Pintle hook / eye system for trailer: how much articulation? (1 Viewer)

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e9999

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am putting together a pintle hook system for my trailer.

I got a massive swivel lunette eye. The ring is thick, about 1.65" cross section.

I was looking at this pintle hook:
http://www.buyersproducts.com/dispatch?cmd=fwd&fwdfile=catalog3t.jsp?id=10080006
but I am now wondering if this will work. It seems that the typical pintle hook has a fat odd-shaped top piece which seems would prevent the eye from articulating upwards more than maybe 45deg or so (guessing). Not sure that will be enough, and I wanted to do the pintle hook to maximize that particular motion which gave me trouble with the ball system.

Anybody knows how much articulation would one typically have if the truck and trailer form an upright V, as in the bottom of a dip. Is it normally enough for serious wheeling?
 
I have easily had mine at over 45 degrees, not really on the trail, but just backing it up steep things to see what it can do... :D

I really need to get some pics of my pintle setup, I don't think it has that big of "girth" in the upper section?
 
Found a pic of my setup:
blue6.jpg


Rotates 360* axially by the pintle setup.

You can see by the pic that my lunette is WAY bigger than I need, it does "clunk" a bit (not to bad when loaded) but it allows for plenty of articulation with respect to the Cruiser.
 
thanks, yours doesn't look that different. Also has the fat top. Sounds like it works for you though. Problem may be that my ring is enormous and would fill most of the pintle hook opening so less play... (Got that thing used. Must have been cut off some agricultural or military implement. Has springs and everything.)
 
Hmm... I was lucky enought to find a swiveling pintle that had a good profile as all the swiveling lunettes I looked at were insane $$$.... Get out the grinder! :D
 
yes, one could try and grind a bit off the fat front end of the top part of the pintle, but there is a bolt in there, holding a latch I imagine, so may not be much room.

I was also quite surprised at how expensive the simple swivel eyes are, something like $50 and up, seemed a lot for a crude chunk of steel, compared to the pintle hooks. The one above can be had for $35 or so.
 
E,

I bought part of my pintle set up at TSC. If I remember correctly the doughnut part or hook was 29.99.
 
I see what you are saying but the pintle in the link is very similar to what's running on the rigs on the Ruby Con trip. As you can see there was some oportunities for big articulation. I've always had the trailer run into the truck before encountering interferance in the pintle/lunette.
 
Not as much articulation as Lowenbrau's, but plenty more room to go... Wish I still had it for my 80. :frown:
trailer through a wash.jpg
 
Snook,

Great looking rig, especially that two tone 80. :)


Grouseman
 
that's right guys, that's exactly the situations I meant
when I did this with my ball mount I heard all sorts of weird sounds coming from the coupling area...

and darn it, Buyersproducts.com, shows the "drawings" on their site but they are all wrong and not to scale... what's with that?

dang, I may lengthen the lunette mount, some of these photos above show the trailer coming awfully close to the truck...
 
lowenbrau said:
"close"? I know what you mean. The advantge to the short drawbar is if I can make the rear tire of the Cruiser miss a tree, the trailer will miss it every time.

Yeah... but you can easily "jack-knife" the rig into the trailer when backing... I have mine so that I can not hit the body of the Cruiser with the body of the trailer, even if they are 90 degrees + to each other...

Cool pic by the way :D
 
lowenbrau said:
"close"? I know what you mean. The advantge to the short drawbar is if I can make the rear tire of the Cruiser miss a tree, the trailer will miss it every time.



I can tell why you put the spare on the back...
 
OK, finished the lunette system.
Now to find a good pintle hook.
There are quite a few out there, but it's hard to find dimensions.
I am limited cuz I need to run it together with the 2" receiver bar which is right up there too....
Anybody has one that they think would work at high angles with a 2.85" ID eye and knows the brand/model number?
 
Yeah... but you can easily "jack-knife" the rig into the trailer when backing... I have mine so that I can not hit the body of the Cruiser with the body of the trailer, even if they are 90 degrees + to each other...

Care to expand on this at all. I have jack-knifed a trailer into a vehicle once and do not wish to do it again. That is some of the concern I have with this set up. short tongue=easy jack-knife. Thanks.
 
I found this, that looks like it would offer very good articulation, with a very positive hitch to tongue connection. Anyone seen one of these or maybe know someone who has used one?

www.off-roadinternational.com/tough.html
 
cruiserwanted said:
Care to expand on this at all. I have jack-knifed a trailer into a vehicle once and do not wish to do it again. That is some of the concern I have with this set up. short tongue=easy jack-knife. Thanks.

The tongue of my trailer makes it virtually impossible to hit the body of my trailer with the body on my Cruiser, and on near level ground, I intentfully jack-knife the trailer without any damage, the tongue simpy hits my rear bumper, and the body of the trailer and the body of the Cruiser are clear of each other. Pics go a long way in explaining this... I will try and snag a couple...
 
OK, I did it!
found a pintle hook that will allow full vertical articulation.
FWIW, my lunette eye is 2.85" ID and the ring is 1.65" thick.
I got the Buyers Products 8 tons (model PH8) pintle hook and it does allow full vertical articulation with the above eye. Trailer could be vertical, it would not bind...
(well there is a bolt holding the latching piece that I may want to shorten a bit to help with not having anything rubbing, but should be easy and may not even be necessary...)

Happy. More elsewhere....
 

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