How to deal with grease on ball of receiver

^ X2

Wipe both ball and coupler....toss that greasy paper towel into the fire

Re-grease when hooking up to leave

During the trip, road grit/dust/etc gets on the grease on the edge, that might get into the ball-coupler union when hooking up

Guessing the amount to re-grease costs less than a penny...

1ed wrote:
Once you have grease on the ball, how do you cover while in the campground ? It seems that grease was all over the place...Will the rubber ball hitch cover work or are there better ideas out there? Thanks Ed Life continues to be a learning experience .

After reading this OP and all subsequent answers, I am wondering why this is so complicated. As soon as I unhitch the TT I wipe all the grease from the ball and underneath where the stabilizers plug in with a paper towel and either throw it in the garbage or in the adjacent campfire pit. Not sure why 3 pages of replies have chimed in with creative ways to cover a greasy ball when all that is needed is to wipe it off. What am I missing here?

I have a fleet of Dewalt cordless drills. They come with a nice little zippered carrying bag. I don't store my drills in them, so have a bunch in the garage.

I put one of these bags over the ball end and zip it up until tight.
And when I removed the greasy hitch head, it has a storage bag with carrying handles.

Works great!

I wipe mine off and store the hitch and bars in the pass through storage. Then a little dab of marine grease with each use. It doesn’t take much grease at all. A toothpaste size dab and finger it around the ball is plenty. Cleaning rags last a long time.

I wipe mine off every time. I put fresh white lithium grease on it every time, not a lot but enough to do the job. If for any reason I grease the ball to reduce noise and the friction wear.

I'm in the remove hitch from truck and store in the forward compartment crowd BUT I do not use a heavy WD system or drop down hitch. Also being a mechanic gloves and grease are always on the truck so no issues occasionally cleaning and re greasing.

DutchmenSport wrote:
I used a 4 inch PVC end cap with the screw end cap. It fit perfectly over the ball. ...

This is an older hitch I'm no longer using, since I don't have a TT any longer, but it demonstrates the usage.

CamperDave wrote:
Re: plastic bags. It's funny here, Safeway stopped using plastic bags for a while cause they were banned, but recently they have reappeared. I asked about it, and they said they are making them heavier duty now and calling them reusable to get around the ban. Still disposable, but now thicker material. Talk about unintended consequences lol.

I agree. What's funnier still is that the new "reusable" bags cost us ten cents each and the store keeps the money. So the extra 10 cents per bag that allows us to keep using the plastic bags does not go to a program to clean up the environment or anything like that. It's just additional profit for the store.

gmckenzie wrote:
First trip of the season, I make sure to buy a can of alphaghetti for lunch.

alphaghetti
I had to look that up, that is one part of the grocery store that I completely bypass.

I used a red solo cup and it has stayed on during trips to town and or sightseeing and it works for me when I get home from camping I wipe off the grease and cover with a walmart bag and store. My truck is my daily driver so hitch comes out if I'm not pulling