Hitch wear

I had worn trunnions and eventually they pulled out of the hitch head.

Here is the hitch head before the event



Here are my trunnion bars. If you look at the ends you will see similar wear (although mine was more severe) This was an older hitch I received with the camper and I had no clue about greasing and that sort of thing.



Here is a trunnion socket 'post-mortem'



And finally one of the trunnion bar ends. Pretty dramatic damage that Friction force can do huh.



Watch your wear like a hawk.. It's getting to the point where I would start to be slightly concerned.

My hitch following this one was a Draw-Tite 1200 lb bar trunnion hitch. I cleaned the grease out and degreased the sockets before every pull. I did leave the old grease in the hitch to prevent rust build up but cleaned out the old and put in new before every pull.

My Draw-Tite was in perfect condition and showed almost no signs of wear through thousands of miles of towing.

Folks, grease your friction points. Its really that critical.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Any decent grease will be fine. I use Super Lube because years ago Home Depot had a bunch of them sitting by the cash register. The tube is handy to use and lives in a small bucket inside the back door of the van with my gloves and other hook up stuff. So far one tube has lasted over 8 years.

I wouldn't worry about that amount of wear on the trunnion, and the head doesn't look very worn at all. Lube it up, and go!

I have been using Moly Lube for several years. I had a can at my old job. We usually left on a trip after work. So at some point during the day at work, I would take the lube out and smear it on the connecting points of the hitch. After work I would get home and hitch up the camper. We don't have any at my new job and I just keep forgetting to get hitch lube. I will get some before the next trip. Here is a pic of the socket of the spring bar.

Grease it up and camp on .
It will be fine.

Anytime two pieces of metal rub against each other you need to lubricate them. Especially when there's a lot of pressure involved.
The mating socket that part sits in is almost certainly badly worn as well.