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We've just arrived home from a lovely week in Worcestershire but had some worries towing.

We changed the car & van in January & towed the van home 130 miles with no problems.  Since then the towball accumulated some surface rust that we cleaned as per advice on an earlier thread.  But we had an awful creaking sound coming from the hitch area on the way down last week - fine on the motorway but noisy when pulling away & on smaller roads.

When we arrived on site (after stopping several times & worrying all the way) the warden heard the noise & immediately said there must still be some muck on the towball.  So we cleaned it really throroughly again before heading home.  But the noise was still there along with a squeaking sound when going over bumps.

We had a detachable towbar fitted when we bought the car & the van has a Winterhoff hitch.  Can anyone say what might be causing these noises?  Is it just that we haven't cleaned it enough?  Or OH thinks the 'pads' in the hitch might need replacing?  Or could it be the towbar that needs checking?  Thank you!!!!!!!

It is difficult to diagnose problems from descritions of noises -- but my advice is that the very least you should do is have your towbar and mountings checked.  Personally I dont like detachable towbars--somehow it goes against the grain with something so important but still thats me!

Brioan

Quote: Originally posted by adsheadv on 04/6/2011

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Thanks for the replies.  We did think about trying to find someone with a towbar who could hitch up to our van & pull it a few feet (the creaking starts when setting off).  If it still does it we'll know it's something to do with the hitch & if it doesn't we'll know it's the towball/bar.  Problem is we can't think of anyone we could ask.  Debating whether to ask the owner of the storage site - if we offer to pay for his time he might do it for us...

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