Tow Ball care

I towed a heavy trailer for 12 years everyday and never greased. Thinking about it now i don't think it ever sqeaked either.

with all that grease on your "balls" there'd be no hair on your palms LOL LOL

How come its our fault if thr fairer sex gets grease on there clothes, but if we get grease on our clothes we would be told we should have looked where we were going!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL no justice in this world.........

Why don't you just put one of those rubber/plastic covers on the ball when not in use? Or if you don't want to shell out the $3-10, get an old tennis ball, cut a hole in it and pop that over the ball?! :)

You should have a dedicated earth return from the towed vehicle back to the towing vehicle. Either via the electric connection for the lights or via an anderson plug, both is gooderer.
This eliminates any problem with earthing.

I agree with Dodger - you shouldn't rely on the towball for earthing. One of the pins in the electrical connector should be an earth.

Thanks guys - I agree with you both. I do have earth as you both say but i still had problems with all my external lights.

It was about 3am and i was already packed up ready to throw kids in car and go when i went to check lights were all ok. SWMBO at the time couldnt believe i was all packed and ready to go at the time i had planned to leave, normally always running late, but then the problem struck. Anyway after an hour stuffing around with them i said we would leave and see how the lights went as we drove. We had to go past an auto elec friend mate at time and we would be driving past around 5am so thought worst case wake him up :)

Anyway when i drove down our driveway i heard a small bang noise at towball and it seemed to fix light problem. It appears the towball and hitch hadnt connected in 100% as i was on a slight slope when connecting. It was all up tight at the time but must have not been seated in 100% or 100% correctly?

All went ok on drive to our xmas hols. when i was there i mentioned it to my brother who had a look and after eliminating all other earting areas on van and car the problem only reoccured when i hitched van and car together but did not do up tight.

My brother says that sometimes even a loose towbar hitch/tongue that slides or moves about in the cars towbar hitch receiver (whatever you call it on car) can recreate a similar earthing dilemma in some setups. i am not sure but know it gave me grief at the time. Maybe interesting to see what happens if others try it and see what happens.

So if the van does earth thru the hitch point to a car, does the grease interfere with that or does grease actually help it earth better? (i leave mine all dry now - no grease)

.

What about Orac couplings?

They have grease nipples on them.

Should, or could they be OK without grease.

I have just bought a second hand camper and have replaced the grease nipples on the orac coupling and greased them yesterday, and I am now not sure I have done the right thing.