Do you grease your balls?

[atgreene]

I use Fluid Film for balls, and everything else.

 

[Skyco]

Now that Fluid Film is some good stuff I'm picking up another gallon today at the John Deere dealer, only local place I've found that sells it. My car trailer is all rusty underneath, I'll spray it with Fluid Film- it is a great rust preventive that stays on for years. Messy but effective.

 

[patrick_g]

If there are two sides to any particular issue, you will see at least three or more of them touted here individually as the only possible way a sentient being would handle the situation!

Think about it, think hard, under what other circumstances (besides trailer hitches) have dry unlubricated metal to metal contact under great pressure and constant motion been the desired situation? Not many! What is different about hitches?

A person is free to choose there own actions. Possibly based on economics and or laziness or whatever you could decide it isn't worth the hassle, soiled hands, extra few seconds every so often or whatever to lubricate a trailer hitch. Your economic (or labor based) decision might work for you if you are willing to accept the faster wear rate, or not actually tow much, or whatever. A hundred miles a year would take a long time to wear out a hitch. This economic slant in no way lends weight to the argument that not lubricating is superior to lubricating so far as the life of the materials (hitch and ball) are concerned.

There is no DOT statute requiring you to lube your balls. There is no DOT statute requiring you to run lubricant or coolant in your engine. Most of us, on reflection, would probably consider it short sighted to not run oil in our engine as the effects of that choice are fairly immediate and dramatic. The effects of not lubricating your balls are less immediate and less dramatic until or unless you eventually have a coupler failure due to it being too worn.

So until someone presents a cogent engineering and scientific argument that clearly, concisely, and completely demonstrates the superiority of dry metal to metal contact as opposed to lubricated metal to metal contact, I will stand on the side of recommending that we lubricate our balls.

There are a couple provisos... 1. you need to wipe off the old dirt and grit contaminated lubricant relatively frequently, at least before adding new lubricant. 2 If economics are not a consideration in your case and you elect to not lubricate your balls then for the safety of those of us sharing the public roads with you, do please inspect your balls and couplers for wear rather than using them till they fail and endanger us.

Pat

 

[schmism]

in inspect my balls frequenly... errr wait what were we talking about again?

 

[Skyco]

Speakng of inspecting balls... I had a 2 5/16 ball from TSC that gave me a lot of trouble getting it both into and out of my various trailer couplers. Got out the calipers and that ball was OVERSIZED Went back to TSC with it and my calipers and found several a little over and several a little under, picked out one on the money, did an exchange and solved my problem.

The moral is- Bigger balls aren't always better

 

[srsu99]

A few years ago a small local garbage company was running a custom made, well it lookedcustom made to me because I have never seen one before, garbage trailer. Always hooked to a 1 ton Dodge truck. Never greased, obviously, because it wore through the coupler and felldown onto truck bed.Dont know how longthey pulled it around in this shape, but..........I went into the local welding shop to buy a few supplies and they had hooked there overhead lift to the neck ofthe trailer in an attempt to get it off. No luck they had the tiresof the pickup liftedoff the ground too. Hadto cut the coupler apart to free the truck from trailer.I can imagine thiswas no easy task as the couple lookedlike itwas made out of some type of cast material.Any of youevery try to cut cast with a torchy. So I continue to grease my gooseneck and fifthwheel hitches, hope thisnever happens to me!

 

[Spiveyman]

Been overlookling this thread for a while now, but curiosity got the best of me. I've hauled for years without grease. I use a ball cover and keep the ball in good shape, but that was more for asthetics when the trailer's not hooked up than to prevent rust and thereby keep friction forces down. Never put that much thought into it before, but yet another TBN "best practice" revealed to me. I think I'm going to go grease my balls right now.

Also, I used to paint the draw bar and hitch receiver every year to keep it from rusting, but I've gotten lazy on that. What's the weight rating on those aluminum draw bars? Something just seems wrong about towing with one of those rather than steel. I'm not saying it's bad, I have no idea, just saying it seems wrong.

Good thread, surprisingly.

 

[Skyco]

I too would be leary of the aluminum drawbar...like you it seems suspect to me I've noticed an interesting thing in the trailer hitch parts business, there are a couple of smaller manufacturers that seem to rate their stuff way higher than similar construction from the big boys..hmmmm. Are they that good or just too optimistic and/or haven't had the pants sued off them when something fails...yet. When it comes to trailer towing stuff I'm in the belt AND suspenders camp

 

[patrick_g]

I too am a belt + suspenders kinda guy in this arena but if the aluminum is done right it could be plenty strong. I had an all aluminum Danforth style anchor that was just so light for its size that it did not inspire confidence but the alloy was super strong and it sure was nice to be able to carry it up onto the foredeck of a pitching and rolling sailboat in one hand and toss it out a good ways. It worked very well in demanding circumstances and never showed signs of distress.

What would worry me is aluminum coupler parts rubbing against a steel ball. Whether or not it was a realistic concern, I would probably be a bit worried about grit grinding on and enlarging the hole.

Pat

 

[firemanpat2910]

I just looked at my setup. The Alumistinger by Andersen Manf. 2000 tongue 13,000 trailer. I also inspected its condition while I had it out. This stinger has been on my last 2 trucks so its probably 4 years old at least. There is a very slight maybe 1mm of a ridge where it rubs on the steel reciever. Wich is no more than I would expect on a steel one. It slid right out. I have had to chain steel ones to trees to pull them out. I also checked the condition of the locking pin, It has a little wear and some rust, next time I drive by the hitch store I will have to pick up another heavy duty locking pin. The interchangable ball pin was in good shape also. The ball shank is the only part of mine you cant read, Its had 1 to many pipe wrenches on it but you can still read type v