We often struggle more often than not while performing heavy duty towing, don’t we? Buying a perfect pintle hitch can solve this problem effectively. A pintle hitch is almost always used for heavy duty towing. This is true even if you’re pulling something off-road.
A pintle is a point from which another object can be turned. Pintles are used in many mechanical things, like boat rudders and door hinges. The pintle hitches will let you carry more weight and protect your tow vehicles from scuffs, scratches, and even dents.
This post will give a detailed review of the 5 Best Pintle Hitches.
What is a pintle hitch, and why should you use it?
The best pintle hitches are usually used to tow things that need much power. Many trailers used for farming, the military, and industrial work have them, but not all campers have them. This is partly because they have a greater range of motion, making them better for towing things that aren’t on paved roads.
A pintle hitch gives trailers with lunette rings a place to turn. Typically, there are no trailer ball couplers on these trailers. Instead, lunette rings are used to connect the two parts. Some circles face the earth and sky—the pintle hitch loops around the rings.
Claw-like pintle hooks, like the Buyers Products pintle hook, can be used to clamp around the lunette ring. Pintle hitches can then be used to tighten the clamp.
Pintle hitches are usually used for towing more heavy-duty things. There are more of them in agricultural applications, military, and industrial vehicles. Their greater range of motion and low center of gravity makes it easier to tow them in off road terrain. Hitch balls, on the other hand, can hold less tongue weight.
Haulers can benefit while using a pintle hook & ring mechanism for a variety of reasons, including:
- Easy Motion: A pintle hitch’s versatility makes transporting heavy-duty loads throughout all types of off road terrain considerably easier. Its design enables it to effectively negotiate road curves and angles.
- Versatility: The combination is employed in a number of industrial contexts due to its easy mobility. It is also easier for campers to transport trailers when going on a road trip.
- Sturdiness: These hitches’ strong and sturdy structure allows them to move even the largest of objects with ease. They’re made of robust metal alloys and are resilient to scratches and dents, so they’ll last a long time.
Our top picked 5 Best Pintle Hitch for Dump trucks and Semi Tractor
IMAGE | MODEL | KEY FEATURES | OUR RATING | PRICE |
TOP PICK  | CURT 48406 |
| ||
 | Buyers Products (PH15) |
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 | Buyers (10055) |
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| | Reese Towpower |
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 | CURT 48010 |
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Here is a detailed review of the best five pintle hitches for heavy duty trucks as per our user experience and research:
1) CURT 48406 Pintle Ball Hitch Combination: Top pick
This is one of the most fantastic pintle ball hitch combinations out there in the market. When you lower the lunette ring onto the pintle hitch, SecureLatch has a mechanism that locks right away. The new features in the SecureLatch series aim to make the trailer hookup process as easy and safe as possible.
Lower the trailer’s tongue before you take down the jack and put the lunette ring on the pintle. As you will see, SecureLatch Pintle Combo has a lot of different things. The Pintle Hitch Trailer Chain Hangers with SecureLatch Technology have a Pintle Strike Plate with a SecureLatch Adjustable Locking Mechanism that you can set to fit your needs, especially in military applications.
It’s more fun to tow with SecureLatch pintle hooks and ball combinations because the hooks have a cupped shape. Due to this, it keeps the lunette ring in place better from both front and back, which makes the ride quieter and towing more fun, too.
Hooks for safety chains are built into SecureLatch pintle hitches as an intermediate point for the trailer’s safety chains. In this way, chain damage from dragging on the ground is kept to a minimum.
Versatile towing isn’t available within this device, whereas the CURT 48010 module provides it. Again, this has got a reduced chucking option, whereas it is not found in the 48010 series. So, as per your requirement, you need to get one for yourself.
A backplate is built into each SecureLatch pintle hook and combo hitch. When you are backing up, this plate helps you ensure that your towing connection is correctly aligned with the hitch on the back of the trailer. Strong mounting plates keep the lunette ring in place and make sure it fits over the hook.
There are a lot of different pintle ball hitch combinations that can be used for quiet towing. Each one has an auto-locking lever and a cupped hook design.
Pintle mounts with slotted mounting plates make it easy to change the height with just one wrench. During torque, each bolt plate can hold 48,000 pounds of gross trailer weight.
The locking pin that comes with the SecureLatch lunette rings helps keep your vehicle from being stolen because it is built into the rings. As a bonus, the rings have a height-adjustable base off to the side.
| Things We Like | Things could be better |
|---|---|
| Excellent towing capacity | Tend to tear over time |
| Pintle ball hitch combination | |
| Gold Zinc-Plated Hardware For Long-Lasting Corrosion Resistance | |
| Integrated Safety Chain Hangers Keep Chains Off The Ground | |
| 14000 lbs. GTW and 14000 lbs. ball weight capacity | |
| Cast iron construction | |
| The Gray color finish looks stunning | |
| Limited lifetime warranty |
Why is this our best pick?
We recommend choosing the CURT 48010 model as the best pintle hitch because of its convenient pintle hook type, user-friendliness, impressive towing capacity, flexibility, and good longevity within an average budget. Moreover, we’ve cheked the customer opinions in different platforms and couldn’t find any bad reviews.
Read:
- 5 Best Trailer Hitches for Subaru Crosstrek
- 4 Best Trailer Hitches for Subaru Outback for a Safe Towing
2) Buyers (PH15) 45-ton Forged Pintle Hook
This one of the best pintle hitch from Buyers Products has a 45-ton pintle hook that can be bolted on. It’s durable drop-forged steel and powder-coated black to protect it from corrosion. This strong hook can tow up to 90,000 pounds of Gross Trailer Weight.
Each pintle hook type comes with a mounting guide, specifications sheet, drilling template, and a decal that shows how much space your tow vehicle can hold. Separately, there is a Mounting Kit (part number 8520).
| Things We Like | Things could be better |
|---|---|
| The lower jaw is made of drop-forged steel and has a simple clasp that can be used quickly | Less flexibility in usage compared to other trailers on the list |
| Black powder coating is long-lasting and doesn’t get rusty | No hitch and ball combination |
| Great weight capacity | Safety pin is not attached |
| The brand provides a commitment to customer care, innovation, and value across its range of products |
3) Buyers (10055) 8-Ton Combination Hitch
Founded in 1946, Buyers Products has been a leader in the heavy duty trucks equipment market. The 10055 model has 8 Tons in a single combination. Each of these single products combines ball hitches with a pintle hook in a single package.
With this hitch, you can pull loads with either a coupler or a drawbar/pintle ring attached to the trailer. The hitch is bolt-mounted and comes with a drilling template and a hitch ball that is 2-5/16-inch in diameter. It is delivered with a Buyers Products 8520 mounting kit, which includes Grade 8 fasteners as standard.
It is not corrosion-resistant. But on the other hand, the PH15 model is corrosion resistant. If we also think about durability, PH15 is better than this model. But both are usable in rains, snows, or muds whatsoever.
Read: 5 Best Hitch Mounted Mud Flaps
| Things We Like | Things could be better |
|---|---|
| A towing capability of 16,000 lb is available | Mounting bolts and nut washers aren’t available at times in the box |
| The hitch balls are made of forged steel and are interchangeable | |
| The adaptable design works with various heights | |
| The versatility of the convertible design allows for a wide range of towing applications | |
| It is compatible and comfortable whether it’s snow and ice equipment, hydraulics, towing, heavy duty trucks, or trailer hardware | |
| care, innovation, and value across its range of products | |
| The brand provides a commitment to customer Drop-forged structure with a corrosion-resistant powder-coated finish is strong and long-lasting |
4) Reese Towpower Hitch Receiver Mount Pintle Hook
Pintle hooks from Reese Towpower give you the pulling power you need. These traditional pintle hooks are made of heavy steel and coated in black to keep them strong against the weather. They will help you for miles and miles to come.
A pintle hook is the best way to get a good tow. Forging and casting are both ways to make things. To use this pintle, you’ll need two different hitches.
NB: If you have ball hitches for your vehicles, you’ll need a second hitch to use this one. It doesn’t have any more parts, despite what the list says. In addition, there is no need for mounting hardware.
To attach this to your vehicle’s 2 inch hitch receivers, you need the standard hitch locking pin that comes with it. We have a 70KW generator and a 1.5-ton military trailer that we tow on a tractor with the help of this generator and the tractor.
This hitch is much more potent than the loads we put on it. In this case, you can’t put more than 10,000 pounds of Gross Trailer Weight on it. You can also only put 2,000 pounds vertically. Two mounting plated bolts hold the latch in place, and a plated chain hangs from the hitch’s lock pin.
| Things We Like | Things could be better |
|---|---|
| Grade 8 mounting hardware is included to make towing setup easy, which is awesome | This pintle hook type tends to make noise sometimes while operating |
| It has a black matte finish | |
| Weight capacity 10000lbs GTW and 2000lbs vertical load | |
| Tested Tough! And superior rust protection | |
| Handy snapper pin | |
| The chain keeps pin onto the pintle |
Read: Best 3 Trailer Hitches for Goldwing
5) CURT 48010 Pintle Hook Hitch
With the CURT 48010 pintle hitch, we felt safe and secure towing our heavy duty trucks. We also implemented it with commercial and military towing applications and construction and farming. It worked fine.
It’s the best pintle hitch of both ball and pintle worlds for trailer hitches: a pintle hook and a standard hitch ball mount can be found in the same CURT 48010 hitch. If you want to, you can use a trailer coupler or a lunette ring with the pintle hitch combination’s standard ball sizes. They can be attached to pintle mounts or trailer hitch receiver tubes with the proper hardware.
CURT pintle hooks are made of solid steel and can handle a lot of weight in a vehicle, along with excellent towing capacity. If you want to use a CURT pintle hook hitch, you’ll need a pintle mount or a regular hitch. Each CURT pintle hook hitch has a locking arm to ensure that you can tow safely.
It has a CURT lunette ring or lunette eye on the side that the trailer coupler connects to. A wide range of standard sizes is available with CURT pintle rings. They can be used with our pintle hooks, and pintle ball hitches combinations.
| Things We Like | Things could be better |
|---|---|
| The superior weight capacity (Gross Trailer Weight) or towing capacity is 20,000lbs | You may have noisier rides |
| Well built within Forged Steel embedded in them | |
| It can allow flexible towing of both pintle hook types | |
| Hook and ball combinations | |
| Material handling is of top-notch quality |
Also read: 5 Best powerful Hitches for Toyota Sienna
Top pintle hitches product comparison table
To make your buying journey a bit easier, let’s compare the above pintle hitches a bit more. This comparison table is based on our in-depth research and real testing.
| Products | CURT 48010 | CURT 48406 | Buyers Products (PH15) | Buyers Products (10055) | Reese Towpower 7024300 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compatible vehicle | Truck, trailer | trailer | truck | Truck, trailer | trailer |
| weight | 21.1lbs | 17.85lbs | 10.5lbs | 14.46lbs | 8.71lbs |
| Material | Alloy steel | Carbon steel | Carbon steel | Carbon steel | Alloy steel |
| Towing Capacity/Gross Trailer Weight capacities | 20,000lbs | 14,000lbs | 6-45ton | 16,000lbs | 15,000lbs |
How to install pintle hitch on semi-tractor? (step by step)
- Firstly, you need to disconnect the reinforced bumpers and supports of beams from sideways.
- After that, you need to shut off the air valves. This will release the brake when the air comes out.
- It is time to put the pintle mount shank into the hitch receiver. Install the pintle hook and pintle mount with four screws with a 1/2-inch head. In any case, tighten the joint with a 5/8-inch wrench to keep it in place.
NB: Use Grade 8 screws and nuts in this case (not included). Keep the bolts from being too tight. Determine the right height to tow with the pintle hook. Putting 90 ft-lb on all the bolts is a good thing to do.
Also read: 7 Best 3 Point Quick Hitches in 2022
Pintle hitch vs. ball Hitch
Traditional ball hitches, also called ball mounts, don’t have the pintle hitch’s clear advantage of being able to tow vehicles with more weight. When it comes to towing capacity, a pintle serves as a pivot point for another object to rotate around.
Also read: Subaru Crosstrek Towing Capacity (All Models)
Ball hitches and pintle hitches are the two most common hitches when you do bumper towing. Towing a vehicle with a ball-type hitch is the most common way. For boating and camping, ball hitches are usually found on cars pulling small boats or trailers behind them on the road.
Read:
Extra mobility: Pintle hitches, unlike ball couplers, allow for additional mobility at the attachment point. Whereas ball couplers fit snugly over the hitch balls, they attach to and lock into place. This range of motion compared to ball hitches—both vertical and horizontal—makes them ideal for use on uneven, off road terrain, where you may encounter more dramatic angles than you would on a paved road or highway.
Weight capacity: As a general rule, the weight capacities of Class V Trailer Hitch Receivers with ball mounts can hold up to 4,000 and 25,000 pounds of Gross Trailer Weight. As for the best pintle hitches, on the other hand, many of them can hold more than double this weight.
To show you how much weight a Curt hitch can have, let’s say it can have 12,000 lbs. Pintle hitches are used in multiple locations like industrial, military, and agricultural towing applications because they can have more weight and mobility in attachment points.
Connection: To connect the vehicle to its ball couplers, ball hitches come in three different diameters. They are 1-⅞ inches, 2-1/ 2 inches, and 2-5/16 inches in diameter. To compare the ball and coupler to the trailer coupler, the latter is often a tighter fit with less room for more movement in the middle of the two parts. Many good things happen when you tow this way, like a smoother ride.
Vehicle type: Instead of ball hitches, pintle hitches are used with bigger vehicles on off road terrain and can hold more weight. They can be used in many different fields, from construction to farming.
Flexibility: Ball hitches are less flexible when moving around at the connection point. Pintle hitches, on the other hand, are more flexible. People can tow on uneven ground with pintle hitches because the lunette ring gives them more movement.
Pintle hitches have a lot of benefits, but they also have a lot of drawbacks, like rougher and noisier rides because they have a lot more range of motion. Weight distribution systems, on the other hand, don’t work with pinch hitches, so they don’t work.
Off-road driving is an excellent place to use the pintle hitch because it has a lot of range of motion. You might have to deal with more extreme angles than a paved road or highway.
Pintle hitch FAQs
Are safety chains required with a pintle hitch?
The # C48007 needs safety chains to keep you and other people safe. So, if you use chains with a pintle hitch, it makes it better all in all.
Is a pintle hitch safe?
Yes, you can feel safe while using a pintle hitch. The best way to speed up your progress is to use a pintle hitch.
Are pintle hitches more substantial?
Pintle hitches are better than ball hitches when you want to tow bigger vehicles or carry more weight. Pintle hitches are used in many different places, including manufacturing, the military, and farming.
How much weight can a pintle hook carry?
3,600 lbs. of vertical load. In this case, the maximum Gross Tow Weight or Gross Trailer Weight for the trailer is 18,000 pounds.
Are pintle hitches noisy?
With Pintle/Lunette installations, there will be a lot of noisier rides because there aren’t as many tight connections. Sometimes it depends on the pintle hook type. A hitch ball on top of the hook makes the hook come out a little rougher. People who set up things with a smoother pintle hook type, like part number 63016, are the quietest.
Also read: How to Tighten the Hitch Ball (Step by Step)?
Can a truck pull a pintle hitch?
Yes, a truck can pull a pintle hitch. Construction companies use Pintle hitches when they want to tow trailers behind dump trucks or other heavy-duty tow vehicles.
Conclusion
Buying the pintle hitch and choosing a pintle hook type among so many available in the market can be a troublesome task if you don’t have adequate knowledge of the features and usability of these devices. We have had our research done over the last few months and have discussed the best five from our experience in this post. We hope this helps you in selecting yours.
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