Anybody use a pintle hitch?

[Texasmark]

No, I never have and I have worked in the RV business since I retired from the military in 2006, they were designed for a certain type of load that is not really susceptible to vibration damage, boats and RV can be damaged because the slop in the pintle hook up.

Dump trucks use them to tow their "PUP" trailer which usually carries 10 cu.yds. of material to get a 20 yard rig with a regular bobtail tandem doing the pulling. As stated very noisy, lots of up and down back and forth pup trailers were usually tandem and could tolerate it.

I had a friend call me over to his house one afternoon and showed me where his "had been" mounted. The shank sheared and you could see that it was a metallurgical separation....bang and bang....just so much they can take.

 

[wrvond]

Both my trailers have 2" ball hitches and I can say I have little love for them. I worked in the movie business for 25 years and drove trucks a towed generator plants. The movie industry only uses pintle hitches and I can say they are SO much easier to deal with. Reliable, strong and simple. On and off easy peasy. I have more than once threatened to convert both my boat trailers to this system.

I'm wondering if there are any of you that have done this and if there are any downsides. The only one I can think of is the pintle system is a sloppier fit than the ball, so there is play back and forth when stopping and starting. Still I occasionally used to tow 9000 lb generator plants with a 4x4 pickup and it was tolerable. What do you all think?

I think there is a potential safety issue in that the load in a pintle system is generally a straight pull with virtually no tongue weight. This is because the load is self supporting (wheels at all four corners). With boat and camper trailers, there is a significant portion of the weight transferred to the hitch that the lower jaw of a pintle may not safely support. Especially when we start talking about shock loading.
I could be wrong, but do believe it is worth considering.