w/d bars noise suppresion

Without knowing your truck type or anything I have a suggestion. My hitch used to make a ton of noise, popping, screeching, squeaking, you name it. With my set up I had to really crank the bars up hard only leaving 4 links showing. This put a lot of pressure on the hitch causing it to make all the noise. I added a set of airbags and now hook my chains on the 6th link. Since I did that no more noise. Yesterday and today I towed the trailer. I went to pick it up and forgot to inflate my bags before I left the house. Since I didn't have air in I cranked up the bars back to only 4 links showing and all the noise was back. Again not knowing how you are set up, if you add airbags you may be able to back off on your chains some and eliminate the noise. This is my personal experiance, the loud noise stopped after I went to 6 links. I know people are against air bags and say they are for decoration only and don't do anything. My experiance with them has been great.

Agreed we need to know the brand and style. If you've got the standard, old fashioned Weight Distributor hitch with bars and chains, there's not much you can do. I towed with one for nearly 9 years and yes, they do "snap, crackle, and pop" from time to time. If you've got the genuine Equalizer Brand, there are a few things you can do to mitigate the noise. Those are the only two styles of hitches I have personal experience with so I can't comment on others.

If you will post the Brand, type, and size of the hitch we may be able to help. Otherwise you will get nothing but WAG's.

i'll echo Francesca's point:

what brand of WDH are you talking about?:h

i'd assume an Equal-i-zer but there are Equal-i-zer clones by other companies and maybe it's not an Equal-i-zer-type of WDH.
if it is, Dick B. already suggested the nylon Bracket Jackets that Progress Mfg, Inc. sells for the EQ.

I ve found little to no noise driving on turns it is noisy. It is metal to metal on the saddles.

handye9 wrote:
There are a couple hitches that don't have that noise.

Blue Ox Swaypro and Andersen WD hitch

The Blue Ox has an enclosed hitch head, with bars that snap in. The moving parts are internal. The grease is inserted with a grease gun.

The Andersen has no bars at all. The anti sway, is brake material inside the ball shank and there is nothing to grease. Very quiet.

They are great hitches, but with their high cost, I'll live with a little noise.

memgrove wrote:
My grandfather always said "If that hitch aint squealing, that hitch aint working" I was told again today at the hitch and trailer brake shop "if you dont hear it its not working" So I would tell her that.

I have the Husky round bar type. The noisiest portion is the sway controller, otherwise tight turns will cause some noise, otherwise normal driving yields no noise.

My grandfather always said "If that hitch aint squealing, that hitch aint working" I was told again today at the hitch and trailer brake shop "if you dont hear it its not working" So I would tell her that.

Without knowing the brand/type:

If there's a friction-type sway controller involved, the noise may be related to wearing down of the pads, resulting in metal-on-metal noise. Those pads are usually replaceable.

Per lubrication:
You probably already know, but it seems worth mentioning that one must NEVER put any sort of lubrication on the sliding/braking surface of a simple friction sway bar.

Equal-i-zer hitch has some nylon jackets that fit on the L-shaped brackets that help the noise situation BUT does not totally eliminate it.