Lubricating Lunette/Pintle?

Question is: does this need lubrication? If so, with what?

I ask because while towing today, doing slow turns, it sounded like it was binding up. Everything looks good. The only fix I can think of is to throw some grease on it, but what?

They do clunk

What truck and trailer?

Depending on the combination either the pintle hook or lunette is supposed to pivot.

Typically on 1/4 ton trailers the lunette pivots. On larger trailers the pintle hook pivots.

I have a pintle that has 2 grease fittings, i have another that has none.

I have just re-replaced the pintle Drawbar on my M416. The previous owner cut the ring off, put a standard trailer ball hitch on the remaining stub with 4 bolts. I found a replacement lunette on this site. When I cleaned it up and tightened the spring/nut to spec, the ring hardly budges/rotates.

I am towing this trailer with my M1009 Blazer. Should the lunette spin more freely?

3/4 ton trailer. Neither point pivot. It's on my Dakota. The place I was wondering if you're supposed to grease is where the lunette and the pintle connect. There is some free play there, to handle road irregularities, of course.

This is something that just came up today. Two weeks ago, it wasn't doing this.

They make a little noise and bind a little sometimes but I've never seen one lubed. I think lubing it would just make a mess and it wouldn't stay on there very long anyway.

No need to lube it. They bang back and forth and side to side all the time. Would some grease help? Sure but no need. Like said before, it would make more of a mess than help it would give.

edpdx said:

I have just re-replaced the pintle Drawbar on my M416. The previous owner cut the ring off, put a standard trailer ball hitch on the remaining stub with 4 bolts. I found a replacement lunette on this site. When I cleaned it up and tightened the spring/nut to spec, the ring hardly budges/rotates.

I am towing this trailer with my M1009 Blazer. Should the lunette spin more freely?

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This is normal, the 1/4 ton lunette usually requires a bar or pipe for leverage to rotate it.

SO it does not need to freely rotate when held/towed with the military tow hook?

For jeeps, the pintle does not need to rotate, but on their trailers, the lunette is supposed to have lube and swivel a bit. On larger trucks, it's the opposite, the trailer's lunette is fixed and the pintle on the truck swivels.

Think physics for a moment, one or the other NEEDS to move or going off-road over extreme terrain will cause something to snap.

Maddawg308 is absolutely correct. Either the hitch or the eye must be able to move, otherwise the trailer tongue or the hitch attachment will have to flex and that is not good. This is typical of over the road applications not for our off-road usage.

Now, if the ring and the hitch are not properly sized to each other a lot of the flexing can be taken up in the "slop". That may the clank and bang that is being heard. A properly matched ring and pintle has less than 0.06" clearance in the attached configuration. (Note I said properly matched.) This is not to say loose fitting connection will not work, but... that is not how they were designed.

At address the original questions, the hitch to draw-bar connection can be lubed with a dab of grease to make the ring move more smoothly. There should be no binding in any range of motion.

Due to design the pintle type hitch will never be as tight as a ball type hitch. It is much stronger in most cases though.

I prefer the pintle hitch over a ball type. I'm in the process of converting my civilian trailers all over to pintle hitch. Easier to line up by yourself, don't have to jack it as far to hook/unhook, and most other people don't have a pintle hitch so you don't have to worry about them wanting to borrow your trailer. The only down side is the "looseness". It doesn't bother me though. If I was worried about ride I wouldn't be driving the vehicles I do.

They are also more secure. I have never had a properly functioning pintle hitch fail. I HAVE had two separate trailers pop off while moving that had ball-type hitches. One could argue that the ball hitches were not properly functioning, but suffice to say I don't trust them anymore. At least the pintles LOCK closed with a safety pin. If the big trucks use pintles, that's all the evidence I need to keep using them.

As I mentioned, this isn't something that it's been doing since I've had it. It's always been loose, even when using a different type of hitch, the one with a ball also; it was so loose, I went and got a regular style hitch.

This noise is something new. It doesn't sound loose, but sounds like something is binding up. It catches, and then releases, but only on slow turns. Any normal speed turns, over 10 MPH, no noise. I did have my back slider window open for some of the drive, but I heard it even with it closed. So this is new.

When pushing it to park it, I put a wheel tongue jack on it, there is no noise.
The wheeled tongue jack makes parking it so much easier than backing up, especially on a 75 Foot driveway. Even my wife can push it!

I always put a little "white silicon hitch lube" on mine when I tow them, a little something extra for the metal to metal movement.
I use this on the moving parts of my 5th wheel camper hitch, it's not near as messy as regular grease.

You might want to try putting a little Red and Tacky type grease on the bottom of the Lunette. All the trailers I pull for work are fixed and do not rotate like the military ones. They also dont make any noise when turning or any other type of movement, even the rusty ones. As far as backing up, it takes time to master that skill. First day I had my work truck and new concrete pump, I had to put it in a conex that was 8' wide. Well the truck is 8' wide and 27' long. Pump is 15' single axle pintle. Having not gotten used to the truck yet and not having backed up a trailer in over a year, and being a stick which I was not used to, it took a few mins to get it right, but I got it in there. Since then, I have backed out of a few 100 yard long twisty spots and back up over hills in a turn. It takes time, and even I mess it up once and a while. You need to know your limits. And dont be afraid to tell someone no I cant back up out of that. They may look at you funny, but its better than getting stuck.

I have backed it up, a couple times, when needed. I just wanted to make it easier to move around, hence the wheeled tongue jack. The flat footed thing just doesn't cut it, unless I want it to stay put.

I'll try the lube stuff you've mentioned, and see if that helps. If not, there might be something else wrong with the thing... (Surge brake)

Actually got my son to watch the hitch while backing up.

The hitch is catching some and torquing the setup, releasing and then doing it again. Might also be causing the grinding I hear when doing slow turns.

So where do I get this grease y'all are talking about?

Stop/gap method until I do major mods to the trailer: lowering it to match the receiver.

All of my trailers will make a grinding type sound in sharp turns. It's just how they are. I wouldn't worry about it.

m16ty said:

All of my trailers will make a grinding type sound in sharp turns. It's just how they are. I wouldn't worry about it.

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Not just grinding, but binding as well. Sounds nasty when I pull it with my little pickup....