Trailer Unimog

[b101uk]

If you look at truck derived drawbar trailers then remember you will almost certainly need to modify the drawbar height as trucks now have gone to low long drawbars so the coupling is mounted beneath the chassis and forwards of the rear cross member so there is little space between the body of the truck and that of the trailer maximising load space vs. maximum legal length, about the only exception to this are the very few D & Dc type drawbar tippers about which still utilise the trucks rear cross member but even so there trailers drawbar will still be a bit lower than an MBU/SBU mogs rear cross member/hitch height but you can normally just get away with welding on a new flange-plate with extra height adjustment holes for the bolt on flanged towing eye.

 

With respect to off-road use the NATO 76mm pintle system is far superior to 40mm/50mm or 57mm automatic pin hitch system due to the NATO pintle system having a much wider ark of movement horizontally and most importantly vertically, the disadvantages of the NATO 76mm pintle system is when using centre axel trailer is you have to raze/lower the drawbar to locate it in the pintle & you have to use the larger NATO pintle’s for 1000kg static loads from >9T centre axel trailer, if you don’t envisage exceeding +- 20deg from the horizontal in vertical movement then a 40mm or 50mm automatic pin hitch will be ok.

 

Something else to consider is whatever vertical load (S) is placed via the drawbar on the back of the mog is subtracted from the mogs payload, this is why unbalanced farm type trailers aren’t used with mogs because they subtract to much payload which isn’t critical with “normal” tractors.

 

Lastly just remember there are a multitude of computations used in the calculation of weights and forces translated threw the hitch system which denote the strength of hitch/towing eye that MUST be used I.e. S, V, D, Dc values

[treequip]

With respect to off-road use the NATO 76mm pintle system is far superior to 40mm/50mm or 57mm automatic pin hitch system due to the NATO pintle system having a much wider ark of movement horizontally and most importantly vertically, the disadvantages of the NATO 76mm pintle system is when using centre axel trailer is you have to raze/lower the drawbar to locate it in the pintle & you have to use the larger NATO pintle’s for 1000kg static loads from >9T centre axel trailer, if you don’t envisage exceeding +- 20deg from the horizontal in vertical movement then a 40mm or 50mm automatic pin hitch will be ok.

 

I agree that the Nato hitch is superior off road particularly as you push the envelope.

 

I think the rockinger type has overall superiority because the rockinger type is automatic and fails safe. If it isn’t properly set there is a visible indication.

If you forget to lock the nato with what is a pretty insignificant looking pin the trailer can come off quite easily. In Germany the Nato type hitch is only allowed for off road use. You can’t tow on the highway with it (unless you are the military)

 

Andy