Are all British tow pintles fixed?

[Phil Waterman]

The following is a question from Steve Keith one of the long term members of my local Historic Military Vehicle Club:

"Do all British pintles not turn? The larger US ones rotate all
the way around, the Jeeps are fixed.

The reason I ask is that the 57mm AT gun has a lunette
that will rotate about 30 degrees each way. Both the 1.2
tracks and the deuces had pintles that go all the way around
so this performs no useful function. As the gun was based upon
a British 6 pdr, I suspect the carriage is too."

I scared the daylights out of Steve one day towing his US water buffalo as he watched the frame of the trailer twisting instead of the pintle on the back of my CMP. Steve is one of those seriously committed (or is that committable) collectors with two large 40x60 storage buildings and something like 18 WWII Chevy and GMC trucks he is trying for one off each of the entire GM WWII production. I’ve lost track of how many trailers.

[Richard Farrant]

Phil,
Most of the WW2 British trucks had fixed towing hooks, often mounted on leaf springs, the trailers having rotating, or part rotating eyes. Post war, rotating hooks were introduced, but with a latch to lock them. Care had to be taken not to have a fully rotating eye attached to an unlocked hook, as great damage can result. In recent years, some 2 wheel trailers were introduced with fixed eyes and the hook had then to be unlatched.
Hope this is of help to you.

Richard