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Driving with a trailer in tow can be stressful under the best circumstances. For example, worrying over how to protect your vehicle’s transmission when towing and whether it’s safe to use cruise control while towing. And God forbid that you have to back up with a trailer attached. The last thing you need is an annoying rattling sound coming from the hitch connection.
That rattle is frequently caused by the drawbar (a.k.a. the ball mount) — the removable oblong piece with the hitch ball attached — being loose in the hitch’s receiver. The hitch receiver is the part attached to your car or truck through which you insert the hitch pin to lock the drawbar in place. Of course, the drawbar can’t fit too snugly since it’s intended to be removable when not in use or exchanged for a drawbar with a different diameter hitch ball mounted for a different trailer, like going from 2-inch to 2 5/16-inch.
Because of the relaxed fit between these two components, drivers and passengers alike may be irritated by a series of rattles, bangs, or creaks audible inside the vehicle’s cabin. And by the way, a loose hitch fitting that rattles isn’t only confined to ball mounts for towing trailers. It’s also a pitfall of hitch-mounted accessories like cargo carriers and bicycle racks. Fortunately, the aftermarket has developed several clever solutions to prevent your tow hitch from rattling. Depending on your DIY chops, there are also some tried-and-true homebrew fixes.
The aftermarket provides choices
First, let’s take a look at some of the products manufactured especially to address a noisy hitch. One place to start is the hitch pin, which locks the ball mount into the receiver. Instead of a standard hitch pin, consider purchasing an anti-rattle hitch pin. Options vary, but one popular example is the Silent Hitch Pin by Let’s Go Aero, which involves inserting a spring-loaded block of metal inside the ball mount’s tubing. The Silent Hitch Pin is threaded and engages with the metal block inside the ball mount to pull the entire assembly tight to one side of the receiver. Cost for the application, good up to Class IV, is about $43 on Amazon.
Next up is a hitch tightener clamp, best described as a U-bolt that captures the hitch ball mount and passes through a metal plate at the bottom. Tightening the nuts on the U-bolts effectively locks the ball mount down in the bottom portion of the receiver mount. There are many variations of this type of hitch tightening clamp, but one of the most purchased models on Amazon is the Rhino USA Hitch Tightener, retailing for about $22 in the common 2-inch size. In exchange for the lower price, the hitch clamp is slightly more involved to install and remove than an anti-rattle hitch pin.
Shim it with just about anything
Perhaps you’re the type who likes to tinker instead of buying manufactured items, or you’re in the middle of nowhere and need to quiet your noisy hitch in a hurry, using whatever is available. One method to fill the gaps between the ball mount and receiver tube is to insert a sort of makeshift shim. Ready-made shims are also available, but you can construct your own from bits of foam, rubber, metal, or even wooden shims for installing household door frames. Of course, these low- or no-budget solutions aren’t permanent and may eventually fall out or self-destruct.
Finally, drivers can wrap the ball mount with mass quantities of electrical tape, although using chili-flavored spicy electrical tape is purely optional. This will increase the outside diameter of the tubing for a more secure fit in the hitch receiver. Plus, the pliable tape provides some cushion or padding to silence the metal-on-metal rattling or clanging.
Beside helping drivers and passengers keep their sanity on a long road trip, quieting the rattling also offers a safety perk. Over time, an excessively loose hitch ball mount can elongate the holes for the hitch pin, which can lead to even more noisy movement and may eventually require replacing the vehicle’s trailer hitch altogether.