Greasing your Balls (trailer hitch ball)

[sac89]

I have towed my new camper probably 8 times now since buying new. New camper, new hitch, new ball, everything. It makes this awful squeaking noise every time I turn now. Am I supposed to put some sort of grease on the ball to prevent that from happening?

[dave54]

ol' grouch wrote:
...
I lubricate the ball and cover it with a ball cover. I prefer red or yellow covers so if some idiot walks too close and barks their shin, I can say I warned them with bright colors. Usually, all I can find are black ones...

I made a plastic cover for the small anti sway ball from a piece of bicycle inner tube. I grease the anti sway and WD also. If metal touches metal and moves it's lubed.

[ol__grouch]

I grease my trailer balls. We use equipment at work to move product that has the ball type couple. I told them to grease the hitches and was told by the plant engoineer it wasn't neccessary. Two onths later I told them to take three of the trailers out of service due to the coupler wearing a hole in the top from the metal grinding.


I lubricate the ball and cover it with a ball cover. I prefer red or yellow covers so if some idiot walks too close and barks their shin, I can say I warned them with bright colors. Usually, all I can find are black ones. I use wheel bearing grease I keep for packing bearings.

[allen8106]

sac89 wrote:
I took off the Sway Control Bar, and guess what? No more squeaking!

Bingo. Now stop greasing the ball and getting that gunk on your pants. It's not required.

[sac89]

I took off the Sway Control Bar, and guess what? No more squeaking!

[sac89]

Awesome discussion! Thanks for all the input. To summarize what I have read, is that the squeaking I am hearing is most likely form my WD, or the sway bar instead of the ball. I will tow once without the sway bar on there and see if the noise still exists.

Greasing the ball is a good idea, but watch out for grease on the pants. I will google Slip Plate dry lubricant to see what that is.

Again, thanks for all the great discussions!

[Sport45]

The ball hitch is a ball in socket articulating coupling. The tongue weight along with the normal movement results in wear. If the ball wears out that's not a big deal, they're cheap. If the trailer ball socket wears, not so cheap. If you apply lubrication the wear rate is greatly reduced.

The application is similar to the ball in socket connection of tie rod ends and nobody would recommend running those dry.

[allen8106]

While you "can" grease the ball it's not required. The noise likely is not coming from the weight distribution hitch. It's likely coming from the sway bar. All sway bars make a noise on turns if tightened properly.

[PilotEd]

Has anybody used Slip Plate dry lubricant? I use this on my 5er slider hitch and it works great, no grease to attract grit and grime then cause wear.

[Oaklevel]

Its not a bad idea but I don't grease mine...... I currently have a 1980, 1994, 2007, 2010, trailers

[Sport45]

I always used a dab of wheel bearing grease. When the tub's no longer full enough to pack a bearing there is plenty left to grease the hitch many times. I just put a bag over the hitch when taking it out of the receiver.

I've never seen it done myself, but heard you could put about a quarter-bar of hotel soap on top of the ball when hitching and it would squeeze out and lubricate things until the next time. Makes sense, but you'd want to make sure it wasn't holding the tongue up and preventing a secure latch.

[MetalGator]

The first few times I used my new TT and the new hitch and ball, the ball had metal shavings all over it. You could see where the tongue was contacting the ball and putting a grove in it. I bought some Reese grease and that stopped the problem. Of course, occasionally I do get grease on me.

[APT]

I have liberal amounts of grease on the ball. I also take the ball mount/shank out of the receiver whenever not towing. I store the one adjusted for my WDH in the TT whenever not towing. As soon as the TT is set up at a campsite, leveled, and WD bars off, off comes the ball mount too.

I have another adjustable height ball mount I use for all my other trailers I store in the garage except when towing.

[dave54]

Grit dog wrote:

pappcam wrote:
I've never greased the ball on my current hitch and I periodically check the wear and tear on the ball and coupler and everything looks fine. In my opinion grease would just attract dirt and make things worse.

Exactly. ^
Had a guy at work when I was a kid, swore by that and never failed to get you covered in dirty abrasive grease when you least expected it.
I got trailer hitch tongues with probably 50kmi on them. They are still fine, no grease, no squeaks.
If I want to get covered in grease I have enough projects around the house that can achieve the same results and accomplish something constructive out of it! ...

I grease mine liberally and do not get any on me. Some of us must be less clumsy than others.

[Grit_dog]

pappcam wrote:
I've never greased the ball on my current hitch and I periodically check the wear and tear on the ball and coupler and everything looks fine. In my opinion grease would just attract dirt and make things worse.

Exactly. ^
Had a guy at work when I was a kid, swore by that and never failed to get you covered in dirty abrasive grease when you least expected it.
I got trailer hitch tongues with probably 50kmi on them. They are still fine, no grease, no squeaks.
If I want to get covered in grease I have enough projects around the house that can achieve the same results and accomplish something constructive out of it!

I will shoot the trailer tongue inside and out with some WD or fluid film, etc to keep the rust down during the winter, for the trailers I store outside.