AT35 Hitch what a #####!

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Originally Posted by 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/im...13/05/1008.jpg

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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

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

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/im...13/05/1008.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/im...009/10/784.jpg


This is right
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...017/04/792.jpg

This is wrong
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...017/04/793.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...017/04/834.jpg

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

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

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

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

+2 for the Hyland

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

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.

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