Alko 3004 stiff hitch head

[camel]

Been having a problem when I couple up ,when the hitch head comes down on the tow ball I have tp give it a tap for the handle to go down, I had a good look under the hitch head this morning and the moving parts behind the rear brake pad looked very dry I gave them a very slight taste of graphite grease which solved the problem , dropped the hitch head on to the tow ball a couple of times and the handle moved smoothly down,

 

[CustardAvenger]

On a similar thought, I have to clean the towball and hitch head with brake cleaner before each trip otherwise i get a horrific creaking/grinding noise when towing. I'd cleaned them prior to a trip to Cornwall, towed down with no issue, then 4 nights later on the return, the noise was terrible. Have to take the brake cleaner with me now.

 

[camel]

Thats a common problem but last year after a four and a half hour journey to Wareham i was three miles from the site and I started to get a real creaking sound from the hitch, on inspection at the site there was a very slight mark on about 50% of the tow ball on inspection for some reason the screw that holds in the rear pad had somehow worked out about half a mil and had marked the tow ball out came the driver and re tightened the screw no problem since,