I understand that the coupler ball needs to be greased, but do you grease the bars? I have the WD Hitch with the long bars instead of chains, and they sit on a bracket with a keeper pin. The other end of the bar has two studs sticking out, one big and one small. The big end goes on the bottom and the small end on top and are held in place with a small clip on top of the hitch. I hope this makes sense since I am 5 hours from home and don't have a picture.Anyway, do you grease any part of the Weight Distribution Bar on either end?Thanks!SK

Mine is a little different system (Reese)Yes. I grease the ends that fit into the hitch head.

My E2Hitch says to grease the head end of the bar. What type of WDH do you have?

A little light reading Equalizer FAQ

My Harbor Freight WDH actually has Zerk fittings to grease the bars. My previous Reese did not have these fittings and even with grease wore out the head after 7 or 8 years.

Grease the end of the bars that fit into the hitch head. The end that sits on the sway brackets does not need to be lubricated.The Equil-i-zer, and similar designed hitches, are notorious for being a little noisy and greasing the pads can help to reduce that but to me it sounds counter productive. The bars use friction between the bars and brackets to provide sway control. I would think that greasing it would reduce that ability. I wouldn't want to deal with the mess either. You can buy sway bracket jackets to reduce noise.

Do you grease the bars? | Good Sam Community

11 Replies

joshuajim
Explorer II
May 20, 2015
My 4 way used to be very noisy and then I noticed that the L brackets were not exactly perpendicular to the bars. This resulted in the bars having a single small point of contact which I believe makes the noise. I loosened the L bracket bolts while hitched , squared them with the bars and totally eliminated any noise.
Community Alumni
May 19, 2015
On my Equal-i-zer I only grease the socket areas of the hitch/head assembly, I grease nothing that touches the bars themselves.
LarryJM
Explorer II
May 18, 2015
camp-n-family wrote:
The bars use friction between the bars and brackets to provide sway control.

Actually the majority of the sway is from the "sockets" in the hitch head and not from the bar/bracket interface.

I'm not sure why everyone is worried about a little noise from their WDH. It mainly only occurs at low speed like maneuvering into a campsite and I have never had a campsite "run off or away from me" because it heard me commin' :p

Larry
Houston_Remodel
Explorer
May 18, 2015
We grease our L bracket thingees and have no sway problems.

Plus,we no longer turn heads by generating a 120 decibel sound of a coffin opening during each turn.
Ron3rd
Explorer III
May 18, 2015
camp-n-family wrote:
Grease the end of the bars that fit into the hitch head. The end that sits on the sway brackets does not need to be lubricated.

The Equil-i-zer, and similar designed hitches, are notorious for being a little noisy and greasing the pads can help to reduce that but to me it sounds counter productive. The bars use friction between the bars and brackets to provide sway control. I would think that greasing it would reduce that ability. I wouldn't want to deal with the mess either. You can buy sway bracket jackets to reduce noise.

If it is an Equalizer, you actually grease the bottom of the sockets where they swing back and forth. This is mandatory. Greasing the L-Brackets on the frame is optional. I don't
K_Charles
Explorer
May 18, 2015
No grease for 9 years and when we got the last trailer I needed heavier bars and sided by side I noticed the old bars did have ware.
camp-n-family
Explorer
May 18, 2015
Grease the end of the bars that fit into the hitch head. The end that sits on the sway brackets does not need to be lubricated.

The Equil-i-zer, and similar designed hitches, are notorious for being a little noisy and greasing the pads can help to reduce that but to me it sounds counter productive. The bars use friction between the bars and brackets to provide sway control. I would think that greasing it would reduce that ability. I wouldn't want to deal with the mess either. You can buy sway bracket jackets to reduce noise.
Bedlam
Moderator
May 18, 2015
My Harbor Freight WDH actually has Zerk fittings to grease the bars. My previous Reese did not have these fittings and even with grease wore out the head after 7 or 8 years.
Houston_Remodel
Explorer
May 18, 2015
A little light reading

Equalizer FAQ
msgtord
Explorer
May 18, 2015
My E2Hitch says to grease the head end of the bar.
What type of WDH do you have?