What is better Ball or pintle?

[06bowtie_guy]

Well my light weight trailers are ball hitches., Snowmobile trailer and boat.

However I'm thinking about looking for a decent trailer I could use to haul my other truck with, (a regular car trailer won't do won't fit between fenders) I'm going to end up with a trailer with deck over tires setup so I could haul anything else I need. You look at large dump trucks and they all have pintle hook ups, would that be the way to go??

Thx

[DmaxMaverick]

Well my light weight trailers are ball hitches., Snowmobile trailer and boat.

However I'm thinking about looking for a decent trailer I could use to haul my other truck with, (a regular car trailer won't do won't fit between fenders) I'm going to end up with a trailer with deck over tires setup so I could haul anything else I need. You look at large dump trucks and they all have pintle hook ups, would that be the way to go??

Thx
It all depends on the weight and type of the trailer. The pintle is not generally a tongue weight bearing coupler, but I have seen some used this way (not by original design). If you'll notice, all the dumps and trailer dollies, the tongues are hinged, either at the tongue base, or dolly fifth wheel. The trailer weight/loading is not part of the tongue weight.

A ball hitch is more convenient and standard for light truck towing. Most pintle hitches designed for light trucks are actually rated lower than a comparible ball. As far as weight capacity is concerned, the receiver hitch and ball platform determines max rating. Then, you need to be sure your ball platform and ball is up to the rating of the weight you are pulling, both tongue and gross. A pintle won't increase your weight capacity, or safety factor. The regulations are the same for both.

That being said, by the time you reach the rated capacity of your factory hitch, you will be at or above the other weight ratings of the truck.

[Craig M]

Heavy duty pintle hitches are available (like you see with a 10 wheeler hauling a large loader on a 8 wheel tag trailer behind it), but like stated in previous post, they are probably beyond the capacity of your truck. A good 2 5/16" ball hitch will perform ok and usually have less slop than a pintle. If you have not bought your trailer yet, a 5th wheel trailer will give you maximum hitch capacity and a bit more safety factor.

[murphyslaw]

Heavy duty pintle hitches are available (like you see with a 10 wheeler hauling a large loader on a 8 wheel tag trailer behind it), but like stated in previous post, they are probably beyond the capacity of your truck. A good 2 5/16" ball hitch will perform ok and usually have less slop than a pintle. If you have not bought your trailer yet, a 5th wheel trailer will give you maximum hitch capacity and a bit more safety factor.

as well as being easyer to handle, they pull and back much nicer.

[a5150nut]

Pintle hitches are also VERY noisey. Clunk, bang, bang, clunk........

[06bowtie_guy]

Awsome, thanks for the input.

[Mark Rinker]

If your trailer and cargo weight is under 10K, I'd recommend a 2 5/16" ball hitch and bumper pull trailer. Your OEM factory hitch should be fine, just make sure that the two supporting bolts tying the hitch to the bumper have not be removed. They are key to the OEM hitch design for load carrying.

For >10K trailer/load combos, I would recommend a gooseneck hitch. The truck carrys the weight better, steering, especially in low traction condtions is much better, as well as braking. Drawback to gooseneck is extra trailer weight.

I own two 25' deckover trailers with ramps and beavertails. One is bumper pull, one is gooseneck. Both are rated and licensed at 14K, but we chase after loads based on the rules above with good results behind the DMax's listed below. 150+ trailered miles last year.

[Hubert]

I have seen both pintle and 2-5/16 tag along connections with deckover tag alongs for pickups sized loads. 2-5/16 is the preferred connection for normal use. Construction, farm, or offroad sometimes have pintle.

Depending on what and where you are hauling to keep trailer out of a bind:
Pintle has a little more articulation than ball (depending on tongue and hitch mount). Gooseneck ball has a little more articulation than a 5th wheel (kingpin).

All for naught if trailer can't articulate because of load, departure angle or ground clearance etc.