Sankey trailer

[Bigdog]

Hi everyone, probably a silly question but as most of you know I am doing up an 1970 series 2a 109 ex military Land Rover, it's still in my workshop and nothing been done to it apart from strip it down, anyway my question is that I have the opportunity to buy a Sankey trailer, is it possible I could collect it with my ford ranger what would I need to do regarding tow hitch etc, many thanks

[Alan Drover]

The trailer will almost certainly have a NATO hitch. If your Ranger has a slider type hitch you could beg/ borrow a slider plate with a NATO type jaw on it. A standard pin hitch is not at all suitable as the trailer towing eye is much bigger.
You'll need a trailer board with lights etc as the trailer will have a different electrical socket.
I had one for a while and it was a very good trailer and towed very well.

[biloxi]

The tow ring on a trailer is called lunette. It connects to a pintle hook on the towing vehicle.
.W.

[diffwhine]

I'm intrigued. In French, "lunette" translates as glasses (specs) or a bezal. Sometimes it could be a telescope. How did that morph into a towing eye?

[ChiefBeard]

...very good trailer and tows very well.

Never knew what 'tows well' meant until mine got the notion to wander off on its own.

[Alan Drover]

I'm intrigued. In French, "lunette" translates as glasses (specs) or a bezal. Sometimes it could be a telescope. How did that morph into a towing eye?

It's more like a monocle which in French is "Le monocle" so maybe it should be called that.

[Bigdog]

I was wondering if I could fit a nato hitch onto my ranger for time being so I can get it collected, but not sure

[Wittsend]

You are going to need a towing vehicle with what is often called a "NATO hitch".

Over the years there were several "types" produced.
The Sankey draw bar/tow ring rides quite high, about 21/22" from the ground to tow safely.
The standard "caravan" hitch height is just way too low.

As mentioned ^^^^ the electrics use a "NATO" military plug and socket (nightmare to wire up) and this won't be compatible to a standard vehicle's electrics. A trailer board will sort that out.

The Dixon-Bate sliding tow bracket is a good solution.
You mount them "inverted" to give you a height range, so you can pull a caravan/trailer and  a Sankey, by sliding on the appropriate slider. For the MoD electrics I made a conversion extension with a NATO socket on one end and a standard towing plug on the other.
If you "shop" around you can find the MoD/NATO sockets on eBay and the like.

[diffwhine]

I was wondering if I could fit a nato hitch onto my ranger for time being so I can get it collected, but not sure

Depends on the bolt pitch of the tow plate you already have fitted. Some - like Land Cruisers already have the NATO hitch spacing as standard. As does the Grenadier (Excuse the gratuitous plug!). The 4 bolt spacing for the standard small NATO hitch is pretty standard.

Maybe post a picture of what you have on the back of your Ranger so we can see?

[Bigdog]

This is my tow bar set up

[diffwhine]

I can't quite see the plate clearly enough that the tow ball bolts on to. Has it got 4 smaller holes in a square pattern on the mounting plate?

[Bigdog]

No just the 2 I think

[autorover1]

If the Sankey has a none rotating hitch the hook needs to rotate and vice versa

[Bigdog]

This is the Sankey hitch

[Alan Drover]

This is my tow bar set up

Doesn't look like a NATO pintle will fit and not being a slider hitch you won't be able to use a hitch on a slider plate.