Educate Me on Pintle Hitch

I am looking at a tractor hauling trailer with a pintle ring hitch. I have never owned anything like that before so would need to get the receiver for my truck. Is there different sizes or ratings I need to be aware of ? Do these hitch types bang around because of the clearance in there ? It is a 14,000 lb trailer.

Yes they bang some. Yes there are different sizes. Unless you pintle ring is the largest size, any hitch should work. If it is bolted on, especially with the adjustable channel, you can usually get a ball type coupler that will bolt on to replace it. A pic of just what you have would help a lot.

pintle ring hitch makes it harder to steal.

At least keeps the honest guys honest.

Tough to find 2? receiver insert type with more than 5 ton rating. Don?t see them with weight distribution bars to get full bumper hitch tow ratings.

Did I tell you about the incident when the local septage hauler who had a fairly large back hoe tractor on a trailer behind his tanker trunk? Made it 30 miles before it came unglued and slid almost a quarter mile before it slid off the road and overturned in the ditch. Doing fine until he hit a joint in the pavement and the pintle hitch bounced off. Forgot to latch the hitch. I was a couple hundred yards away feeding the sheep. Saw the whole thing go down. Ringside seat. All I could say was, "OH SH__."

Yeah, same thing could happen with a ball hitch.

I?ve used pintle hitches for over 20 years. They keep people from borrowing your trailers, harder to steal, and the rings survive better than ball type. The do bang some but the banging can be minimized by matching the hitch and ring and not using a combination ball pintle hitch. There are different sizes so I would go to a real trailer store with knowledgeable staff. They should be able to fix you up with your needs.

This trailer is a pintle hitch we have a real pintle style hitch not the kind with the 2 5/16 ball and doesn't bang around . there is a dot spec on how much wear the ring and coupler can have beore they both need replaced . i mean the real d.o.t not the Y.T.D.O.T

...

What is your weakest link??????

What hind of truck and hitch do you have?
Most have a class 3 hitch.
While a class 3 hitch is good to 10,000 lbs that is only if you use weight distribution.
You can not use weight distribution with a pintle hitch.
So your class 3 hitch is only good to 5,000 or 6,000 lbs.
Kind of pointless to buy a 14,000 lb trailer when you only have a 6,000 lb hitch.

If you had a air supply such as air brakes you can buy a pintle hitch that has a air activated pin to apply pressure to the pintle ring and keep it from bouncing around.

I had a guy tell me that the state of Missouri will not allow a pintle hitch with a receiver hitch. He was telling the story as he was having a hitch welded to his truck,the fine was a bunch.

There are a number of manufactures that make 2" class v hitches rated up to 18,000 lbs and several heavier.

Unless you are pulling the trailer over very uneven ground I wouldn't bother with one. The pintle hitch just has more range of vertical motion.

SVCummins how heavy is that setup you have there.I'm guessing at least 24,000lbs?Don't look legal especially the axle weight on the rear truck axle.Wonder what Inkom would have to say.

The hitch on my pickup has a 2 1/2" reciever and I am rated to tow 17,500lbs from the factory.

Just a bit of history. Had a friend running a rock bucket with a pup. Pup was connected with a Pintle. No telling how many miles on it; couple hundred thousand probably. One day he comes over with the hook part and shows it to me. Right where it was forged to the mounting area...that flanged part that attaches to the truck, it had sheared right off. He was "phew" glad the state required safety chains because that thing loose, loaded or not, could have made a very bad mess.

I have seen that before and actually done in on ball bearings and their races. You can beat on steel for a long time but at some point it looses it's properties and molecularly "tears" apart. I find that tempered products are the worst. Recalling my Gantry Crane class, hooks used are required to be malleable steel, not tempered, so that they will bend, giving you a clue you have a problem, rather than snapping off when you least expect it.

Problem I see running one is the constant pounding you have to put up with as you have two oversized loops interconnected, and any horizontal or vertical movement of either end that is not in sync with the other end will bang and jerk and drive you nuts!

If you still have a factory receiver on your truck it's no big deal to upgrade to a 2-1/2" receiver.

DrawTite (Reese) makes a couple that are 2000lb tongue weight and 18000lb trailer weight WITHOUT weight distribution.

I guess I am most concerned about the banging and or clunking/jerking. It is a channel mount so I think I will convert it over to a ball and go with that. Thanks