for crazy people. I saw a guy try to get a trailer though gatekeeper on the Rubicon once with a pintle hook setup it. It took him a long long time and wasn't a whole lotta fun for him nor was it for the crowd backed up behind him trying to get on the trail. Backing up isn't exactly easy or straight forward in tight quarters over three and four foot boulders. Don't know why you'd want to pull a trailer on trails that take a single day to run anyway. In Moab, I always stay in a motel because every trail that I've run there can be done in a day or less. Sometimes we can knock out two or more a day depending on level of difficulty and length. Although I can see pulling a trailer make you take a lot longer. I pack a lot of gear but never needed a trailer, even a week long trip.

 

[adventure bob]

We tend to go out on the longer trails, camp, and finish in the morning. Start all over again. Mostly due to heat. Drug the trailer as a test. The golden crack was definitely interesting and would not have been doable without a pintle on a pivot. It did do a lot of dragging and it does take some skill to be able to wheel a 6 wheel articulated vehicle with getting completely hung up. Backing up, or do or die obstacles add a whole 'nother level of complexity.

 

[Tomtint]

I have the pintle rings on my equipment trailers. They are noisy and do bang when stopping / starting, as well as when cornering after a stop. Weight distribution makes no difference. There is about 1/2-3/4" where the ring can move.

 

[dickfoster]

We tend to go out on the longer trails, camp, and finish in the morning. Start all over again. Mostly due to heat. Drug the trailer as a test. The golden crack was definitely interesting and would not have been doable without a pintle on a pivot. It did do a lot of dragging and it does take some skill to be able to wheel a 6 wheel articulated vehicle with getting completely hung up. Backing up, or do or die obstacles add a whole 'nother level of complexity.

LOL yeah I can imagine unless the trailer had some pretty big tires. Go to Pritchett and try rocker knocker with a trailer sometime. Of course there are many other interesting obstacles in Moab that would pose a big problem with a trailer, I couldn't imagine doing Escalator with one. It was interesting enough when I did it IFS but was much easier after the axle swap with larger tires.
Did you get a chance to do Lion's Back before they closed it.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Any play will make you a better driver as you learn to throttle properly to deal with it. IMHO, a pintle is alot more secure than the normal BP hitch when you get into heavier applications. The only thing about the lighter duty ones are the four bolts holding them on. I have seen grade eight's shear due to rough roads and not overloading.