bumper pull w/pintle hitch

Looking at a 20ft equipment trailer to haul my rock crawler and all the ones i have found are pintle hitch. how bad are these trailer hitches when towing? never used one.

Not bad, will take a bit to get use too. You can always bolt the ball bitch on it.

It took me a few times to get use to it.

It's weird but really not bad. You just feel it move around when momentum takes over.

I prefer towing with a pintle compared to a ball. A lot more heavy duty

well thanks yall. makes me fell a bit better about it. i have just never used one for on highway use before. all the military stuff i tow has one but thats always just on the flight line.

little more creaking when turning, a bit of a jolt when going over big bumps from the eye bouncing in the hook. helluva lot stronger than ball and you dont have to worry about the trailer popping off the ball when unloading and tearing your tailgate off. also, i find that in the winter, the clasps on ball hitches are a pain esp with gloves on.

in a nutshell...pintle is easier, stronger but a bit noisier and less smooth.

Put a 2-5/16 on it. It will hold anything you can put on a pickup.


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Stick with the pintle hitch. Every trailer we sell comes with a pintle hitch for underground construction use. You will like it for towing your rock crawler in and out of those ****ty parking lots because you can get alot more articulation between truck and trailer. It's what I use for my enclosed trailer and tube chassis buggy and will never change except to a gooseneck/ fifth wheel

After owning my first pintle hitch trailer I took a weekend and cut all of the 2" ball hitches off my other 5 trailers and replaced them with pintle hitches. Only my enclosed trailer is left with a 2 5/16 ball.

1slosvt said:

Stick with the pintle hitch. Every trailer we sell comes with a pintle hitch for underground construction use. You will like it for towing your rock crawler in and out of those ****ty parking lots because you can get alot more articulation between truck and trailer. It's what I use for my enclosed trailer and tube chassis buggy and will never change except to a gooseneck/ fifth wheel

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How can you get more articulation? Strictly curious. I've towed with both ball and pintle but never had to get any severe amount of articulation with them.

I tow with pintle all the time. All my truck's always has one in the bed or on the truck ready to go to pull my trailer. I rather use a pintle hitch then a ball hitch seems more "heavy duty" to me. I got the pintle hitches without that ball as it doesn't have the "play" the some hitches have with the ball. I do got a spare with a ball just in case though.

dsberman94 said:

How can you get more articulation? Strictly curious. I've towed with both ball and pintle but never had to get any severe amount of articulation with them.

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because of the way the ball is inside a socket, the edge of the socket contacts the hitch far sooner than the eye of the pintle gets bound up in the hitch.

sootie said:

because of the way the ball is inside a socket, the edge of the socket contacts the hitch far sooner than the eye of the pintle gets bound up in the hitch.

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Makes sense. Thanks.

Love towing with a pindle hitch...

Guess I'm the opposite haha, buddy cut off his pintle hitch and welded on a 2 5/16's, night and day smoother for hauling the rigs out to the bush and heavy loads in town, wouldn't wish pintle on anyone. More control with less jolt feeling under braking but the pintle did have some excess wear on it as well.

Same thought as the last guy. All our trailers for the equipment are pintle and I hate them. Offroad they bang around, on road they bang around. Ten times worse if you have a pintle with a ball vs a standard pintle. There no easier or faster to hook up. Only real advantage I see is capacity and one hitch fits all. I can't come up with one single other reason honestly. As far as capacity I can't see anyone exceeding the capacity of a 2 5/16 ball hitch with a pick up or 450-550 at that without going to a gooseneck which is still a 2 5/16 ball.

I've got the pintle/ball combo since I end up towing both. Ball is smoother for sure. Pintle is more confidence inspiring. Just put on a 20K hitch from Kurt, found a 18K adjustable drop mount, and Northern tool finally produced a 20K ball/pintle combo (true 20K rating on ball only, not just pintle rating) that I had to search for quite awhile to find. Everything else maxed at 12-14K (16K in pintle mode). I like the ball/pintle combo since I can tow both our trailers without having to swap anything.

Buy the pintle hitch and try it out. If you don't like it, I'll buy it from you, and all you will be out is the shipping.

It needs to be the type with a ball, 2" preferred.
Decent brand.
I'll pay you the same price as I can get one from here. ~$60

The reason is I got a new truck and don't like swapping the hitch out from truck to truck. I'm not in a hurry, so get it, try it, and if you like it great, if not I'll take it, as long as it isn't beat to pieces.