Retrofitting Vcle.Comps. Conical Ball Coupling

Andy,
I had VC fit mine on our way to the Copeton Rally. It took their employee 1 to 1.5 hours to do it.

The cone end is pretty straight forward, just one bolt though the same hole with another locating bolt to stop it turning.

The Pintel ring coupling has a mounting plate 250 x 90 and has holes approx 185 and 55 apart to take the 4 bolts that are about 15mm Dia. These bolt holes do not line up with the AT35 coupling at all, so 4 new holes have to be drilled.

The only limiting factor to putting it underneath would be if there was not enough room underneath for the 90mm wide plate to fit between the A frame. By mounting it underneath all you gain is the thickness of the plate that you are mounting it to so there is very little advantage anyway.

The problem that most people will have is having a large drill large and powerful enough to drill the 15mm (approx) holes in the mounting plate. It is a straight forward job if you have the equipment. I haven't so VC did mine.

Conrad pointed out that the bolt that secures everything together doesn't appear to have sufficient thread when everything is connected so I purchased another bolt about 15mm longer and that makes me feel a lot happier knowing that there is now at least 20mm of bolt into the threaded base of the cone section.

For ease of coupling up I also have a bolt about 250mm long that I screw into the Cone if I haven't lined the ring and cone up 100% and the cone has been push sideways as the ring was lowered. It is simply a case of screw this bolt in to give a little leaverage to return the cone to a central possition in the ring, and then remove bolt and secure the top section of the cone with the securing bolt.

VC also give BOG members a discount, so don't forget to enquire about that.

Just back from our first venture out with the BT. Our hitching setup is aweful (i think the original has had a few modifications in its life), so uncoupling and recoupling on the road is not really an option. We had the good fortune to meet up with FTroopCafe on the road, and Graham told us about the conical hitch. I looked it up on the VC website this morning. Looks very simple. Our present hitch has anti-sway bars, and the previous owner felt they were very important. The conical does not seem to allow for these. Would love feedback from anyone else who is using the conical, and how they fitted it. Can you send us pictures of yours? Thanks.

Not quite sure what you mean by the 360 degree swivel.
The cone coupling in the pic rotates around a horizontal plane a full 360.

The cone also tilts across the vertical, I think around 28 degrees, a bit more than a stendards ball.

Rob Buchanan at VC could give you the figures.

Regards