Good old tow balls ......

Joe, I haven't used a tow ball for over 10 years. Polybloc hitches like Treg are definitely much quieter and secure and allow more articulation. If i was using a ball when i had a major axle failure on my trailer early last year, i would have done damage to my towbar and trailer A frame and possible my Patrol's chassis due to lack of a balls articulation. Its extra money but its worth in my opinion. regards Michael

Hi Joe

I've seen a couple that have snapped off at the neck. That is one good reason for safety chains of course. It is probably wise to replace them after a few year of heavy use when travelling on the open road; they aren't expensive.

Motherhen

Hi Joe

I only use the traditional tow ball, and you know what the roads are like where I am, they have never failed me.

Cheers

I rolled a trailer one and a half times on the GRR many years ago.
It stayed attached to the camper and the camper stayed on its wheels.
It was a Treg coupling. I am sure that the lot would have rolled if it had been a conventional ball.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Apart from the allowing extra angle of movement I think with a Tregg type hitch the biggest advantage is that it absorbs the impact of vibration from the towbar / coupling assembly. After hours of this type of vibration and impact this is what creates the fatigue cracks that can lead to their failure. Having seen the effect and how it can literally destroy trailers to a skeleton the more you can isolate this shock from the hitch the better. For use on heavy corrogations I'd personally only use a Tregg type.
Cheers

Hi Joe,

Some years ago Caravan and Motorhome shot a DVD of their trip from Brisbane to Darwin.

Accompanying them was Roy Weise principal of Sunland Caravans. Gill Schott was towing the then new Blue Heeler which was atached to Gills troopy with a Treg type hitch. Traveling the outback Queensland rough roads was, from all appearances, very stressful to Gill and the continual hammering the tow bar and hitch were getting was very obvious from the sounds in the DVD.

This was such a problem that somewhere along the way, outback Queensland, they went to the expense of ditching the treg and changing to a ball coupling.

The difference was extremely noticeable immediately, both in the quieter sound and the lack of stress in Gills face. The main problem with the Treg type hitches is, as far as I know, is that you cannot fit a weight distribution hitch to the outfit as the tregs are not designed for that type of setup.

I make the observation that Tregs are fine for the lighter loads such as camper trailers but not for a heavier load such as a caravan.
Roothy makes a very clear comment in that same DVD that, I quote, "Tregs are fine if you intend towing your trailer on its roof, but for a caravan they in fact don't provide enough stability". or words to that effect.

I agree with John Rooth on this one.
Case in point;
My nephew has a Kimberly Camper, weight about 1.5 tonne, we weighed it with our cattle scales, and I got him to do a test run on his car using my 2.2 tonne van, again verified by the cattle scales.

His comment was that my van weighs a lot less than his camper because it felt lighter on his car. He took some convincing that his camper was in fact lighter than my van. that is when I bought in the cattle scales and weighed his camper and verified it at 1.5 tonne.

As I explained to him the difference was the weight distribution hitch and the way it locks the vehicle and van together as a unit while still maintaining articulation. Sure, you take the WD system off if in rough country to allow more articulation but for highway traveling they are more preferable must for any trailer over 1 tonne.

I first towed with a WD system in 1972 and immediately was blown away by the difference and prefer not to tow anything over a tonne with out them.
I don't know if they have devised a treg hitch which can take a WD system as yet as I have not seen one, but then they don't let me out all that often LOL.
Cheers, Bruce.

Once you get into the bigger vans etc, the ball is the only thing you can use, so I learned over Christmas at the cvan park

Can't see how the Treg has that much difference in articulation than a Hyland??

If the ball coupling is set up correctly with the slack adjusted correctly I have not noticed any undue noise in the coupling.

Gday,
Yep.....Ive seen plenty of bent tongues because balls don't have enough articulation.

Cheers

Ball couplings have an articulation of something like 20%. With 3 tonne and a sharp dip or crest, damage could be done; but these are not on normal roads.

Certainly the sideways 360º rotation of the off road hitches may in the case of a trailer rollover prevent the car from going over too - but the safety chains sometimes do that job!

When I was a young child, we dragged our caravan to our coastal holiday destination over rough roads and the ups and downs of the sand hills to get into our camp - all with a pin hitch. We thought ball hitches were the bees knees when i came to articulation.

Mh

This what happens when you roll a triler with a ball and it doesn't let go!!!!!Image Could Not Be Found
This would not happen with a tregg or orac hitch

Josh

All VERY interesting, reminds me of the "split vrs tubeless" debate .....
Now i know i have seen the ball hitches with the hydraulic brakes that use a threaded shaft and attached to the ball coupling allowing it to rotate a full circle so rolling over is solved........ BUT we all still use chains so that would stop it at some point
I also reccollect towing a site van in the Pilbara that had a pivot system on the hitch with a heavy spring system on it and it took ALL of the shock loading out of towing, it was a breeze to tow .....
Still with all the above i think i will stick to the ball for now and try to remember the old hitch we used to use.. and get one made up.
Cheers and thanks for the info all.
Joe