Creaking noises when towing

slimseydy

When towing my new van I have noticed I get a lot of creaking noises .especially when I pull up to go round a roundabout or while moving slowly when entering exiting a site. My lunar never made a sound when running and in all honesty I am not happy with my new caravan. Had a fair few faults in 4 months of ownership. Get the impression it's the Friday afternoon van. Anyone know of what I can do to make it run like as quietly as a lunar caravan.

springtime

I would look at the hitch - are the pads totally clean and the tow ball free from paint rust & grease?

xtrailman

I'm getting the same thing with a Valencia, not sure what it is, so i'm leaving it till the service next February, I've done caravaning until next April.

I do know its not the tow bar, and i have cleaned the pads on the hitch, but as you say towing at slow speed on site with the window down its squeaking away, even with the hitch lever lifted up, and I've checked the hitch head is well greased.

springtime

Check the bolts on the tow hitch and all of the linkage points on the brake rods to ensure that they are lubricated.

Also the long brake rod can rest on a retainer (metal to metal) as it goes further under the van - a little grease on this would not go a miss.

slimseydy

Hitch is fine as I never had a noise from the lunar .have noticed this with a lot of pageants and senators lately when they have been driving past my pitch so I know this is not an isolated incident with just me.

bigjimmy

It will almost certainly be the infernal tow hitch and the friction pads.

The creaking noises made by these is such a common cause of concern for members of CT where some of them even remove the friction pads and clean them every single time they tow their van (even for a short journey) !!

You don't seem to hear of this kind of thing happening with the Winterhoff hitches, unless of course I am wrong?

As for your caravan being built on a Friday afternoon Slimseydy, yours is not the only one................

FM02MZO

Spray the pads and tow ball with brake cleaner, and check all tow bar mounting points.

Big_Al

This is generally caused by a dirty towball contaminating the ALKO friction pads. The ball and pads can be cleaned using using an alcohol based cleaner and if necessary careful use of some emery paper. If that doesn't fix it you may have to replace the friction pads.

To prevent it happening in the future always clean the tow ball and pads before hitching up.

Al

FM02MZO

Yes Winterhoff do suffer with it, especially with new pads

Big_Al

You don't need to remove the pads to clean them. I generally do it every time I hitch up it takes all of 2 mins to clean both the tow ball and pads!

Al

slimseydy

What do you clean them with ?

Big_Al

Brake cleaner...

slimseydy

Cheers will pop to halfords today

Original post: October 2011