cause of squeaky hitch

[lorrainejoyce]

Can anyone give me a SENSIBLE possible cause of what might cause a strange squeak/graunching noise that developed on our friends winterhoff stabilised hitch. We heard them coming as they arrived on site and they said it only started in the last ten minutes of their journey. We advised them to sand and clean the hitch ball and check the pads on the coupling to make sure there was no grit stuck in them. It was alright when they left but ten minutes from home it started up again ( they had driven for approx 1 hour). We have never experienced this so any help would be appreciated.

 

[SirRogerFFS]

It would appear you have done the obvious, my suggestion would be to start again with fine grit wet and dry and really give the ball a good going over ,spend some time on it use brake cleaner on it ,
make sure there is no grit etc left on the ball and then clean the hitch pads with brake cleaner, do not use any oil based fluid what ever you do.
I hope this will help you
Sir Roger

 

[Sproket]

If you or they have a deisel engine in the car,
The tow ball should be cleaned regularly as deisel fumes can leave a greasy deposit on the tow ball.
Or If the exhaust is starting to blow ........
That might explain why it lasted a hour on the way home before it started again.

 

[TheTravellingRooster]

Hi to you all out there. I hope that I don't get my rear end kicked for what I am about to publish on the forum. This subject has been an issue on several other forums.
Moderators Edit:
While I'm in favour of caravan related websites that are there to inform and the one mentioned is considered to be very informative we tend not to try to lure members away from other caravan forums and for this reason a portion of the above post has been edited.
Parksy (Moderator)

 

[SirRogerFFS]

I take you wont post on here anymore and carry on with ***********!!!!!!!

 

[ChrisUK]

I have been putting up with a squek (not a grunch) for a long time, cleaned / glass papered the ball, cleaned the pads etc. to no avail.
Putting the van into storeage yesterday however I had a thought, I got my wife to walk by my van as i slowly drove the rig into the farm and apparently the squeek is comming from slightly further back.
What I think it might be is the brake rod from the hitch to the rear, is supported by a simple flat metal plate with a hole in it and the rod might be squeeking on that as it moves everso sightly on the roughish drive.
I will investigate further.
I agree that a grunch is probably the towball / pads.

 

[oldievanner]

Came back earlier this year from approx 2500 mile trip around europe with multiple stops. The "noise" started on hitching up in Calais for trip home. Even though I clean ball and pads every time I hitch up, I still got the noise. We stopped when we came off Eurotunnel and cleaned again, but to no avail. A colleague at work said he had exactly the same problem, the cause of which was a glazed covering of the four friction pads, caused by diesel exhaust. On removing mine, I found exactly the same thing. A good clean with 1200 grade wet & dry and brake cleaner removed glaze. Cleaned ball-again and towed for about ten miles and no noise. I mentioned the problem to dealers service man, when van had its annual service last week, and he said they do not clean them but just replace, but I suppose they would, at approx £25 a set!! Van was only 2 years old at the time, having covered about 4000 miles. I did a quick survey of colleagues at work, who tow with petrol cars, and none of them had any problems except one, but that turned out to be a rusty towball, rectified by replacement.

 

[forestgump]

had this debate before it was said that a alko /or the other tow ball will sort it yes it did but let you try .

 

[SirRogerFFS]

Hey Forest,
I have left you a message before, Ill try again .
Is June Bason the old post lady still about in Pottersbury.