Tow Ball wear

Hi Roachie, as you can see i have upgraded, the handbrake got tired of the snow on the roof of the CT and gave me the nod hard roof or no going back to the mountains in the SI NZ for the fishing so this year we are taking over the Phoenix, still got the CT would nto part with it. Have tried the grease bit, and have adjusted the WD a little and that have reduced it nby 50% however the tow ball is leaning a little towards the truck, have checked this with the experts and also have noticed most other tow ball with the 750 are also leaning towards the truck so maybe that the standad fit and i should try it with a strauter tow ball the bal i am useing is the middle shank one and is of course rated to 3.5t., we are thinking of leaving the Nissan over in NZ this year and b uying the Chev Siverado to tow the Phoenix around Aussie in 2007 have you heard anything about them.
Regards
www.bugbitten.com/adams

Cheers mate,
Sounds like the grease thing might be the go....I never worried about it too much when I used tow balls. I now have a TREG coupling on my box trailer (8 x 5 tandem) as well as the Ultimate (standard fitting for this camper trailer manufacturer).
However, I recall my old grandfather ALWAYS had a his ball greased. As for the shiny covers getting knocked, old pop used to cut a small slice off a tennis ball and squeesze that over the greasy towball. I doubt whether any mongrels would bother flogging one of those and they work well to keep the grease off your clothes and knees etc.
Sorry I can't offer any advice about the big Chev Silverado....don't think I've even seen one!!! hahaha
Good luck mate and Merry Christmas
Roachie

350kg on the Fender old mate.

Cheers

Yikes! How do you find the handling? Even with airbag-assisted suspension to help level the car - is your towbar rated for this weight?

:)

hehe... maybe you should think of moving some of those lead weights down towards the back of the trailer.... ;) LOL!

That's the rated capacity ... I don't go there ;-)
I've not asked the question, but I assume the towbar would be rated for it as it is OEM equipment, fitted by the stealer.

Cheers

GU Patrols (4.2 diesel, & petrol manual models) are rated for 350kg max.static ball load (3500kg towing capacity).... actual allowable ball load varies according to vehicle load..

Hi Omaroo,
Yeah the truck will handle it alright rated to 3.5t and the ball to 350k, hows the rivers up your way many trout in the rivers would not mind a look and a flick if there is, looks great county from the snaps how do you get time to do any work.
Regards

We're on the Murrumbidgee - so it's infested with trout most of the season. Any time you want to come and have a spin, be my guest. Just leave me a message here and I'll see what we can do.

Cheers
Chris

Wizard, that's what the safety chains are for.

Actually, the boat I tow is at or slightly above 2500kg and the 250kg tow ball load is handled easily by the troopie with just standard rear leaf suspension. There is no undue wear on the ball either after many 1000's of km's of towing.
My tow hitch is rated for 3000kg which I believe is the upper limit for 50mm tow balls.

The original poster may simply have never greased the hitch or the Reese hitch system puts an unusual load on the front end of the tow ball.
A very remote possibility is the ball locking pin being reversed, doable on some hitches I have seen by simply rotating the handle 180 degrees.
Klaus

Ball I'm using has 3.5T stamped on it.... presumably, these ratings would (or should) allow a reasonable safety margin????

The most weight that I would tow would be around the 2000kg mark..
(when I'm collectin' the winter faaarwood:-)))

Yeah, agree with ya about the grease (I did mention that earlier:-))...

In my experience, the nice chrome covers seem to have a habit of um, (ahem) "growing legs" :-((
(must be someone out there collectin' 'em :-() )

I have yet to see the plain black ones develop this habit, so that is what I use;-))

Hi Sand Man the TREG is not an option in this instance, on our camper trailer we use the 3.5 a/t hitch which is far better than the treg and also has a very good saftey feature, you shoul dhave a look at it. but on a caravan it is to hard to hitch up as it require to come in from the side and that is fine a a CT up to ablut 1.5t but when you get up to say 3t it is hard to push in from the sides, i know that the Bushtrackers also have the 3.5A/T hitch but if you really get one of them guy's on his own he will agrre that they are hard to hitch, with the Hyland Hitch it is very easy.
Regards