When would you replace a towball?

[Crunchy]

My towball is about 8 years old and and quite rusty at the base where the chrome has worn off, do they need replacing at all? New ones are cheap but the damn thing is proving imposssible to get off with a shifter.

Any towball failure story's to relate?

Cheers

[Apollo]

Crunchy

Only ever seen two failures.

One was a bloke who was stupid and tried to use it to tow out another 4wd from a bog with the strap over the towball. Didn't see the act, but saw the result.

The other was a very old towball that should have been condemned many year beforehand. I stopped to give he guy a hand and when I saw that the ball had broken at the base but was probably only half its original size, I exited quickly when he said he was OK.

I only have replaced one, because it was getting worn out of shape.

[Roughasguts]

Good question the tow ball shape might be okay but the threaded shank might now be a tad worn and loose! so that can break! eventually if theres some rattle in there.

So yeah replace the ball! and if you remove the tow ball reguarly, then the spring washer should also be replaced reguarly. Smear of grease won't go astray either.

But then theres the trailer coupling some are adjustable and you can tighten down a bolt on to the ball! and some don't have any adjustment.

So maybe the entire cupling should be replaced after a few years of use as well it's pretty hard to determine which is loose the tow ball or the coupling when theres over 124Kg of tow ball weight on the hitch and your trying to jiggle the hitch to see if it's loose.

I'm not overly concerned on the caravan as I have 4 load leveler bars on, and they put down a fair amount of pressure on the hitch.

So I dought any coupling would come of the hitch when you have the Weight distrubution bars on.