Tow Ball

[DavenGill1]

Hi

I have just had a tow bar fitted to my car ready for collecting our caravan tomorrow. I have read on other forum sites and people have complained about a grinding noise when towing, the replies when the question was asked is the paint has to be removed from the ball.
My question is, do I have to remove the paint from my ball this eve before I go and collect my caravan?
Many thanks

 

[Mike_S]

Yes
remove the paint with emery cloth or sandpaper then clean the ball with brake cleaner or methylated spirit - don't use white spirit as this is too oily.
It's worth getting some emery cloth and a can of brake cleaner for light regular use in future to keep the towball clean and hopefully eliminate any grinding/groaning noises when towing.
Mike

 

[Mel]

The reason for doing this is that the Alko or Winterhoff stabiliser on your van has pads on the inside of it that "grip" onto the towball to dampen and reduce movement, so making the tow more stable and helping to reduce snaking. The paint on your towball will get rubbed off onto these pads contaminating them reducing the effectiveness of the stabiliser. It will also make the most horrible grinding and groaning noise.
New van eh? Congrats, very exciting.
mel

 

[otherclive]

If you don't have any emery then a dish scourer and some Flash will do it but rinse off the Flash on completion. Meths works well if you have any.

 

[DavenGill1]

Paint all removed, thank you all for the advise it is gratefully appreciated, yes Mel excited to be going to pick it up I will be back on when we go on our first outing for more info

 

[JTQ]

Just a word of caution.
If the tow ball is one of the type secured by a two bolt flange then it must be of a specific design if the caravan features an Al-Ko stabiliser. A standard two bolt ball has not sufficient clearance ball to flange and ball to bottom depth.
If your towball is a so called swan neck type there is no issue.
It is only the Al-Ko stabiliser that has this problem.
If you believe you might be effected make a point to ask the dealer at hand over to check this point.
There are risks if the ball type is not correct.
Enjoy your new aquisition

 

[DavenGill1]

Hi JTQ, my tow ball is a swan neck, when I had it fitted I specified that as the caravan has a alko hitch