Towball quandary

[Colinn]

Halfway through the towing season this year, my hitch developed a "graunching" sound at slow speed and while turning. The towball, brand new, had become noticeably scratched/scored and I spent a lot of time cleaning it up (pretty much to no avail). My caravan is six years old and although the Alko hitch pads are no where near worn out, do they deteriorate to the extent that they can cause this problem. As I am considering a new car next season, I wonder if renewing the pads would stop the same thing happening again. Any advice appreciated...

 

[rob_jax]

Hi,

You did the right thing in cleaning and resurfacing the tow-ball, but did you clean and de-glaze the AL-KO pads at the same time?

True, the contamination starts out on the tow-ball but it rapidly transfers into the surface of the pads. And it is contaminated pads that cause the noise (and reduced performance)

If you are happy to remove the pads yourself, you can clean the pad surface with sandpaper (usual precautions about not breathing brake pad dust) or if they are not in too bad a condition, clean the surface with brake cleaner or white spirit and plenty of cotton cloths to wipe away the dirty liquid.

If you don't want to go down this route (it will be a dirty and dusty job), just buy a replacement set of pads.

And when you replace the pads, apply a small amount of non-setting lubricant - like CopperSlip - to the pins on the back of the pads - this will help them slide in the AL-KO coupling head.

Robert

 

[Colinn]

Hi,

You did the right thing in cleaning and resurfacing the tow-ball, but did you clean and de-glaze the AL-KO pads at the same time?

True, the contamination starts out on the tow-ball but it rapidly transfers into the surface of the pads. And it is contaminated pads that cause the noise (and reduced performance)

If you are happy to remove the pads yourself, you can clean the pad surface with sandpaper (usual precautions about not breathing brake pad dust) or if they are not in too bad a condition, clean the surface with brake cleaner or white spirit and plenty of cotton cloths to wipe away the dirty liquid.

If you don't want to go down this route (it will be a dirty and dusty job), just buy a replacement set of pads.

And when you replace the pads, apply a small amount of non-setting lubricant - like CopperSlip - to the pins on the back of the pads - this will help them slide in the AL-KO coupling head.

Robert

Many thanks Rob, sounds like i've got a bit of work to do.

 

[chrisn7]

Whilst a specific brake cleaner product is ok, I don't believe that white spirit would be advisable as this is actually a light oil. The brake cleaner will evaporate rapidly, the spirit will there for weeks....