AT35 Hitch what a #####!

[bruiser69]

I have an offroad Camper Factory camper with AT35 hitch coupling. I don't think it is just me having issues (Owner of Camper Factory said AT35 must be responsible for quite a few divorces!!). He is currently doing a roaring trade in upgrading existing AT35 sufferers to DO35 type coupling.
Does anyone have any tips on how to make aligning AT35 easier? Surely there must be some mods out there to make AT35 more user friendly. On hard level surface such a concrete, alignment is not too bad, but with camper on a slope or on sand forget it!
In desperation I installed a reversing camera (feeds into my LogicGear GPS) just above hitch. This has helped tremendously, but it is still a fight to get the last fraction of an inch correct due to the close tolerance of the two coupling parts especially in the situations mentioned above.
Any tips /mods appreciated. Cheers..B

[101 Ron]

Use a pintle hook and lunette and near enough is good enough and drop the lunette over the hook.......easy.
The army worked it out years ago
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/05/1008.jpg

[incisor]

loved my at35 and i miss it dearly....

secret of success is line it up :P

or

do as i did when feeling lazy and remove the whole hitch from the receiver.

:angel:

[PhilipA]

I have a Queensland Caravan Accesories which is similar. I also have bought a reversing camera.LOL One trick I learned is to drill another hole in the square tongue that goes into the receiver when it is fully home. I can then back up to the trailer and pull the pin on the car, connect the hitch pin and then reverse/ or let the car run onto the trailer until it clunks home, then replace the receiver pin. It helps in difficult situations particularly on slopes. Regards Philip A

[THE BOOGER]

X 2 pintle hook easy to use and very hard to over load bit noisy though, but unbreakable:D

[justinc]

I love my AT35, and the wife and I are still harmoniously attached, rather like my CYT camper to my Rangie:D

Seriously, yes on some angles it can be difficult, but better than some others I can tell you:(

JC

[Larry]

X 2 pintle hook easy to use and very hard to over load bit noisy though, but unbreakable:D

X 3. To stop the noise, just put in a doubled over plumber's rubber O ring (like they used to use with terracotta pipes) on top of the trailer ring before you close the hook. There is no longer play in the coupling so no noise!:D

[td express]

When on un even ground, put a base plate of some kind on the ground under the jockey wheel. Nice size rectangular piece of timber is good. Wind down the jockey wheel so as the wheel is sideways to the trailer.
Wind it down enough to take load off the hitch, this will make it easy to take out the pin. When hooking back up, reverse along side the hitch and move your trailer sideways(as the jockey wheel was lowered sideways), and hook it up that way. Hence also the rectangular shape of timber under the jockey wheel, it will allow you to manouvre sideways with out fallinf off the edge of the base plate.

Hope that helps

[LandyAndy]

Are they similar to the Tregg hitch???
Find my Tregg hitch easy to connect.
I will be getting a better jockey wheel.It is at its limit height wise and always is soft.Should make it even easier.
Andrew

[Blknight.aus]

get it most of the way in brace your hip on the rear cross member then put the boot in with the pin sitting in place.

[pando]

Use a pintle hook and lunette and near enough is good enough and drop the lunette over the hook.......easy.
The army worked it out years ago
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/05/1008.jpg

Hi Guys,

I know these hitches get used alot, has anyone ever had a drama with them apart from them being a bit noisy/rattley?

The reason I ask is I swore off them after destroying 2 at work, one the ring wore down to about half thickness after around 8000km and another the ring snapped clean off the shaft (not much fun on a gravel road at 70kph!). The trailer was a braked 1500kg tandem carrying around 1200kgs, roads where pretty rough (outback south oz and SW QLD), but was never thrashed.

Thought maybe as it was a tandem and as there was very little ball download that it didn't sit or bed into the hitch, and bounced around more than was the norm?

Looking at my own project at the moment, and if this was an isolated issue then I'd consider that style again as they are very easy to hook/unhook, and was happy (apart from above). Just casting the net as maybe there was something else that caused the issues i had?

Cheers

[THE BOOGER]

have never heard of the ring wearing like that have towed very heavy loads and no problem :) the pintle on my s111 is original (78 model) and shows no sign of wear the rings are i believe 5 ton rating should have no trouble with 1500kg
PS just checked my ring hitch is rated 8 ton its by tregg bros

[101 Ron]

I am just about completely converted over to pintle hooks.
If you are running the correct weight on the pintle and have correctly matching pintle and lunette they will not rattle.
The rattle side of things is instilled in ex army drivers towing No 5 box trailers with little weight on the pintle.
Another factor these days is dual purpose ball and pintle set ups which have too much freedom of movement in the pintle.
I use and pintle mounted to a Hayman/Reese type receiver tube and change between vehicles that way.
Another plus the neighbors cannot borrow the trailers.
If you look at the photo you will see the pintle and lunette set up is tight and has little play and this also aviods any problems with the lunette wanting to drop side ways on full lock.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/05/1008.jpg
I have a 65 year old jeep trailer with the original lunette and it only shows minimal wear.


Truck drivers have used this system for years.https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/10/784.jpg


This is right
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2017/04/792.jpg

This is wrong
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2017/04/793.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2017/04/834.jpg

This one rattles
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

[THE BOOGER]

Ron i have seen those combo types and wouldnt touch them mine is not noisy in a straight line only on full lock particuarly reversing sounds terrible but its all noise both my pintle and ring hitch rotate 360 deg could be the problem. As with you i prefer them to tow balls cant lend the camper :p

[pando]

Thanks Guys,

Yes, it was the correct Tregg Bros setup but the failures were related to something we were doing I think, not necessarily the hitch them selves. But i must say, the tolerances you have with your setup's seem to be a lot tighter than what I had.

Thanks again

[disco_thrasher]

i use the hyland hitch and have had no problems with it ,even my wife can back it on i found it very usefull and easy as the angle does not affect it when needing to diconnecting my ct when bogged in mud or sand its easy to hook back up too
my 2cents:D

[td express]

+2 for the Hyland

[Hally]

I have a company trailer that we use for work out west and have put a At35 on it and we leave it connected we just pull the pin out of the tounge (hayman & reese style towbar) very easy to re-align

[extreme]

I've got the Hyland coupling on my off road trailer and have been happy with the ease of hitching up as well as it's off road performance.

[LandyAndy]

I saw a pic of the AT35 whilst researching ideas for my boat rack.I can see it would be difficult to align.The Tregg polyblock works much better.
Andrew

[numpty]

Another vote for the pintle and lunette from me. Have used this on my camper for 10 years without a hitch (pun intended).:angel: Can be noisy, I agree, but only when off road or very corrugated.

[Hitchguru]

Hey mate... Have a look on ozhitch.com they have a conversion kit for the AT35 that make will make it a lot easier to use afterwards.

Good luck

Cheers

[weeds]

I have only ever watch people struggle with AT35/tregg type couplings, have never own one but when a mate of mine brought a DO35 it convince me to fit one to my camper trailer.......

although i was nearly temped to fit a standard hitch that is on box trailers as i doubt many offroad trailers ever get near to angles that require a fully rotating hitch.....

[Hitchguru]

Hi all... just joined up and navigating my way around the site. Cant work out how to do a post to say hi, if anyone can help as I am new to this. :( Hi to all that see this anyhow. Cheers

Hitchguru

[POD]

I have an ORAC (O'Briens) coupling on my camper, it is unbelievably difficult to attach in some situations. We have camped each Christmas for the past 8 years at the same site for a convention; the site is on a slope so I dig holes to drop the wheels in to get the height of the downhill end of the camper (kitchen end) at the desired height. Having the wheels in holes means I can't wriggle the trailer from side to side at all when it's time to hook up. Actually, un-hooking in this situation is just as difficult, as the trailer dropping into the holes inevitably puts some sideways load on the coupling and makes withdrawing the pin very difficult. I've taken to lowering the trailer down into the holes on the winch cable when we arrive, then pulling the trailer out on the safety chains and hooking up on level ground when it's time to go. It's a major frustration with this type of hitch. I've considered converting to hook-and-pintle but have worried that the rattling would ruin my driving pleasure on outback trips.

[101RRS]

I have an ORAC (O'Briens) coupling on my camper, it is unbelievably difficult to attach in some situations. I can't wriggle the trailer from side to side at all when it's time to hook up. Actually, un-hooking in this situation is just as difficult, as the trailer dropping into the holes inevitably puts some sideways load on the coupling and makes withdrawing the pin very difficult.

I agree 100% - I have a Orac on my camper and yesterday I spent 30mins with a friend helping trying to connect up (not helped by the RRS rolling a bit when the car goes into park and handbrake on) - alignment has to be perfect. The unhook took 15mins and a lot of bashing with the mash hammer to bash the pin in and out.

I have bought a Ozhitch Shop (http://www.ozhitch.com/shop/) to go on and will do that next year. They can be bought from Ozhitch via much cheaper than their website. What I did not realise was that the sell each part individually and have a kit that could be used to convert the Orac bit on the trailer to fit the Ozhitch system - much cheaper. I haven't used it but the reviews are favourable.

But I think I should have bought a Hyland Hitch which used a standard tow ball so as long as you get the trailer coupling near enough to the ball when the trailer is lowered the coupling will go straight on.

Agree, Orac = PITA

Garry

[mowog]

Maybe a Mchitch...

Just Released! - Platinum Series (http://www.mchitch.com.au/just-released)

[Ranga]

Does a Hyland Hitch rattle as much as a regular ball? That's the only issue I have on my dirt-road caravan.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

[PhilipA]

I was wrong . my hitch is similar to an ORAC, which I wanted because it is low profile and I can have the tongue pointing upward and still open my RRC tailgate.
Thes eIMHO are easier than TREG ( which my trailer came with) as I can line up the car , then set the height with the jockey wheel. If I am not straight on or because of slope etc , I can pull the pin on the tongue and do it up and then back on to it.

Caravan and Camper Trailer Couplings (http://www.lets-getaway.com/caravan-trailer-couplings.htm)

Regards Philip A

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Ranga?
is it the ball or the square tongue in the square hole rattling?

[Ranga]

Mostly the square tongue methinks. After I rectify that I'll be able to assess the ball.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Mine clunked on stopping,,

I had something called an "Anti rattle " kit installed,, and it works like a charm,,:cool::cool:

it literally just pulls a wedge under the pin,, needs one hole drilled and the pin hole expanded. simple.