Grease for hitch balls

[Wagtail]

^^^ Very good point about spray-on oil/lubricant... gravity takes hold and these 'penetrating' products do what they're advertised as doing.

So we're talking about a wee dab of grease, smeared around/over the ball.

There's a couple of Similar Threads below, by the way.

 

[Imold]

In 40 years I have never put grease on my ball or coupler on any of my trailers although I have put grease in the receiver area so the ball hitch does not rust in it being I never remove it unless I sell the vehicle.
Guess in at least Mn you are not supposed to leave the ball hitch in the receiver if you are not towing. Oh well.

Jim.

 

[Monster5601]

Fluid Film is likely better than nothing.
However, a much heavier grease is desirable.
If you could pump Fluid Film into your TLB zerk fittings, would you consider them adequately lubed?

I think your comparison is an apple to oranges comparison.

Fluid Film is used on, for example, three-point attachment points and no one ever suggested that wasn't a good idea and grease should be used. I've used Fluid Film (you should read the uses paragraph) on my three-point, ball hitch points both gooseneck and bumper pull for years with success. I also use Fluid Film to lubricate the slide rails of my fifth-wheel sliding hitch with equal success. If I wipe the ball clear, there are no witness marks, I call that success.

 

[prof fate]

I've seldom used anything that had a hitch ball and when I did I didn't put grease on it. For a long time I didn't even know I was supposed to. What kind of grease should I use?

boat axle/wheel bearing greese - it's waterproof.

 

[fried1765]

I think your comparison is an apple to oranges comparison.

Fluid Film is used on, for example, three-point attachment points and no one ever suggested that wasn't a good idea and grease should be used. I've used Fluid Film (you should read the uses paragraph) on my three-point, ball hitch points both gooseneck and bumper pull for years with success. I also use Fluid Film to lubricate the slide rails of my fifth-wheel sliding hitch with equal success. If I wipe the ball clear, there are no witness marks, I call that success.

I see my "comparison" as metal to metal,...... with constant wear while trailering.
No apples or oranges involved.
While the ball will certainly wear down over time, without adequate grease, the coupler may actually wear out faster.
"No witness marks"?
When unhooked, do you put your head under the coupler to inspect for wear?
Nobody does!

 

[ArlyA]

I suspect trailers with higher mileage and tongue weight, will see more serious ware. I've got a stick of some kind of waxy grease and maybe I'll put a dab of it in the campers coupler...

 

[Diggin It]

PB makes a couple of stickier products in spray cans. One is a chain and cable lube, the other is a garage door track lube. I spritz the inside of the coupler assembly on the trailer with whichever of those I have handy at the moment to keep it free, but nothing on the hitch ball.

 

[CobyRupert]

Well I used to be one who never used grease on any of my trailer hitch balls, ....Then one day I noticed my hitch ball was having the nut work loose when i pulled the trailer even though I had tightened it with a 3/4" drive large length breaker bar socket.
...
From that day on...I have greased the ball with grease and I have never had a hitch ball work loose again on me so I will continue the practice of using grease for this safety reason alone!

Are you saying: Grease on the ball hitch helps prevent the nut on the shank from working loose.
I wonder how?

 

[aczlan]

Are you saying: Grease on the ball hitch helps prevent the nut on the shank from working loose.
I wonder how?

It's to make up for a lack of the proper torque on installation of the hitch ball.

Aaron Z

 

[TMGT]

My larger ball is greased, smaller 2" isn't. My big trailers can have 2k plus tongue weight and 18-20k trailer weight. The ball I use isn't chrome and the couplers are cast rather then stamped. I was starting to see wear on the ball so I started keeping them greased as much as I hate having a greasy ball on the back of my truck.
I dont think the people using the hard chromed balls and stamped couplers in lighter trailers would have as much wear showing, especially if they don't tow often.

And I had a gooseneck that would loosen the ball even when torqued to spec if the ball was dry, of course it also had around 8k pin weight sometimes so it lived a hard life.

 

[5030]

Always forged balls never plated chrome and always whatever grease I have handy. Balls aren't particular about grease, neither are couplers.

 

[downsizingnow48]

Never thought about any of this.

So the three things that could happen if I don't use grease are noise, worn coupler, trailer unscrewed the ball.

Noise. I never noticed any particular noise. A loud squeek would definitely get my attention.

Wear. All the balls I use have a flat top so there is no concentrated wear point. The whole ball would have to wear through the coupler. That is not very likely. I have searched the internet anyway. There are some folks that see this as a possible problem but nobody that I could find actually had that problem. I have about 10k miles on my current dump trailer, no signs of wear on the inside of the coupler. Yes I got down on the ground and looked at it with a flashlight and ran my finger around to feel for wear.

Unscrew the ball. If a ball comes loose, I would look to improper tightening, or a cheap ball that deformed. There are more likely explanations than "my trailer unscrewed the ball". Anyway how could anyone know that it was the trailer unscrewing the ball. No way to show that. In decades of towing, including back and forth from VA to CA, all over the place for kids in school, and more or less constant with the dump trailer, I have never had a ball come loose. Of course I use top quality high rated balls and I get them plenty tight.

I was thinking maybe I should start using some grease anyway, it is easy enough to do. Why not? But then I thought, it would immediately get contaminated with road grit and be more like grinding compound than grease. So I would have to clean the coupler and the ball pretty often. For a doubtful benefit.

So I guess I will keep on doing nothing.

 

[ovrszd]

Pat I've never greased a bumper hitch ball. I use teflon spray on my GN ball to silence the squeal.

I can't do grease for the simple fact of getting it all over myself when unhitched.

 

[downsizingnow48]

Yep I have never used teflon spray but filed this suggestion away in my "maybe this will work" file. Squeaky truck door hinges come to mind.

 

[ovrszd]

Yep I have never used teflon spray but filed this suggestion away in my "maybe this will work" file. Squeaky truck door hinges come to mind.

I first used it to lube a road grader turntable. Doesn't collect dust. Downside is when it wears off it leaves the surfaces extremely smooth and likely to be noisy. But there's no mess.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Never used grease in almost 40 years. Ridiculous. Some city-slicker guys in my Dad's RV club talked him into trying it once, years ago. Yeah, that lasted about 2 trips and then he was done doing it too. Urban myth that's faded into legend. Only things that got grease were semi and rv 5th wheel plates, but that's due to the huge bearing surface of the 2 mating surfaces of the hitch. Now they have these "lube plates" you can put on, and don't even have to grease those anymore.

Don't grease pintle hitches either, and they carry more weight than any ball hitch.

You guys go ahead and keep on greasing them balls. We'll keep on laughing at you.

 

[rankrank1]

Are you saying: Grease on the ball hitch helps prevent the nut on the shank from working loose.
I wonder how?

Well think about it. When you tighten a regular ole bolt and nut you can you can either tighten the nut or tighten the bolt head. Either will achieve tightness assuming the other end does not spin. Conversely spinning either end can loosen the assembly assuming again the other end does not spin. A hitch ball with a threaded shank is nothing more than a glorified bolt minus the hex head on top but instead has a ball on top. A stout lockwasher will usually keep the nut pretty well in place as the lockwasher atypically chings the nut as well as chings the truck drawbar which effectively holding that nut pretty much in place almost as well as a wrench.

So even tightening my hitch ball with my 3/4" drive breaker bar that is over 3' feet long and then applying a cheater pipe to lengthen my leverage further say another 2" so lets say I am now at 5' total in my lever length of force tighening along with my 250 pound human frame pushing on said lever then my tightening force is significant- darned tight I can get that hitch ball indeed especially compared to most who use a Cresent adjustable wrench and call that good. That said, the tightness I can generate on the hitch ball totally pales and can be easily broken loose by say a 20' long traler which is effectively a 20' long lever to loosen (I had only 5' of lever to tighten) and the trailer has several thousand pounds of mass (compared to my 250 lbs of mass) which will easily loosen the said ball if the trailer coupler grips the ball instead of glidling on turns. Rust on either or both make metal surprisingly grippy on each other.


Again I have only ever had a hitch ball work loose on me once really, but I did have a 2nd instance that was borderline and I did not like it either. I have also had hitch balls change clock positions but they never got loose on me many times before I started using grease on them. I atypically align the writing on the ball or better yet the flats where one would put a wrench to hold a ball to a certain clock position on the drawbar so I can see at a glance if it has ever changed positions. I have never had one change clock positions or work loose since I began using grease and will continue the practice of always using grease.

Like another poster mentioned. No Chrome balls for me. I do not like them when the chrome starts peeling so avoid them from the start for this reason. I do like the forged ones with a smooth machined finish.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Or you could put them on properly, with an impact wrench, and they'll never loosen up.

Ever.

Your choice.

 

[radios1]

Yep I have never used teflon spray but filed this suggestion away in my "maybe this will work" file. Squeaky truck door hinges come to mind.

I use marine grease for hinges, it never dries up, and it's impervious to water/rain..

 

[downsizingnow48]

I use marine grease for hinges, it never dries up, and it's impervious to water/rain..

Also worth a try, thanks!