Where to buy a Treg Poly Block coupler, Max questions

[John E Davies]

Is there any dealer carrying Treg couplers here? Has anyone ordered from Oz and how much did the shipping cost?

I have a 13 year old unit on my utility trailer and while it is getting worn, it is still perfectly functional, quiet, very easy to hook up and generally a great piece of equipment. I am a big fan. I originally bought it from Adventure Trailers for about $250, and I consider that to be money well spent.

I will be buying a new Oliver Elite II travel trailer (7000 lb GVWR) and would like to install a Treg on that unit, to keep everything in the family, so to speak.

The regular Treg is rated at 3 tonnes (about 6600 lbs) and that is too light for the Ollie. They make a HD agricultural unit rated at 3.5 tonnes which would be much better but I don't know anything about it.

My alternative choice is the 12,000 lb Max Coupler, but I think it would be a lot harder to hook up the trailer with this design. Tongue weight is about 600 pounds and there is no jack wheel, so there can be no jiggling the tongue.

Are replacement parts for the Max affordable and easy to get, and how often do the parts wear enough to require replacement?

I had considered the Lock n Roll (11K rating) but I am a little unhappy with the reviews, especially the binding while jackknifed problem! ... but maybe those are a non-issue considering that the trailer would never see anything remotely like hard core conditions.

I just want to make sure that I don't pop the ball if I have to drag the trailer across an angled drainage ditch on the way to a camping spot. An off-road coupler would be insurance, more than necessity.

Comments are most welcome.

Eye candy here: http://olivertraveltrailers.com/photo-galleries/legacy-elite-2-photos/

John Davies
Spokane WA

 

[rnArmy]

One option: You mention having difficulty hooking up the trailer to the vehicle (heavy tongue weight, no jack wheel, no "jiggling the tongue").
I would recommend a pintle hitch. You just have to get it close and you're good. And they make them that will rotate 360 degrees.

http://www.lrseries.com/shop/product/listing/8742/4304/NRC2051-NATO-HOOK-ASSEMBLY.html

If you've got a 2" receiver on the front of your trailer, and inexpensive slide-in lunette ring will work perfectly.

https://www.etrailer.com/s.aspx?qry=Lunette+Ring&furl=-vw-1-pg-Off_Road_Accessories

 

[Martyn]

John, as far as I know Treg couplers are no longer available in the US. They were always a pain to import so we stopped doing so years ago.

Over the years we have tried all of the mult-axis couplers and the Max Coupler is a great choice, they are well designed, engineered, and are easy to hook up. The pivot points have good separation so you won't find the binding and bending you get with the lock-n-roll. I don't think you will be disappointed with a Max Coupler. The standard coupler is available on our site

Personally I'd steer away from a pintle due to the lack of solid contact, the noise, and the strain it puts on the drive train.

 

[rnArmy]

"Personally I'd steer away from a pintle due to the lack of solid contact, the noise, and the strain it puts on the drive train."
We just came back from a four week 10,000 mile trip (TX to Inuvik NW Territories Canada, Seattle, and back to TX) with a Jeep ZJ towing a trailer using a pintle hitch. Pictures are from that trip, to include the Dempster Highway (it was bumpy to say the least).
We had no issues with the pintle hitch. It was extremely easy to connect and disconnect (and it isn't going to pop-off accidently), no noise, and I don't understand the "strain on the drive train" thing (what am I missing?).
We've also pulled the trailer on couple shorter (just a "couple thousand" mile trips) behind a soft-top TJ again with no noise or issues.
The military has been using them for years/decades/has it been a century yet?
I'm just saying I wouldn't rule-it-out as an option without really researching it first.

 

[dwh]

Semis pulling doubles use a pintle hitch to drag the rear trailer's 5th wheel dolly.

As long as the lunette fits the pintle properly, there really isnt much forward/backward play in it.

Not ExPolicious, no...but bulletproof. Literally.

 

[CUoffroad]

Pintles are considered bulletproof, yes. But they multiply the stress on your drive-train. U joints are stressed by ANY slop in the connection between a tow vehicle and a trailer, and is even more prevalent off road. When ANYTHING is joined together by ANYTHING, slop is not something that is going to help the situation.

 

[Martyn]

"Personally I'd steer away from a pintle due to the lack of solid contact, the noise, and the strain it puts on the drive train."
We just came back from a four week 10,000 mile trip (TX to Inuvik NW Territories Canada, Seattle, and back to TX) with a Jeep ZJ towing a trailer using a pintle hitch. Pictures are from that trip, to include the Dempster Highway (it was bumpy to say the least).
We had no issues with the pintle hitch. It was extremely easy to connect and disconnect (and it isn't going to pop-off accidently), no noise, and I don't understand the "strain on the drive train" thing (what am I missing?).
We've also pulled the trailer on couple shorter (just a "couple thousand" mile trips) behind a soft-top TJ again with no noise or issues.
The military has been using them for years/decades/has it been a century yet?
I'm just saying I wouldn't rule-it-out as an option without really researching it first.

if you assume that an off road trailer is going to weigh at least 1500 lbs and it is connected to the tow vehicle by a coupler system that is not a solid connection, as in a pintle there is 1500 lbs of lapsed pull every time the tow vehicle moves from a stationary position. This load is transferred to the vehicle via the drive train which puts added strain on components and increases the chance of wear and failure.

In the off-road environment the stress and strain is multiplied due to the terrain, loose surfaces, dirt and vibration.

The pintle is a wonderful piece of kit if you are hooking up a variety of different vehicles to a trailer as the coupler is common between them. It's why NATO uses the pintle as a standard, it means any vehicle from any member nation can hook a trailer to a vehicle. But from an engineering and design view point the pintle it is lacking and there are a number of better options available.

 

[rnArmy]

If you assume that an off road trailer is going to weigh at least 1500 lbs and it is connected to the tow vehicle by a coupler system that is not a solid connection, as in a pintle there is 1500 lbs of lapsed pull every time the tow vehicle moves from a stationary position. This load is transferred to the vehicle via the drive train which puts added strain on components and increases the chance of wear and failure.

The bottom front-half of the pintle jaw is 1.5" in diameter, and the pintle is sloped down and back up where the lunette ring sits (the lunette ring isn't just hovering in mid air; it is resting on the pintle jaw - think tongue weight). On my 2" receiver hitch lunette ring, the inside diameter of the hole is 2.5". So when the lunette ring is sitting on the pintle hitch, there's 1/2" space front and rear of the lunette ring (but again, the lunette ring isn't hovering in mid air; it is resting on the pintle jaw). I don't know how fast you can get your tow vehicle going from stationary to that first half-inch of forward travel (heck; lets go worst case scenario - travel forward one inch) before pintle jaw fully engages the forward inside edge of the lunette ring, but I'm wanting to think this "load" is negligible/minimal (I guess it would be "zero" load with a Max Coupler or a Lock-n-Roll coupler). At least in my experience using a pintle hitch compared to a ball hitch (another "solid" connection).

I think of my pintle hitch set up as a solid (it ain't going anywhere once connected), but a sloppy set-up compared to other multi-axis hitches. But it being sloppy allows me to easily disconnect and reconnect the trailer. We've never had any issues on-or-off pavement with the pintle hitch. Pick your poison. You can't go wrong with the previously mentioned well-known multi-axis hitches. Even I considered the Lock-n-Roll hitch briefly at one time (then decided against it).

 

[dwh]

Umpty-bazillon miles of this. If it actually were tearing up drive lines...or just ujoints...the industry would have opted for something else long ago.

Theoretical is one thing. Real world is often something else.

It's kind of like super singles on big trucks...some advantages in some situations, but duallies also have their advantages. One is not always automatically better than the other.

 

[dwh]

I wonder...

Do the Aussie road trains use pintle hitches? I'd bet they do. Are they tearing up ujoints as a result?

Dunno, but if it were going to happen, it would probably happen to them.

 

[JPShooter]

The reluctance to go with a LockNRoll due to the issue of the twisting of the coupler is an old design issue and was resolved some time ago. It's a dead issue.

I had a pintle, just did not like it for a number of reasons, and yes, the occasional clunking was just one of them.

In my research I settled on the LockNRoll mainly due to what I saw in the design and how what I saw related to how I perceived the two would compare in the aspect of an off road rough terrain disconnect and re-connect scenario. Just looking at the two designs it seems obvious to me that the LockNRoll would be easier. How much? Don't know as I had no personal experience with either, but that's what I saw.

Some posters on this site, with first hand experience, stated that they felt it was easier to make the connection with a LockNRoll. YMMV

Having used the LockNRoll now I do like the design and find hitching up to be as easy as the pintle hitch that I had.

 

[indiedog]

Not sure how it would translate dollars wise, but take a look at the Vehicle Components DO35. Probably a bit pricey by the time you get it sent over, but I'm sure VC would have had enquiries previously regarding shipping to the US.

http://www.vehiclecomponents.com.au/hitches-couplings/hitchmaster-do35-v21-trailer-coupling-1

 

[corrupt]

I wonder...

Do the Aussie road trains use pintle hitches? I'd bet they do. Are they tearing up ujoints as a result?

Dunno, but if it were going to happen, it would probably happen to them.

Maybe thats why in Australia the trucks use ringfeders and not pintles
A aussie trucky ring feder vid, he comments about american pintle hitches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15CNAeZU3tQ

 

[rnArmy]

When I considered the Lock-n-Roll, I appreciated the fact they had the option of parts if your trailer and vehicle hitch heights were different. It looked like a nice set-up, and relatively easy to connect and disconnect (but not as easy as the pintle hitch). And I had read that any issues with the design had long been resolved.
But the reason I didn't go with them, was I didn't really see any advantage over the pintle set-up I was currently using (which is REALLY easy to connect and disconnect). I wasn't having issues with my pintle unit. It isn't a multi-axis set up, but I figured if I wanted the multi-axis capability I'd just get a Dixon-Bates pintle hitch. Price-wise it was going to be about the same (Lock-n-Roll vs. Dixon-Bates pintle hitch).