To pintle or not to pintle?

[NMBruce]

To the best of my knowledge, I have never overextended the limits of my pintle hitch/lunette ring set-up in all the years I've been running it. And I've taken my trailer on some pretty wild off-camber off-roading/overlanding trips. I just think it would be nice to have the option of having either a fixed in place pintle hitch, or the option to allow the pintle to rotate 360-degrees. Which is what the Dixon Bate hitch allows. If I never get one, oh well... I've gone this long.

I'm not going for the "cool overland look"; I'm going for the "rugged ex-military overland look". Is that a thing?

I like simple if possible. When my friend built my trailer, the lock roll is what he put on there. Now I do like it, because it locks in place and I can put locks on it while traveling.
I like the idea of a 12k-20k Pintle hitch in theory keeping my 1500lb trailer from rolling over if I get too far off-camber, where the lock & roll will let it roll.

speaking of trailers, time to get my butt to work on mine.

 

[john61ct]

But if you have a UK delivery address

parcel forwarding OR reship uk address - Google Search

www.google.com

 

[4000lbsOfGoat]

You never want both fixed. One must rotate. Always.

Huh, never knew that?!

I always thought the slop was enough. Have I been doing it wrong or have I been getting away with it for a time period? Haven’t rolled a trailer yet though so there is that!?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

If you ever end up in the unfortunate situation where you do roll a trailer you will immediately see the wisdom in one side rotating. If the trailer is going to roll you don't want it to also pull the TV over. You can manage to drive away from the situation if *only* the trailer rolls. I've seen a commercial flat-bed trailer roll with a 35k lb machine on it. It would've taken the towing dump truck over with it had the pintle not been of the rotating variety...

 

[NMBruce]

So I get a trailer carrying a equal to or larger load in weight than the tow vehicle and the trailer pulling a vehicle over, but someone needs to explain to me how a 1500lb trailer will pull a 5000lb vehicle over when doing 5-10 mph.

 

[FordGuy1]

Check out the McHitch. Its what the Aussies use.

 

[rnArmy]

Ok... trying to purchase this rotating pintle hitch again. We'll see what the direct-customs/import costs might be. I'll let you know what the final dollar amount comes to, and how long it takes to get here. We'll see if this goes through this time, or if it is a "strike - two!".

If figure I'm taking one for the team here! Wish me luck. Don't want to flip my Jeep because my trailer decides to lay-down on its side.

 

[rnArmy]

Ok... trying to purchase this rotating pintle hitch again. We'll see what the direct-customs/import costs might be. I'll let you know what the final dollar amount comes to, and how long it takes to get here. We'll see if this goes through this time, or if it is a "strike - two!".

If figure I'm taking one for the team here! Wish me luck. Don't want to flip my Jeep because my trailer decides to lay-down on its side.

Ok, got a tracking number and a delivery date sometime between 24 Feb & 10 March (purchasing from the same person I was trying to buy it from before). From what I understand, I'll have to pay import cost (about $40 US +/-). So it'll come to about $350 +/- total. From what I understand, I'll have to pay the import fee once it arrives here (I couldn't pay it up front when I purchased it I guess). Anyone have experience buying things from GB and having it shipped to the states? What steps did you have to go through?

For the record, I have no financial stake in this at all (I just want one of these for my Jeep). But I'm just curious... if this does come out to around $350 US total, is anyone else out there interested in getting one of these Dixon Bate hitches, or am I just a lone weird voice in the wilderness? I don't know if the seller can get additional Dixon Bate hitches or not.

 

[billiebob]

So I get a trailer carrying a equal to or larger load in weight than the tow vehicle and the trailer pulling a vehicle over, but someone needs to explain to me how a 1500lb trailer will pull a 5000lb vehicle over when doing 5-10 mph.

yep. this trailer landed on its side at 60mph.... bent the trailer tongue but never even felt it in the Jeep. Note the skid marks on the top facia board and the front corner of the box.... a bit over the 2000# Wrangler tow rating at 3500# but once emptied, righted, reloaded it ran fine. The scare mongering on the internet is mind boggling.....

I doubt I'll ever build a trailer as skinny as this one again. It morphed from a single wide skidoo trailer with 12" rims to a box on 30x9.50R15s loaded with my tools for a 2000 mile move from the NWT to the Kootenays.



No matter what you build, build for the unexpected.

 

[billiebob]

With a pintle, I can hitch up at a 90 degree angle .

The angle is a function of the tongue. Makes no difference which hitch you use. Most of us are limited by the tongue design, not the hitch.

 

[rnArmy]

Hitch and tongue go hand in hand. Any hitch will allow 90 degree left and right as pictured in above post. But only a pintle or some other multi axis hitch will allow a large amount of up and down movement (think going over and down and then back up steep berms). As far as twisting motion, a multi axis hitch is best (unlimited), followed by a pintle hitch, and lastly a ball hitch. I took a driveline angle measuring tool once and checked it out.

 

[billiebob]

Hitch and tongue go hand in hand. Any hitch will allow 90 degree left and right as pictured in above post. But only a pintle or some other multi axis hitch will allow a large amount of up and down movement (think going over and down and then back up steep berms). As far as twisting motion, a multi axis hitch is best (unlimited), followed by a pintle hitch, and lastly a ball hitch. I took a driveline angle measuring tool once and checked it out.

Yep, altho not all "pintle" hitches are created equally.... some of the hybrids lose the pintle advantage even with a lunette ring.

 

[rnArmy]

Yep, altho not all "pintle" hitches are created equally.... some of the hybrids lose the pintle advantage even with a lunette ring.

View attachment 704430

Yeah.. I'm not a fan of those hybrid hitches.

 

[NMBruce]

Ok, got a tracking number and a delivery date sometime between 24 Feb & 10 March (purchasing from the same person I was trying to buy it from before). From what I understand, I'll have to pay import cost (about $40 US +/-). So it'll come to about $350 +/- total. From what I understand, I'll have to pay the import fee once it arrives here (I couldn't pay it up front when I purchased it I guess). Anyone have experience buying things from GB and having it shipped to the states? What steps did you have to go through?

For the record, I have no financial stake in this at all (I just want one of these for my Jeep). But I'm just curious... if this does come out to around $350 US total, is anyone else out there interested in getting one of these Dixon Bate hitches, or am I just a lone weird voice in the wilderness? I don't know if the seller can get additional Dixon Bate hitches or not.

its been a really long time since I got anything from England, but about a year ago, I got some stuff from Switzerland, about $500 value and didn’t have to pay any import tax or anything else. So maybe you’ll get lucky.

 

[NMBruce]

Yep, altho not all "pintle" hitches are created equally.... some of the hybrids lose the pintle advantage even with a lunette ring.

View attachment 704430

Yeah.. I'm not a fan of those hybrid hitches.

Agree, I have a few other ball hitches if I need them

 

[Paddler Ed]

I keep forgetting that in most cases the US spec 50mm/2" hitch is a bolt on job with no movement; in Australia and the UK, they all tend to have some rotation on them like this:

where they have some rotation on them, based on the section that activates the manual override brakes. In my case, my trailer runs with the collar over, and I use electric brakes. In the UK, override brakes are the norm.

UK hitches are different again... and there's a huge range when you head to the specialists like this mob:

https://indespension.co.uk/trailer-parts/trailer-parts-and-accessories/couplings-and-spares