New towball - to sand or not to sand
We had a Bailey caravan last time we changed car and the local caravan dealer said to sand down the Volvo fitted painted towball until it was silver (see pic)
Now we have a Crusader Zephyr and are changing our car to a LR Discovery which will have a retractable towball fitted by LR.
What’s the advice for Elddis caravans? Silver (sanded down) or keep the painted version? Interested to hear opinions
Comments
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Whether to remove the paint or not has nothing to do with the make of car or that of the caravan. It all depends on whether the hitch has an integrated frictional damper such as the AlKo AKS3004 or Winterhoff WS3000. Such hitches rely on a completely clean towball, free from paint or other contaminant, to work properly.
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The black paint will be rubbed off by the friction pads of the hitch, the paint fragments will then become embedded in said pads, causing noise and increased wear.
So as said for us caravanners we must remove the paint.
I wouldn't sand it down, bit harsh and the paint is very stubborn.
If your dealer wont do it before fitting, I used with great success a hand held angle grinder with a wire brush twisted cup attached, very easy, thorough and relatively quick with no damage to the metal ball I could see.
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all ways been told to remove the paint and sand down till it clean and smooth
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Soul destroying job. I used to soak the paint off with solvent and finish with wire wool but last one even resisted solvent! Used a 3m paint stripping wheel which takes off the paint/plastic coating and polishes the ball same as this one
https://www.screwfix.com/p/surface-preparation-wheel-with-arbor-100mm/31074?
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