Greasing your balls?

Who here applies grease to the trailer ball / coupler before towing? If you do, how much? I keep mine really greasy and don’t have much in the way of issues. I also grease the surge brake slides and pins. I also oil the coupler pivot points and spray the brake master cylinder area down with WD40 to prevent that from rusting up so bad.

I have towed a 9k lb camper for 4 years and about 15k miles using this process and the ball for that hitch is still shiny with only minor scuffing on the contact points with the coupler.

The boat is only two years old and probably less than 5k miles and that ball looks basically new. Greasy, but new.

I cringe when I see pickups running around with rusty balls and hitches…

Never applied grease to mine and have never had an issue going on 30 years now. Not sure how the grease helps, I have never heard of one binding up or a vehicle not turning because of the rust.

Doesn’t the grease collect dust, dirt, grit that would eventually wear on that stuff???

No i don’t grease mine.
Mostly because i’d rather wipe rust off my pants when i brush up against my ball than dirty grease stain.

My hitch gets WD-40 every now an again though.

I use WD-40 don’t go on a gravel road if you grease it bad mess

I would never grease my coupler or ball. Your just asking for dirt to cause issues.

Once in a while I spray with zep, just because I don’t use wd40. Zep is way better.

I pull a trailer every day behind my work truck, I have never heard of greasing the ball. Thats not my style. I would rather have a little surface rust that wears off after 2 miles of pulling. I also never remove my hitch on any of my trucks ever

Nope. An old neighbor was a semi driver, seeing how messy the hitch plate on one of them gets after a few thousand miles just proved that I didn’t want that crap on my clothes and in the truck. Never once had an issue with a ball or hitch that would have been prevented by greasing the ball. Lubricating the lock mechanism annually is definitely a must do.

If you’re worried about rust, get a stainless steel ball and mount. Besides scuffs and scratches mine looks almost brand new after 15 years. I’ve got the stainless Convert-a-Ball that has been flawless.

I guess I need to go wipe my balls. Should I shut the garage door before I do it?

Nope – No Grease on my balls

I’ve never greased my balls. Occasionally I’ll shave them, but never had the urge to grease them?

B-man wrote:

I’ve never greased my balls. Occasionally I’ll shave them, but never had the urge to grease them?

Can’t believe it took this long for that response.

I never did before, I bought a new aluminum hitch and it said to do it so I did?

i thought this was a family friendly site…..WTF? wouldn’t your balls pop out if you hit a big bump with all that grease?

Ever since my greasy ball smeared grease onto my pants I’ve kept it clean. It’s getting up there in years, so it’s a little scuffed and rusty but still does its job.

^ WTF?

There sure seems to be a lot of guys that are happy with dry rusty balls…never would have guessed that would be the response

Grease is way too messy but then I just notice mine is very rusty.

It’s a good idea to check the tightness of the nut.. A few yeas back a friend sheared off the threaded portion (not knowing the nut was allowing wiggle room). The safety chains popped like thread and down into the ditch it went. Boat, trailer and all.

Any memes appropriately designed for this thread? I guess I’d rather be known as a site that had a great greasy balls discussion over one that had a rousing 8efe469dh92!;+] discussion.

In short, keep your nuts tight, don’t grease your balls but don’t let them get rusty either. Sort of reminds me of a health class lecture our old football coach gave the boys back in high school.

I had my nuts wound so tight one time I couldn’t get them to release. A little lube got the job done though.

I haven’t tried grease before.

I find that mine get really greasy when the weather gets hot.

This thread has me laughing out loud at my desk and I’m sure my coworkers don’t even want to know what I’m doing. Thanks for all the laughs guys! Much needed lately!

Sharon wrote:

This thread has me laughing out loud at my desk and I’m sure my coworkers don’t even want to know what I’m doing. Thanks for all the laughs guys! Much needed lately!

So Sharon maybe you can settle the tie breaker. As a woman do you want a guy with greasy balls or rusty balls? Asking for a friend.

Grease or rust… either way my pant leg is stained and my shin is bruised! Sometimes you just don’t realize how long those things stick out until you’ve walked by and nailed yourself in the shin!
Come to think of it – of all the hitches I’ve walked into I’ve never noticed one that was greasy. 🤷‍♀️

Sharon wrote:

Grease or rust… either way my pant leg is stained and my shin is bruised! Sometimes you just don’t realize how long those things stick out until you’ve walked by and nailed yourself in the shin!
Come to think of it – of all the hitches I’ve walked into I’ve never noticed one that was greasy. 🤷‍♀️

After unhooking the trailer I try to make sure to remember to wipe off my ball and put it back so folks don’t run the risk of coming along and kicking it by accident. Would hate to see someone ruin their day because I left my balls hanging out.

Would hate to see someone ruin their day because I left my balls hanging out.
[/quote]

Sounds like this may have happened a few times.

Adam Steffes wrote:

Any memes appropriately designed for this thread? I guess I’d rather be known as a site that had a great greasy balls discussion over one that had a rousing 8efe469dh92!;+] discussion.

It is a real product of course, so I just had to embellish the labeling a bit.

Attachments:

1. 

   8EFE28AEBA5BFD44-5.jpg
   

I’ve never greased my balls. I never felt the need to. They don’t seem to get rusty if they stay used regularly. If you have more than one, (tri-ball) I suppose you should rotate what you’re hooking up to, to make sure they all get used. Of course they was once that a menthol lubricant may have gotten on them. I wouldn’t recommend this. I saw a Dr….er…ah….I mean mechanic. He said if used to often that there could be permanent damage.

Sharon wrote:

Sometimes you just don’t realize how long those things stick out until you’ve walked by and nailed yourself in the shin!

That’s what she said,,,,,

HRG

I use lucas red and tacky grease on my balls – stays put and doesn’t seem to drip in warmer weather like some other greases. I like your photo enhancement skills Sharon, very fitting. I can’t believe a company can make a can of ball grease without chuckling a bit in the board room when discussing profits.

Sharon wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Adam Steffes wrote:</div>
Any memes appropriately designed for this thread? I guess I’d rather be known as a site that had a great greasy balls discussion over one that had a rousing 8efe469dh92!;+] discussion.

It is a real product of course, so I just had to embellish the labeling a bit.

If you want a laugh, read the amazon reviews of this product. Who would have thought people actually buy something other than regular old grease for this purpose.