Creaking 3004 Alko Hitch

[JasonSDunks]

Evening eveyone, advice please.......

Came back from Wales on Saturday with a vey noisy hitch. Cleaned the pads and the ball at a service station and ok for a while. By the time I got home worse than ever. Even just moving the hitch up and down whilst attached the car was noisy.

On the way there, no problem, any ideas please.

Thanks

JSD

 

[Rod_5041370]

I have a similar creaking from my Winterhoff hitch.

I spray the towball and hitch pads with Halfords brake cleaner which cures it for a while.

 

[Lutz]

If the noise keeps coming back despite cleaning the pads and the towball, then contamination has got so deeply into the pads that only an exchange of pads is going to help. Cleaning the pads only cleans the surface but not oil or grease which has worked its way further inside.

 

[JasonSDunks]

Thanks Rod & Lutz.

I have only towed the van 4 times from brand new (less than a year), could they really get so contaminated in such a short time?

 

[Lutz]

It only needs someone at the dealer's to move the 'van on their premises thoughtlessly with an oily towball to contminate the pads beyond recovery.

 

[rob_jax]

Jason,

Just a thought, you have made absolutely sure you removed all the paint from the car tow-ball?

The same applies if the tow-ball was "gold" plated.

Robert

 

[JasonSDunks]

Thanks all.

I will reclean the pads and my ball and see if it makes a difference when I next venture out in July.

JSD