tow hitch grease?

I'm kinda new to using a WDH, assembled and setup a EazLift for my new-to-me Tacoma, because my new-to-me 16' Casita made the 08 TRD Off Road, riding on new BFG A/T KO2 tires, porpoise down the road like a small boat on choppy seas. WDH made the ride way smoother



so. I've towed a fair amount of fairly light trailers before with just a ball, various tow vehicles ranging from a 2001 Ford E150 7-passenger 'Traveler' 5.4L, to a 1987 Volvo 240 sedan (with overload springs, it towed 1000-2000 lb boats just great!), and my practice has been a thin wipe of green marine grease on the ball just before hitching, and wiping it off the ball when I unhitch and remove the tow bar.

The WDH has grease zerks where the two spring bars go into the hitch, so I grabbed my old grease gun, cleaned it up and chucked a tube of moly grease [1] into it, and used that, pumping enough in til it oozed out, wiped off the excess, worked the bars back and forth, squirted some more in, and wiped off the additional excess. since I had the moly out, I used that to put a thin wipe on the brand new chrome ball, hitched up and took the trip.

now, I'm re-reading the instructions on the hitch [2]

MAINTENANCE: Use heavy lubrication such as fiber type wheel bearing grease on hitch ball and on spring bars. Recommended every day. Keep hitch painted to prevent rust and check tightness of bolts regularly. Clean out old grease, do not let it harden inside of the Ball Mount.​

heavy grease each day, cleaning the grease out of the hitch after each day's tow.

wow, thats a lot of mess to deal with do folks really do that, get to your days campsite, and strip and clean your hitch, like its your prize shotgun ?!?

To me, that sounds like annual maintenance, not daily?!? I don't even wanna carry my grease gun on the road, although I guess I could see doing it when you get home. me, I took the whole hitch assembly off the truck without even disassembling it, so the weight bars are still on it... I did that in camp, and again when I got home .... its heavy, but not that hard to install solo.

and, is [1] an appropriate grease to use, rather than my marine 'ball bearing' green grease, where EazLift specifies "fiber type wheel bearing grease" ? I got this for my 1949 Ford 8N tractor


[1] http://www.crcindustries.com/ei/product_detail.aspx?id=SL3330

[2] http://manuals.adventurerv.net/Eaz-Lift-Weight-Distribution-Hitch-Elite-Instructions.pdf

 

You're doing better than me. I didn't even know you were supposed to grease the tow ball.

Each summer I rent a 50' towable man-lift from Sunbelt and a Silverado from U-Haul to pull it, and neither place has ever said anything about doing that?

 

I have several trailers. I pack a small handful of grease in the trailer receiver cup. That way the coupling is always greased and the lube is not affected by weather. Putting the grease on the ball is a one time use, since it is blown off after use.


... and mud wasps don't move into the cup.... don't ask.

 

I have several grease fittings on my WDH that I always make sure are topped off. But, I carry a can of WD40 and spray the ball and cup before I hookup. WD40 seems to keep any noise down when traveling and I don't have a huge mess of grease to deal with when I am cleaning up after the trip.

 

Id guess 99.99999999% of hitches never see lube.