m1008 towing a pintle deckover - confused

[Backroads]

I'll start out by saying that my only towing experience is with 1/2 ton trucks, class III hitches and small car haulers (less than 10,000#). My main questions here are about hitch/receiver capacity.

I've been looking at 10,000 - 14,000# deckover trailers. I usualy only move vehicles, but I want the extra capacity incase I have to move a tractor or a small piece of equipment. I've been leaning towards a pull behind/pintle set up, and I figured I could tow with an m1008. I can see most people prefer goosenecks, but I'd like the option to tow with a Suburban or K5 if I really needed to, or at least to move the trailer around the yard.

I met a guy who was towing a 11,800# cam superline deckover with a half ton dodge and a pintle. He had an old jeep (4000#?) on the trailer, plus the weight of the trailer (3000 - 4000#). He admitted the truck was a little on the light side pulling that, but it worked. I forgot to see what class his reciever was. I'm betting it was a factory style class III. After seeing that, I felt confident about towing a similar trailer with the cucv.

But now, after reading some stuff online about the cucv pintles, I'm starting to think that the pintle and mount on the m1008 is not going to be strong enough if I put a 10,000# tractor on that trailer.



Engine and transmission limitations aside...

What is the max I can tow with the pintle on the m1008?

 

[colelkhunter]

Ok two sides to look at this. First off the TM says the m1008 was designed to transport a m101a2 trailer which weights approx. 1500lbs with a payload of 2500 lbs. That is what is listed. Now, being that the military severely underrates everything that they list to keep knuckleheads from breaking stuff, it would be a safe estimate to double that rating. My own OPINION is this. I have a friend with a m1008 that has used if for several years in a container rental and delivery business with great success. He regularly tows 8600lbs plus or minus behind it via the military pintle hooked to his custom container trailer. It tows with ease and to my knowledge has never failed. Now you have fact and opinion, err on the side of caution.

 

[dhcomp]

So, i'm CUCV retarded. What truck is the M1008?

Really, for the cost of a proper Class 5 receiver hitch ($100-150), i think its risky to use the pintle for that much weight.

Remind me what truck it is, and we'll go from there thouhg.

 

[CrewCab59]

No way in heck would I pull 10-15 on a bumper mounted pintle , buy a class 5 hitch and be done.

 

[CrewCab59]

M1009 are chevy blazers
M1008 are K30 trucks


Both use a bumper mounted pintle hooks. The hooks are very strong but the weak part is the bumper .

 

[shovelbill80]

He admitted the truck was a little on the light side pulling that, but it worked. I forgot to see what class his reciever was. I'm betting it was a factory style class III. After seeing that, I felt confident about towing a similar trailer with the cucv.

not to be an a$$ or anything.......but a Blazer was meant to tow a certain amount of weight. now in my opinion TOWING is pulling, steering and stopping saftly. i've flat towed loaded tractor trailers off the highway with a single wheel stepside C30 towtruck. the rig had air and stopped us both when we got to a safe area. THAT is pulling...sure a Blazer can do that too.
a K5 is a very short wheelbased vehicle and was not designed to tow(safely) much more than 6,000 lbs for a reason, although a bit "underrated" it certainly was not designed to be used as a mule for 10,000+ lbs. weight distribution hitches are a good thing too...........moving the trailer around the yard and killing yourself and possibly someone else are two different things imo. i've seen it and it's not pretty.......for what it's worth, Bill

 

[dhcomp]

M1009 are chevy blazers
M1008 are K30 trucks


Both use a bumper mounted pintle hooks. The hooks are very strong but the weak part is the bumper .

Got it. Yah, no way i'd put that much weight behind anything on that pintle.

The k30 should be able to tow that weight, but get a proper Class 5 receiver hitch. You can get a pintle setup for it if you want, but don't use the bumper mounted pintle.

 

[shovelbill80]

my guess on the 1008 bumper pintle is that 8,000 lbs would be reasonably safe depending on the tongue weight..i'm with dhcomp on the class IV
here's an interesting site if you haven't seen it. http://tripatlas.com/CUCV

here you can see my 4,500 lb flatbed trailer on my pintle that was welded to the rear bumper/bed assembly. the mess on it was an F-350 dually that lost control with a goose neck two car carrier and two cars.....witnesses stated he couldn't stop in time comming around the curve. he had no comment as he was dead. the family of four in the car he hit all lost their heads too........that load was heavy enough for my C30. 292, granny low and 4.56's.

 

[Backroads]

Ok, definitley going with the class V.

thanks

 

[shovelbill80]

and my mistake, whilst i was pontificating in my first post was i thought a M1008 was the Blazer ....now i know the difference in the designations. happy trailering, Bill