No joke. Anyone grease your hitch ball?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
OldGuyOnTheRun said:
Does anyone grease your hitch ball? I towed a small trailer for many years and clearly my hitch ball suffered from the friction.

Is it a good idea?
Click to expand...

I always did with a very slight coat of grease. You are living proof as to why you should have years ago. Not only is your ball damaged, but the socket on the trailer will also be galled.
 
I always have grease on my balls too.  ::)

And I always have a spare Walmart bag to cover hitch when I'm camping, because I Always bump into it.
 
spencerpj said:
I always have grease on my balls too.  ::)

And I always have a spare Walmart bag to cover hitch when I'm camping, because I Always bump into it.
Click to expand...

After unhooking, the first thing I used to do was pull the hitch from the receiver. I couldn't walk within 10 feet of my truck without banging into it!
 
I figure I saved money by buying a motorhome as the pants I ruined with hitch ball and equalizer grease were getting expensive. 

My shins have since healed too.
 
spencerpj said:
I always have grease on my balls too.  ::)

And I always have a spare Walmart bag to cover hitch when I'm camping, because I Always bump into it.
Click to expand...

Ditto
 
HappyWanderer said:
After unhooking, the first thing I used to do was pull the hitch from the receiver. I couldn't walk within 10 feet of my truck without banging into it!
Click to expand...
Ditto again
 
I've towed trailer of one kind or another since I was 16 years old (I'm turning 64 in about 6 weeks) and have never towed a trailer that DIDN'T have grease on the ball.  You are talking about a metal to metal contact point that moves.....grease is the only way to solve that issue.
 
I got tired of greasy hands and pants and decided to forego the grease on the ball and simply plan on changing it if wear gets excessive. A decent quality ball lasts for years anyway.  When high quality chrome plated balls got hard to find at local stores, I went back to the unplated kind and simply clean it up occasionally with a synthetic steel wool pad.  However, I do use a spot of grease in the coupler itself, and some of that gets on the ball.

 
Any steel on steel contact needs lubrication.  I put the ball back into the coupler immediately after disconnecting to not only keep grease off my pants, protect my shins and keep the ball and coupler cleaner.  In addition, this adds a bit of security to both the trailer and the hitch.  To do this easily, I made a lift tool so the hitch can be carried and placed using one hand to carry and the other to operate the latch.
 
First thing I do after disconnecting the trailer is to remove the ball mount assembly. That way I don't run into it with my leg.

The ball needs to be greased. If it is not it will get galled along with the trailer coupler. The ball is easy to replace but the coupler is not.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,098 (members: 27, guests: 1,071)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,931
Posts
1,387,722
Members
137,682
Latest member
duckyw7528
Back
Top Bottom