How to reduce clanking/banging of pintle hitch?

[Matt Hixson]

Anyone have a good trick or product that will reduce the clanking of the pintle hitch while on logging roads? I have a HMMWV trailer that I pull with my Hummer. Would like that banging around sound to go away.

 

[Sparksalot]

Look at it this way, you're getting the full "military quality" experience.

 

[FishinCrzy]

Read that wrong...pintle hitch, ok. Nebermind.

 

[MidOH]

More tongue weight. Much more. My 12,000# pintle trailer at work never bangs.

Make sure your hitch ht is set correctly.

 

[Dilldog]

Im not sure if there if there is a light duty equivilent, but about all heavy duty pintle hitches have a shoe that is pushed out by an air brake can that keeps the pintle loop from banging around. Im sure you could rig up something that is run by an electrical solonoid...

 

[Brianj5600]

That is the nature of the beast. Two loosely connected pieces of metal will make noise.

 

[Billiebob]

A ball hitch will fix it.

 

[MidOH]

Not without enough tongue weight it won't. Look at all the newbs towing jetskies and complaining.

My pintle is nearly silent. Keep that tongue down with weight. It'll still clang on big hits, maybe. But noise is seriously limited.

 

[MOAK]

Very rarely does our pintle hook make any noise. Proper tongue weight, proper tongue length, and proper tongue height make all your noise go away.

 

[JimBill]

Check the pintle mount to receiver fit. My M1101 knocked around terribly. The mount was very undersized. Welded beads and milled flat, test fitting as I went until I can barely get it into the receiver. Now 95% or better of the noise is gone. Lost picture, but did post in "what did you do with your rig today" about the mod some time ago.

 

[mep1811]

I've been using a pintle for over 20 years. What little noise I hear, off-road , is barely noticeable.

 

[Rath]

Noise wasn't a big concern for me when I decided to go pintle with my trailer build, however it was definitely on my mind.

My first trip I was trying to listen for it, but never really heard it at all, now that could just be my loud exhaust, but even slow speed backing up/pulling forward I never really heard it. Fit in the receiver is definitely something to check. If you still notice that it's too much noise for your liking, maybe some thin rubber mat lining the truck end would work?

 

[TJ Willy]

Noise wasn't a big concern for me when I decided to go pintle with my trailer build, however it was definitely on my mind.

My first trip I was trying to listen for it, but never really heard it at all, now that could just be my loud exhaust, but even slow speed backing up/pulling forward I never really heard it. Fit in the receiver is definitely something to check. If you still notice that it's too much noise for your liking, maybe some thin rubber mat lining the truck end would work?

Tongue weight is the key. Just adjust a little more weight to the front to keep it down and from bouncing. Put your aux battery ,water cans etc.up front . Not to heavy or you won't be able to lift it off. And also if you use a pintle ball hitch helps to keep it in place.

 

[MOAK]

I've been using a pintle for over 20 years. What little noise I hear, off-road , is barely noticeable.

Ya! I never did understand the noise factor. I’ve been dragging trailers since the early 70s and they just don’t bang around and make any noise. If they do? Someone has a load issue, not a hitch issue

 

[old_man]

My Answer

 

[smritte]

Properly weighing the hitch fix's noise but, when I'm off road I run my hitch at almost zero tongue weight. Stability isn't an issue due to low speed, what I don't want is the constant push down on the rear of my vehicle on bumps. I let the vehicle and the trailer suspension work separably. I ran a pintle for a couple of trips then built a multi axis hitch. Never looked back.

 

[systemdelete]

Haven’t used it on road but on our old tractor I just slipped a large greased scrap of radiator hose over the tractors pintle, shuts it up when the PTO is rocking some of the smaller towed equipment spreading seed and such. That said anything with decent mass towed on road should be a tighter fit with the pintle imho.