Bluedeviltorque

Please excuse my ignorance and ranting in this post, but I know someone out there can answer my questions and hopefully enlighten me. (Note: I don't tow anything with my truck besides a one car hauler about once a year with my friend and that whole set up is just under 5000lbs)

Question #1: Why is it that pintle hitch's or even pintle and ball hitch combos don't need a load distributing set up for a much higher tongue load and trailer load? Where as on a ball hitch if you try to do anything by the book you are supposed to get a load distributing hitch for anything over 500lbs tongue load.

Question #2: With a pintle ball combo plugged onto a standard reciver hitch(stock unit from chrysler) can you use the 1000lb tongue load or do you have to stay at 500 or less becuase you're not using a load distributing hitch?


And just to vent a little. I just don't get it... everyday I see trucks towing trailers that I KNOW have well over 500lb tongue loads and they pull fine, stop fine(trailer braking set up correctly for load of course), don't sway, pull, bounce, or do anything crazy at any speed and have been doing so for years on end. I have even towed a set up like this a good number of times with my old job, and the only problem I had was the Chevy 3/4ton gasser I was driving didn't have enough power to move its self, never mind drag a 9000lb trailer behind it. I guess what i'm getting at is that it just seems to me that for a 3/4 or 1 ton truck like ours, pulling a trailer with good breaks that is properly maintained I don't understand why we would need a weight distributing hitch... and if we did the trailer is probally large enough/heavy enough that it probaly should be on a goose neck set up anyways.


Ahhhh, that feels better,


Mike (waiting to be educated)

Hemi Cat

I have a 20 ft flatbed trailer with a 2 5/16 ball hitch and the trailer weighs 2400 empty. I have hauled my forklift on it that weighs 10,000 lbs. I move the load around to balance it and put aprox10-20% of the load on the tongue. The trailer pulls just fine for me, except on a 8% + uphill grade that is more than a mile long, and that usually slows me right down, but as long as it is loaded correctly I have had no problems with my reciever hitch setup.

pappyman

As far as how much weight to put on the ball.....I have the Titan class 5 hitch and have moved a 14 X 70 mobile home....its best to stay within the hitch rated loads to be safe even tho our trucks can handle more it becomes a safety issue if an accident happens and can get ugly in court

durasmack

for the pintle answer, generally the vehicles that use pintle hitches are large dump trucks, semi tractors, etc that can handle enormous tongue weights. In theory, you should still stay under the 500/5000 rating for the load dist. even if you are pulling pintle on a dodge. we all know that this is not necessary for stability, but it is what it is. I pull 8000+ that can have anywhere between 500-1000 in tongue weight on a 2 5/16 all the time with no weight dist. I have also pulled pintle hitched bobcat trailers with no problem.

Hopefully that somewhat answers your question.

StrokeThisCTD

eh ive put 1000 tongue on the stock hitch reciever and a 2" ball with no problem. i dont use a WD hitch because i think its useless unless im towing like 10,000