Adding a pintle (or other style) hitch to a trailer

WilliamA

I've had a couple of folks contact me about my pintle hitch for information and a how-to so rather than send a lot of information twice, I thought I'd post a thread here. To be fair, when I originally posted my info, I was in the middle of a few other things so it kind of got scattered all over the place. Here's a more cohesive post of the process with links and photos:

Let's start with parts sources for the bits that will be needed. For the trailer, there are a few options. I originally was going to use one of these:
https://www.etrailer.com/A-Frame-Trailer-Coupler/Demco/DM15349-52.html
I opted to go a different route for a couple of reasons; First, it's a PITA to cut the welds off to completely remove the stock A-frame mount without wrecking the tongue of the trailer. I decided it wasn't necessary to cut the entire assembly off and instead, just hacked off the head of the ball mount, leaving the A-frame in place. To that end, I decided to use this mount:
https://www.etrailer.com/Lunette-Ring/Titan/T1812800.html
This guy would not be my first choice if I were just going to weld it on without any further gusseting. I did do that and used the trailer for a couple of trips without the gussets, but wasn't comfortable with it that way. I made some templates and had 1/8" flat plate cut to the templates, then welded them on for what I now feel is a very strong, relatively light mount that surpasses the A-frame replacement mount.

Here's my original cut. I did this with a hack saw and a bucket. The hack saw to do the cutting and the bucket to sit on. I cut the A-frame back as far as I could next to the frame horns so I would be able to weld to not only the A-frame but also run the weld bead down onto the frame horns.

Disclaimer:
I don't advocate that anyone do this at home. This kind of welding needs to be done right and isn't for the faint of heart. That said, if you aren't comfortable doing it, there are many trailer shops that would be happy to do the work for you. It took me about an hour to do the original cut and weld on the extension. You'll want a certified welder doing the critical stuff here.

The pintle lunette bolts on with giant, grade 10 bolts so there's no worry about breaking them off. I should also point out here that with this setup, you can remove the two bolts and lunette, then purchase a bolt-on ball hitch that attaches to this mount in the same fashion.
Once you get your trailer back from the certified welder, Here's what it will look like:

For my gusset plates, I cut some patterns out of cardboard and took them to my metal shop buddies and had them cut me some 1/8" steel plate to size. Here's what that looked like:

Ignore the angle iron in the photo. I was using it for a straightedge to make the relief cuts in the side plates. In the following photo, you can see how the relief cuts go over the "ears" on the A-frame so the side plates will fit tightly to the tongue. Once I got that all ground out, I fit them on and then welded the ears along the side plates for even more strength.

Here's the tongue with the gusset plates welded in place. Notice in the top gusset plate, I had to relieve the rear for access to the bolt holding the jack to the A-frame. It all fit on very nicely and provided lots of linear inches of weld to make things nice and sturdy. You can also clearly see the relief's I cut into the side plates to go over the "ears" on the existing A-frame. Everything got welded.

Once I got some paint (bedliner spray) on, it looked pretty good.

For the vehicle end, there are about a hundred options. You can choose from a one-piece slide in pintle or get any number of different adjustable pintle's with and without the ball. I opted to get one that has a 2" ball so I can also tow my brothers' utility trailer without swapping hitches.

Last but not least, I opted to add a couple of stiffeners to the vehicle side just to eliminate rattling and stiffen things up a bit more. I wouldn't have needed to, but happened to have this heavy strap iron lying about so I just stuck it on.

I've been incredibly happy with this setup. It's now logged thousands of miles, off and on road, and I would not go back given the chance. If I ever sell or upgrade my trailer, I'll just buy the ball-hitch insert for the trailer side and send it down the road. I've been asked everywhere I go if it's noisy. The answer is yes/no. It clunks when first starting out from a stop and clunks when coming to a stop. I could eliminate that simply by slipping a 2" diameter piece of water hose over the ball, but to be honest I just haven't gotten around to getting one. As to the "no" part of the answer, it's certainly LESS noisy than the ball hitch. It doesn't rattle up and down constantly like the ball hitch did and when going down the road it's almost completely quiet. More importantly to me, it offers an incredible amount of articulation both fore-aft and side-side when rummaging around off the road. Last of all, hooking up is now a "first time, every time" affair. Just set the height, open the pintle and back in until you feel it contact. It's hard to believe the difference hooking and unhooking between this one and the stock ball hitch.
As an aside, there are discussions in the offroad community about getting a lunette hitch that also spins in its' mount. I had considered that but decided not to as it is LOTS more complicated, both to install and with additional bits that need servicing. It's also quite a bit more expensive to buy the parts to do it. I wanted a system that had plenty of articulation and also had an easy road to go back to the ball hitch if I so desired. This one has both of those. I'm happy with it.

That about covers it.

WilliamA

LuckyJ

Good wright up!

WilliamA

I'm adding a ball hitch to my hookup repertoire. I like the pintle and it's been the right hitch for me, but can be problematic when swapping to different tow vehicles, for example, DW's Chrysler van. I picked up this ball hitch adapter so DW can use the trailer so I'll give it a test-drive just to see how well it stacks up to the pintle.

Since it's only slightly warmer than outer space, I think I'll stuff the trailer into the garage to play around.

I'll let you know how it goes...

WilliamA

WilliamA

While I was stuffed in the garage I swapped out the pintle for a ball hitch. Now DW can tow it with the mom-bomb.

Seems to work. I'll give it a long test drive soon with the new spindles and hitch...

WilliamA

LuckyJ

Nice. Just a tought, you might want to keep it in the trailer. Just remembered base on personal history, if for any reason you need a tow truck for your TV while you are towing the trailer, the tow campany will have issues towing the trailer with a pintle ring or any other thing than a ball hitch. And it is not all of them that have a 2 in receiver to use your/our out or ordinary set-up.

WilliamA

That's the plan. I'll throw the pintle in under the bed with my spare wheel bearing set. When we get to the Mojave Road, I'll swap them out. 2 bolts. 5 minutes. Boom.

WilliamA

LuckyJ

I can also agree with the spare bearing set. Take less than an hour to swap if you know how to do it and have some basic tools. And worst case, if you find a small local garrage, you have the parts, so they do not have to hunt for them. 👍😊

WilliamA

https://teardrop-trailers.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/10001#Comment_10001

Exactly.....And 2 full sets of wheel seals.....and 1 or 2 extra brake magnets. I've changed 2 of those on the road during my travels. As you said: not difficult to do in 30 minutes or so, IF you have the parts...

WilliamA

WilliamA

Time and warmer (-11 today) weather left me an opportunity to test the new Timbren raised spindles, new ball hitch attachment and the new "three mountain" rated tires.

I'm pleased to report that all passed the initial 20 mile road test. Roads are mostly ice with hard packed snow on top but the tires seem to be doing a good job. I had a couple of times when I could feel some rear wheel slip on braking so I backed off the brake controller just a bit.

So far, so good. I'm going to wait for warmer weather later next week and then crawl around checking torque specs and adding a few zip ties for the brake wires but otherwise I'd say I'm ready for whatever trip comes up on short notice. If it gets up above 20 degrees, I'm going out for a couple days of winter camping...

WilliamA