NO, your the one who brought up commercial applications,

"Most state DOT's prohibit the use of pintles for over the road trailers."

all I did was point out that UPS and Fedex use them and 95% of the trailers out there rated 8 ton or more use them... seeing as they are so illegal lets see some state/federal regulations PROHIBITING pintle hitches

 

You pointed out the difference here yourself. Big difference between a truck with air brakes and rated for 90,000 pounds and our version trucks.

 

I must be missing something here because that reasoning doesn't make sense to me. If they are unsafe for highway use why would it be safer to be heavier?

 

i would stick with pintle hook, its there don't have to waist time and money switchin it around. and hey might not always pull nice, but thats haulin. we use them on some of our work trailers and never had problems with DOT so i would prolly just check your local laws on using them. just cause we never had a problem don't make it ok.

 

Pintle connections pull around pretty loose and can pull your truck around if they really get to goin. When your talkin about usin these on a pup trailer that means it is connected to a heavily weighted first trailer that is attached to a tractor rated at 45 ton and more with air brakes. That short little pup trailer isn't gonna pull both those around even if it does gets to bouncin. Now take a trailer that is weighing in at even 10 ton and that's being conservative and let it start jerkin on a pickup truck not even half that weight with conventional brakes and the difference becomes obvious.

Ya after 20 years in the military using nothin but pintle hitches and some years in the trailer business I have pulled a few of em and I've also been pulled around by a few of em. Particularly when stopping and they start pushin around as they bounce back n forth.

 

Thanks for the explanation.

 

I would think about maybe cutting the hitch and putting a gooseneck on it. I hate bumper trailer after pulling heavy loads on a gooseneck. Pintles are great, I have a 20 ton pintle for my dump truck and I pull it some with my dodge. It does beat you and the load has to be centered just right.

 

Maybe a change in plans? I found a 3 car trailer yesterday that's been abandoned @ trailer place for the past 6 months. I'm suppose to head back over there tomorrow morning and were going to try and contact the owner and see what he wants to do. He has an outstanding bill on the trailer. I'm going to try and pick it up for the charges that are owed to the trailer company!

 

You ain't using the right hitch... Mine are pretty tight, and I have barely any more slack in my pintle hitch than with my ball coupler type hitches. There's no way a pintle is less safe than a ball coupler. How many ball coupler trailers have you seen being dragged by the truck because it popped off and its riding by the safety chains? I've seen more than a few. Now how many pintle hitch trainers have you seen pop off? None, they have a pin that keeps them on. Not to mention, if you think a little hitch slap pushes you around, try hauling horses... You come to a stop (or are slowing down) and they decide to take a step forward and plant their foot, that'll push you around...

I have breaks on my pintle trailer, not air brakes, but whats the difference (for our applications air brakes are overkill to say the least). Its rated to 28K and could easily haul more with the right truck. The thing alone weighs 5K+. Its a hell of a lot safer than the car carrier I used to have that had a 2 5/16" Ball coupler.

 

I've seen pintle hook ups draggin the road for the same reason as I've seen ball hitches draggin it, user error and stupidity. In pintles they forget to put the pin in and in ***** they use the wrong size ball or don't have it connected down on the ball before they flip the lock down.

As for haulin horses. I'm a third generation horse breeder that just recently gave up training cause it's not worth the trouble any more. I also use my truck and stock trailer to haul my own cattle and for hire. Spent some years drivin both semis and straight bed livestock trucks.

My experiences with Pintles includes 20 years retiring out of the military which only uses Pintles or King Pins on everything they own and 8 years owning my own trailer business. Been there done that on just about any type of trailers you can think of except RV's, I always avoided those things. But this whole topic isn't worth the trouble it's stirrin up here, different strokes ya know. To each their own, these are just my opinions and I sure don't lay no claims to always bein right so I'm out.