Hitch grease

[RoadrunnerII]

Originally Posted by Seann45

A small square of wax paper over the ball does the same thing as grease and much easier to clean up afterwards..

Ditto on wax paper. Use a heavy rubber band to hold it on the ball until hitched.
No grease on your leg or pants if you do scrub the hitch

RoadrunnerII

[Hollander Mutthaulers]

I put on a blue HF nitrile glove and smear a dab of thick sticky Lucas red wheel bearing grease on the ball every time I hitch. Makes me feel good. : ) I wipe it off and put a cover on the ball when not hitched. Keep grease in a little plastic jar along with some gloves in the back of the car. Jar full cost perhaps a buck and is about half gone after 2 years.

I grease the ball. I also greased the 11 points on my old 4Runner including the metal sockets, like the ball joints.

Didn't notice reference to greasing the ball in the Jayco owner's manual. A friend has towed TT and 5W all over for years and another tows his construction trailer and a 5W. Neither heard of greasing the ball. In fact, they scoffed at the idea. I am usually reminded of that when I inadvertently grab the tongue and get a handful of grease.

Seems like a matter of opinion. I grease because it makes sense to me, but I certainly agree with homer as well.

[CodyWayne1826]

I grease everything!

[lnbski3]

Wax paper here. It’s clean and stores easily under the truck seat. I unroll about a foot of it and fold it back and forth until it’s the size of the ball wrap the ball then you’re ready

[stevenl]

Always use grease on hitch and sockets of sway bars.

[X213_2015]

No lube here. Towed 10K + miles and my ball still looks new - yeah it's not completely shiny - it never was...but I haven't noticed any rust rot or residue after long tows. I remember walking in to the greased balls as a kid and getting a nasty bruise and/or ruined pants. No thanks. By the time the tongue and/or ball is worn out it's probably going to be time to replace it anyhow. Evidence to the contrary might compel me.

Based on the near zero wear after 8500 miles towing I'm a firm believer in the "no lube". Probably more towing than some do in their entire ownership of a camper. You can buy the "snake oil" but in my opinion it really doesn't do anything for you. Even the 5th wheels and tractor trailers are moving to no lube polymers....but thats an entirely different type of hitch and works in a completely different way than a ball.

To each his own...I'll sick to keeping clean with no lube.

[RetiredLEO]

I wonder about rubbing a bar of soap around the ball lightly. Would beat grease on the clothes any day.

[WCForester]

If you have an Anderson Weight Distribution and Anti Sway hitch. The ball should not be greased. The "teflon" insert within the hitch must swivel.

[TakerEasy]

My dealership didn't have any white lithium or bearing grease but they had tons of this and it seemed to work just fine....
LOL !

[RogerR]

Andersen recommends no grease with the Andersen WDH. They also sell balls with impregnated ends that need no grease.

I used to grease mine to avoid squeaks. Not anymore, clean pants!

[jngkeen]

Look at this way. Treat it like cheap insurance. Personally, I have not see too many metal on metal applications not have some sort of lubricant, and have seen things go very awry when it doesn't have it. It also helps reduce corrosion inside the trailer hitch.

[Stroked550]

After replacing numerous couplers on trailers that have worn through I always Grease the ball

[fast_st]

To those that say greasing an open joint as waste of effort, Tractor trailer couplers and excavator bushings are heavy duty couplings, exposed to dirt and have to be greased due to the extreme pressure to prevent galling.



If you're running a light trailer, low tongue weight, grease won't make much of a difference save to prevent rusting. I've not thought of waxed paper but paraffin may not be a fantastic extreme pressure lube, better than nothing at all. Moly paste greases would be best and any extreme pressure grease would be great. Cleaning with a rag and or some wd-40 will get the old dirt/grease out of the way. Squeaking is galling, and that's when two surfaces slide together and a piece of one tears off and embeds in the other on a microscopic or macroscopic level. Torn up metal also rusts very quickly and the stresses can start a fracture. Chrome and zinc dichromate surfaces resist galling to a point.



Greases with zinc, moly, lithium will smear those metals into the sliding surfaces into the surfaces to help resist galling and corrosion.

[RAllen]

I use Reese Ball Grease on the ball and weight distribution bars. Was told to do so by my dealer. I wipe clean with a shop towel on arrival.

[b349]

I grease my hitch ball on all bumper tow trailers, Ive actually had to replace couplers due to wear through. I grease everytime I use them and wipe clean both ball and coupler before storage.

[ttavasc]

For those with Andersen No-Sway if you are experiencing wear as shown below I was told by Andersen that it is fine to use a dab of grease on each of the wear spots to reduce the friction. While the ball rotates within the friction cone, when you transition from level to inclines such as enter/exit parking lots that are different height than main road, or have a significant incline up a driveway like I do when storing the trailer these pressure points will wear. The dabs of grease on these spots is definitely helping slow down the wear and have no impact on the anti-sway capability.

[Scott91370]

Originally Posted by Stroked550

After replacing numerous couplers on trailers that have worn through I always Grease the ballAttachment 42224

I don't think grease would have saved that hitch. It looks like it was caused by more than just towing. Was it in the ocean for a while?

[Duke4857]

I grease my hitch because of the noise and the galling on the ball. I lock the hitch inside the coupler when not in use so I avoid most of the dirt issue on the ball. The arms go in the boot of the trailer to keep them dirt free as possible. I have pulled both greased and ungreased. I like a light coat of grease better than the noise. Too much grease makes the pins stick on the arm pockets of the hitch. I use a little on the ware spots on the arms and very little in the arm groves. The ball gets a good heavy coat. I just have been using disk break bearing wheel bearing grease. Tow safe my friends.

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by K&P

Had something changed in the last 30 years? In the '60 and '70s everyone had grease on the hitch ball. When I took my new trailer home after dealer installed hitch it was dry. I understand why the swaybar rub area is dry, but is the hitch now dry for sway control or did they just not grease it?

You should have made this a "Survey" on the forum!!!!

I have my own opinions, but can only express part of it. I went back and looked at the responses... categorized them into groups by tow rig, size of the trailer and other important criteria to towing...

Then I went and counted the responses and who was + / - and found some interesting metrics. Forum Survey's sure help here!!!

[Chet & Marie]

OK after trying the greased ball for 3 trips I am cleaning up the mess and going back to greaseless like I have for the last 30 years. Ruined 3 good T-shirts and got a greased up grandson. Called my dealer who said they recommend no grease. Called Curt Hitch and they said not worth the trouble. Called Jayco and they said same thing. Today I cleaned up the grease and ordered 3 new shirts on Amazon.