Pintle Hitch

[alldodge]

Over the years I have accumulated all kinds of hitch balls (pun intended). Have the straight 3-way, a couple 2 5/16, variations of 2 inch drops and picked up a pintle hitch some years back when needing a 10 ton Tag trailer.

Was out today moving the Tag trailer and an empty cruiser trailer to clear room for new city water line coming thru. Instead of switching from the pintle to 2 5/16 ball hitch I just dropped it on the pintle and pinned the top closed.

Agree this was an empty boat trailer but wonder if anyone has ever used a pintle to haul any boat trailer?

The pintle will fit inside the 1 7/8 thru 2 5/16 but there will be slop. Kind of thinking about what the handling would be and other possible impacts. Can find a 2 inch ball combo pintle but don't have one of those

 

[Mopie]

Seems like something to do moving trailers around on a firm surface and on a somewhat level lot.
You and I get away with some short cuts under some conditions. And then we don’t!
Specifically, the pintle probably creates a point load inside the reciever for which it was not designed. Balls and recievers and grease are designed to mate and spread the load more evenly inside the receiver.
Good Luck.

 

[H20Rat]

In addition to what Mopie said, that slop is bad... If you were to tow often with it, it would damage and eventually destroy the hitch. Every time the slop is being taken up, it is stress fracturing the receiver ball cup slightly, and that is some fairly thin metal to have a concentrated stress point. (normally it is spread out over the entire ball). Eventually a hard brake will put a hole in the back of the receiver &/or destroy the tongue mechanism.

 

[Bo4tz]

How was the pintle hitch work for you? I've been looking for new trailer hitch too. Have you tried the blue ox towing system? Would like to know your feedback. I'm also open to other recommendations

 

[alldodge]

While the pintle hitch is designed to carry heavy loads, it rattles a lot. Its a ring sitting in another ring. Agree with the other points but only to a degree.

Would not want to use the straight pintle to haul a load boat down the highway, but would use it to move it around my land. They make combo pintle/ball hitches. These combo hitches IMO are even safer for hauling because it holds the top of the ball on.

As for Ox, they appear to be like many others, and do have extensions so the trailer is connected further away from the receiver. Having it connect further away also decreases the amount of tongue weight which can be allowed

 

[jimmbo]

A pintle hitch and the trailer have to be compatible, either the trailer portion has to be able to twist around 360 degrees, or the draw bar has to a shear/break joint to prevent the trailer, in case it were to flip over, from also flipping the tow vehicle over. Of the two pictured above, the top one would definitely require the ring on the trailer to be able to spin. The lower one looks very much like the one I had on a company truck. It snapped in two when an air compression caught a wheel on a turn and flipped. It broke between where ring sits in front of the ball