[woodchuck2]

The pintle is more secure and generally used for heavier loads. Also the pintle allows "slack action" sometimes required to move heavy loads. The slack action is needed to give a little jerk from a stand still.

Example: A long train needs this slack action between each car to get the train moving. If there were no slack action, the train would never get moving.

Good point on the "slack action", i never gave that a thought.

As far as the DOT rule of 10k as stated above "In my area the DOT guys give you a road side inspection if they don't recognize your rig . DOT #s over10000lbs" i have been asking alot of questions to friends in Law Enforcement about this myself and so far no one has a definite answer. My question is how can a car dealer sell lets say a Ford F-350 CCLB 4X4 Diesel that weighs around 8k empty, put 5 people in it and 2k lbs in the bed that will now be out of class per NY DOT laws and subject to DOT numbers to someone who only has a class D license and only use it for personal use?