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I have been looking, and I haven't seen a hitch like mine on
anyone else's Pinz. It's specific to the Pinz and mates up
with the OEM parts, as if made by Steyr. There's a tag on
the side (see pic)

I'm just curious if this hitch had a specific purpose, or if it
identifies my vehicle as one for specific use, etc. I'm torn
as to whether I like it or not. I don't tow often, but it would
be nice to have if I do ... but it lowers my rear end's angle of
approach (no jokes, please. lol)

I've seen them before and they are somewhat rare. It's an add-on hitch to enable you to pull a normal trailer and not just one with a lunette ring. You should be able to just unbolt it if you don't like it. Personally, I would probably take it off, but keep it in case I ever needed to tow a normal trailer. You can occasionally find them for sale on ebay for about $100 or so. It's kind of a bonus in my opinion that your Pinz came with one.

The one at the top is for the OEM trailer as it is for a smaller lunette and it rotates. I would so get rid of the lower one. I'm thinking Ebay.
There is a combination hitch that fits the pinz witches hat and will allow a lunette or a ball hitch setup on a trailer.

This one. Just the hitch, not the angle.

@Centar712 - Thanks. As long as I'm not off road, it's pretty cool.
I'd love to know what sort of ratings it has. I'll try and google a
translation for Stutzlast and Ann _ _ last. I can't make out what
SPP 1 is, and I'm assuming the rating is in metric tons. (It has a
little "t" after the Ann _ _last.

My take is your truck, at least at the end of its life with the Swiss army, was not part of the pool of trucks that units would borrow from for their training period, but was affected to one particular depot, barracks, airfield or so, and they had the need locally to pull a trailer with a ball hitch and not the usual "lunette" hitch. So the army ordered a hitch from Hirschi in Bienna... (The company is still active, by the way: http://www.hirschi.com/fr/dispositifs-daccouplement/)
To know where your truck was being used, do you have a small yellow sticker on the windshield (3/4" x 3" or so)?

I believe Anhängelast stands for (max) trailer weight and Stützlast is (max) tongue weight.

"SPP 1" is the manufacturer's reference for this hitch assembly (it is mentionned in the field named "Typ", type or model in english).

Thanks. There was no yellow sticker, but there's no
telling if it got scraped off at one time or another.

Great info.

Pinz710m2 wrote:@Centar712 - Thanks. As long as I'm not off road, it's pretty cool.
I'd love to know what sort of ratings it has. I'll try and google a
translation for Stutzlast and Ann _ _ last. I can't make out what
SPP 1 is, and I'm assuming the rating is in metric tons. (It has a
little "t" after the Ann _ _last.

Pinz710m2

Stützlast is the vertical load on the towbar
Anhängelast is the weight f the trailer...

Pinz710m2 is Verboten

undysworld wrote:Pinz710m2 is Verboten

my sincerest apologies for interfering ....

Hotzenplotz wrote:

undysworld wrote:Pinz710m2 is Verboten

my sincerest apologies for interfering ....

Apologies not necessary. I was just informing you that Pinz710m2 got himself ejected from this forum a while ago, for his behavior.
I meant no offense. Hopefully none was taken.

Those tow couplings are quite common in Australia....Years ago many Telstra (Australia's land-line phone company) vehicles were fitted with them.
I've fitted one on my 718 rebuild.......Most of those type couplings have a mounting plate design that conforms to a Nato standard so the bolt pattern will fit many different types.

Whilst a standard 50mm tow-ball is not suitable for use with a snatch-strap the larger shaft diameter of those "special" 50mm balls makes them ideal for winching/tow off.

The drawback is that nearly every 4WD TV show, magazine, club etc, etc tell you never to snatch off a standard towball as the shaft/bolt can snap under load and you end up with a 50mm cannonball flying through the air, so those "would be" 4WD experts who don't know that those units have a thicker shaft designed to take the load, are always telling you that you shouldn't be using a towball to recover a vehicle.

Profpinz wrote:Those tow couplings are quite common in Australia....Years ago many Telstra (Australia's land-line phone company)

Whilst a standard 50mm tow-ball is not suitable for use with a snatch-strap the larger shaft diameter of those "special" 50mm balls makes them ideal for winching/tow off.

The drawback is that nearly every 4WD TV show, magazine, club etc, etc tell you never to snatch off a standard towball as the shaft/bolt can snap under load and you end up with a 50mm cannonball flying through the air, so those "would be" 4WD experts who don't know that those units have a thicker shaft designed to take the load, are always telling you that you shouldn't be using a towball to recover a vehicle.

Not all of these sold here have those uprated balls - many have a standard 50mm ball and some even have a 50mm ball but the ball shank is smaller than standard (I have one of these and refuse to use it). So with these hitches with standard 50mm balls, the concern about snatching from them still applies.

Garry

Well that's something I didn't know Gary.
The shaft on mine is much larger in diameter than a standard 50mm ball unit.
Years ago a friend purchased his and mine in South Aus from a truck dealership, so they are the real deal, but it's dissappointing to learn that there are cheap copies on the market that are possibly dangerous to use.

BTW Gary, you probably know my mate mentioned above as he's got a 101 too .....http://members.westnet.com.au/profpinz/ ... /rgenn.htm

I took a different approach.

Initially I just had the frame the ball is bolted to, and added the ring welded to a plate.



ropes often got twisted, so I replaced the ring with a revolving shackle (Bearmach BA 2682) which was initialy sold for Landrovers, but has a matching bolt pattern

Profpinz wrote:BTW Gary, you probably know my mate mentioned above as he's got a 101 too .....http://members.westnet.com.au/profpinz/ ... /rgenn.htm

Yes I know that vehicle.

Cheers

Garry