As you describe it is how you tell damper has gone. The damper does not fail instantly it will become less resistant over a period of time. There may still be some resistance when you push hitch in by hand & this is often caused by rusty draw tube & expanded bushes, but as you describe it, yes you need a new damper.
Part of the damper replacement job will be cleaning up draw tube & possibly reaming or replacing bushes as necessary.
The damper on a hitch works basically on the same principal as that on your vehicle's suspension. If there is no resistance under compression then the damper is shot and needs replacing. The only difference is that on a vehicle they need replacing in pairs on the same axle whereas on a caravan hitch there's only one through the centre to replace.
Hi, dampers can fail in differing ways, I changed mine last week, to check try pushing hitch backwards should go back smoothly with some effort needed to push it back then when released should come back out on its own slowly if pushes in easily then needs changing. mine however would not push in at all so I changed it and now works fine, Got the new one from www.wilmond.co.uk
i changed mine a few months back.. it cost me about £60 quid.. a new one requires quite a lot of slow steady pressure to push it in and once in it slowly return out on its own.. slowly being the key word in both cases..
you draw bar isnt seized else it would not bang it would be solid and the brakes would not work..
your damper (shock absorber) needs replacing.. its knackered.. :)
I had same symptoms on a Bailey, which had had three annual dealer services so as to maintain warranty.
The fourth year I got a mobile engineer to do service and mentioned I had been getting "shunted" when braking.
Nothing at all was wrong with damper.
He showed me that the brakes had NEVER had any adjustment taken up since new,nor had the original Al-Ko nuts ever been removed to inspect inside hubs.(Nuts for which the dealer had charged each time !)
He cleaned all the dust and crud out of the drums,adjusted brake clearances,new nuts fitted,and what a difference it made to the smoothness of towing,no more
bangs and jerks.
SO FIRST GET YOUR BRAKES ADJUSTMENT CHECKED !!!!
grabbing snatchy brakes will cause bangs but its a separate issue than a worn out damper..
a worn out damper will cause the brakes to grab simply because they get banged on too hard.. the correct damper applies the brakes progressively..
but the damper is easy enough to check.. all it needs is to know what you are looking for..
when cars had drum brakes grabby ones were a common problem and the driver had to learn not to hit the brake pedal to hard at slow speeds.. at slow speeds drum brakes worked very well at high speeds they were useless..
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Topic: over run on hitch
