Tow hitch grease - what do you use?

[StrvnMrvn]

Hi swaggers,

Just a question on the type of grease to use on my treg hitch? When I got it, it did looked greased, but coming down from the mountains, there wasn't much movement as I could feel it pushing me down instead of breaking. The breaks do work when I'm stationary as the break lever proves that.

Any info would be good!

 

Strvy

[GeoffA]

When I had a Treg, I used whatever grease was in the gun......

[markg66]

I use "Marfak 00",

Texaco MARFAK 00
High performance, heavy-duty sodium grease
Basic Identifiers
ID    Type    BO    ISO    NLGI    DIN
4407    Grease    mineral    XBBAA00    00    G00H20
Description
Marfak is a high performance heavy-duty sodium, fibrous soap grease, designed to provide wear and corrosion protection and a robust seal against dust, dirt and water contamination.

The reason I use this is that my old man liberated 5 x 25kg drums of the stuff from his then employer when he used to work as a diesel fitter (prior to him croaking some 15 years ago) and I kept one drum during the clean out of his place, even just one drum will do me for the rest of my life.............I dunno what he thought he was gunna need 100 kg's of it for.

[xcvator]

Markg, you don't think that might be past it's "use by date" 

[markg66]

You could be right, but it's still the stickiest nasty s@#t you've ever seen or got on your hands and it stays on the ball for ever. It also gives me never ending amusement when people brush up against the greasy ball and no matter what can't wipe it off.

I realise this is not a Treg hitch but this grease I believe was for heavy duty steering linkages and the like so would suit perfectly to a hitch and pin arrangement.

[Beachman]

When I had a Treg, I used whatever grease was in the gun......

X2 - unless your driving around Australia, does it really matter.

[maurerless]

Hi swaggers,

Just a question on the type of grease to use on my treg hitch? When I got it, it did looked greased, but coming down from the mountains, there wasn't much movement as I could feel it pushing me down instead of breaking. The breaks do work when I'm stationary as the break lever proves that.

Any info would be good!

 

Strvy

My trailer/s (one hydraulic drum and one cable-to-disc) both only operate when actively braking rather then just doing a downhill run. To me, I've always thought of override brakes as an assistance, rather than "primary braking", if that makes sense.

So, are you sure it's the travel movement of the hitch for the override brakes that is your problem? As long as there's some sort of lube there, in my opinion they (edit - the hitch link) should move. In my (probably limited) experience, override brakes don't actually slow you traveling downhill as such, but they work under "heavier braking" conditions. In other words, you could be travelling downhill and they don't slow you as such, but if you brake a bit harder to slow for a bend, they come in to play. I only ever have "felt" the return travel of the override brakes at the end of a hard braking event when they "return" after the vehicle has stopped.

Tony