My story.
Bought my 16K Reese square tube manual slider new in '97. After arriving home I tried the slide. Had to dump the clutch in the Cummins to get the hitch to slide.
Well this ain't gonna' do it so I took the hitch head pins springs when needed and slider pins and rollers apart as far as it would go without cutting anything loose.
I lubed the jaw pins and slider rollers and their pins with a dab of red grease.
Sprayed the slides with white lithium grease.
Man was that a mistake as I hauled wood/hay/dirt/gravel in the bed on occasion. The white grease turned to a caked up mess.
Cleaned it up and sprayed the tubes and rollers with a heavy greaseless spray
on lube. That was in '97 and all I've done since is car wash the slider portion once a year and spray it down several times a summer.
Slides like a hot knife through butter at any angle including 90 degrees.
I found the gloss black shows less smudges and seems to stay on longer.
"good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" ............ Will Rogers
'03 2500 QC Dodge/Cummins HO 3.73 6 speed manual Jacobs Westach
'97 Park Avanue 28' 5er 11200 two slides