Creaking friction pads
We have changed our car to a BMW and had an electric tow bar fitted by the manufacturer. Our caravan is a Lunar Delta and is 12 months old. After approximately 80 miles of towing the friction pads creak terribly. It only started after picking it up from its first service, I struggled to get the caravan off the tow ball. Apparently the service would not have caused this problem. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Comments
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Creaking hitches are caused by contaminated friction pads. You have a new car ...... did you clean the tow ball (of paint) before you used it?
Mechanical defects aside, difficulty removing the hitch from the towball could be if the hitch is still being depressed slightly after reversing
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Did the service include adjusting the friction pads in the hitch? Were they perhaps over-tightened? Was the new towball fitted just before the pick up which caused the problem? Was it cleaned of the painted coating before you used it? Is the actual towball itself the correct one for your hitch? There is more than one type and you need to make sure they are compatible.
Sorry for so many questions, but there are so many possiblities.
Otherwise try cleaning the hitch pads and towball with brake fluid and see if this improves the groaning.
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try cleaning the hitch pads and towball with brake fluid and
Do NOT use brake fluid!
I'm sure Val meant brake cleaner 
As for the towball being the correct ball, there are only 50mm dia balls (unless some ancient 2" ball left over from the Ark) & a standard ball is only incompatable due to the lack of clearance under the ball ... it'd still go in a stabiliser hitch1 -
OOPS! Sorry. I meant brake fluid as MM says, above. My apologies, I'm having a bad day today.
But we were told that you shouldn't use a non-Alko towball with an Alko hitch, because of the cut in 'shoulders' at the bottom of an Alko ball and hence the longer neck. Here's a link showing a picture of the 'right' and 'wrong' towballs. Whilst the picture is to demonstrate a bike carrier, we were given similar information by our caravan dealer.
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Thanks for all your comments. It was a brand new tow bar and cleaned before use. We have been reassured that the pads were only cleaned on the service. They removed them when I took it back which worked for a few minutes but again started to creak. Even the technicians at the caravan spot were confused as to why it's happening. They have advised we have new pads fitted but was reluctant to do this as the van is only a year old.
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The Op said he had a factory electric towbar, as far as I know they are not painted.
My last new caravan also made a noise on the stabilizer, it took the dealer two attempts to clean them.
Prove it is the pads by towing with the pads disengaged, lever up, easy to do this on site.
Clean them again, no need to replace the pads, but use brake cleaner, not fluid.
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