LOCK N ROLL Hitch

[dcoy]

These are virtually obsolete in the civilian market

mine kinked really bad

Yeah. I think I know why they are "obsolete". My coupler got tweeked due to some torsional forces at some point; didn't even use it for anything approaching "extreme offroading" either. I may be upgrading too rather than bothering with a replacement.

 

['05TJLWBRUBY]

Do you guys have any pics of the tweaks? I remember seeing some quite a while back but can't locate them now. Thinking of burning in some reinforcement on mine to prevent/hold off as long as possible. Any pics of the new design?

Thanks,

Best of Luck,

Mike

 

[dcoy]

Do you guys have any pics of the tweaks?

I'll take a pic when I get a chance.

 

[dcoy]

Pics of Lock N Roll

Here is a picture of my Lock N Roll. As you can see, some torsional forces have essentially twisted it like a corkscrew (or a double helix?). It is basically functional, but pretty suboptimal. I hope it's big enough to be useful. I'm not sure why it looks so small. I guess I have to work with the photo attachment process a little more.

 

[cnynrat]

Here's a big picture for you:

I think what happens here is the link twists, and then from that point there is enough friction in the system that it no longer moves freely in all axes. In my case, it put enough force on the coupler that it bent up one of the ears that are designed to lock the coupler in position in the draw bar, and forced the coupler to rotate on the draw bar.

This happened on a trip to Canyonlands in the Maze. I discovered the damage when we arrived at the Doll House, which is as far away from the pavement we got on that trip. Not having any other realistic options, I pulled the trailer out, back through the obstacles that caused the damage, and then all the way home to So Cal. I guess the message there is that while it looks bad, and was replaced without hesitation, it's not necessarily a catastrophic failure out on the trail. This picture was taken in our driveway after we arrived home.

 

[luk4mud]

Dave, I am not ll that familiar with that system. How does it compare to the basic military pintle? Is it more flexible but more vulnerable as well? I have a M416 with pintle that I take everywhere with no issues like this. I am familiar with the trail to DollHouse, nothing all that extreme down there but on know how sometimes just a funny angle is all you need.

 

[cnynrat]

In general, most would say the advantage of couplers such as the lock-n-roll and the Max Coupler vs. a pintle hitch is they are quieter. I've never towed with a pintle, so I can't really say whether that's true. A pintle hitch is certainly simpler and probably has an inherent reliability advantage as a result. Like most things in the real world, there is a trade-off there and everyone has to make their own decision based on their individual priorities. :ylsmoke:

The lock-n-roll has a fairly well known weakness, which is that the link can twist when you back up with the trailer at an acute angle to the tow vehicle. You probably recall that there are a few places in the Maze where you encounter tight turns where most vehicles will need to perform a multi-point turn. It was on one or more of those turns where I did the damage to my lock-n-roll.

 

[dcoy]

Is it true that the MAX COUPLER does not get jacked up like the LOC N ROLL does? I'm thinking about upgrading to a MAX but I'd rather not get one and find out the same thing happens with the "upgrade"?

 

[cnynrat]

I have not heard any indications that the Max-Coupler is susceptible to the same problem as the Lock-n-Roll. I've probably towed 1000 miles with my Max-coupler so far with no problems.

I think there is another thread around here that specifically talks about couplers. We may want to move this discussion rather than clutter up Adventureduo's for-sale thread.

 

[dcoy]

I think there is another thread around here that specifically talks about couplers. We may want to move this discussion rather than clutter up Adventureduo's for-sale thread.

Thanks.