I put a little grease inside the tongue of my trailer, to decrease wear on the hitch and the shoe that locks the ball in place. Lubrication between two moving metal parts under several hundred pounds of pressure seems like a good idea to me.

 

A couple replies have been that leaving the hitch/ball in the receiver when not towing, will possibly damage your hitch/frame if rear-ended. It’s possible, but unlikely. It’s a lot less potential damage than if they rear-end you without the hitch in.

I’ve been in this situation four times over the last twenty-five years. Three times in my personal trucks, and once in a work truck. And EVERY time, the hitch prevented extensive damage to the vehicle I was in, and totaled three of the four vehicles that hit me. The most recent time, was just in December, in my ‘18 SuperCrew, which has a six inch suspension lift and 35” tires, and my hitch was in. Peeled the fender, hood and bumper back on the dip****’s POS that hit me. Also crumpled the core support, toasted the radiator and a whole bunch of other stuff. All that happened to my truck, was a small dimple in the two lower corners of the bedsides/fenders, where the corners of the bumper contacted the fenders. Very small, less than the size of a pencil eraser. It also scratched up the two metal panels of the back bumper. Because their car was a small compact, the front bumper contacted my right rear tire, and scuffed the sidewall enough to crack it, so I had to also replace that tire.

Had I not had the hitch in, there would have been extensive bed damage and the bed would have also contacted the cab, causing thousands in paint and body repair.

Some guys may quote laws that require hitch removal when not actually towing a trailer, but oh well. In thirty+ years of always owning/driving trucks, I’ve never NOT had a hitch in, and NEVER received a ticket or even questioned by LEOs. And some guys may say I’m being reckless and careless for no5 removing the hitch... again, oh well. All four times I’ve been rear-ended, the other party was 100% at fault, ticketed, and charged with a variety of associated violations, ranging from DUI, failure to reduce speed, etc... so who’s really being careless?

 

5th plates have a huge contact area. Without grease, they can generate a significant amount of heat, and make a hell of a lot of noise.

I've never experienced this with ball hitches. I guess if you tow a ton and do it on really bad roads wear could be an issue, but the only problem I've seen with couplers is jaws or their connection to the lever getting bent out of shape from being loose, or getting rust lockup. I lube where levers and jaws have to slide/pivot against the coupler. When I clean up the couplers, I don't see sparkle from wear on the metal.

2-5/16 ***** can be rated as high as 40,000lbs, I'd expect one towing a lot heavier than F150 range would have a different story to tell, or maybe even those pulling 10k trailers every day for work, but that's rather outside the intended use of the F150.

 

If it was PTFE, I might consider it. But those ***** get too many negative reviews on Amazon for me. Many of the positive reviews say the cap falls off.

 

I always use dry lube like graphite on my *****. Wait.....uh.....nevermind