Towbar creaking Issue

I never had a problem with my Westfalia ..... 

We have experienced creaking tow bar for a couple of years and had the tow bar and hitch checked several times without finding the cause.

However when hitching up on the last trip I noticed that the electric cable coming out of the a frame cowling creaked against the cowling so I have trimed a bit off the cowling and creaking has stopped.

Not sure if this will help you but give the cable a wiggle to find out.

I`m not suggesting there is necessarily anything wrong with a Westfalia except my previous car had a detachable one which used to creak and I never succeeded in stopping it. That towball would rust when stowed in the garage, our current towball is a Bosal retractable came unpainted lives under the car and never rusts or shows any sign of corrosion and never creaks.  In a nutshell is the material used by Westfalia in the construction of the towball leading to a greater likelihood of creaking and it would be interesting  if those having the problem were to include the make of their towball. 

Thank you all of you for your responses including you Cyber!!!

The ball is a Westfalia type but it is the second one I have had and the first had no creaking. It has been polished thoroughly with not a spot of paint on it. I have tried cleaning the pads before connecting up. So I will explore whether the electric cable is rubbing. My last consideration is whether the brake linkage is dry as it mainly happens when slowing down.

just been looking at the alko web site about friction pads. everyone on this forum mentions cleaning and or replacement of the pads that squeeze the tow ball but never heard anybody mention the lateral pads. the ones at the top front and top back of the hitch and have to say that these must be taking most if not all the weight of the hitch ie the nose weight. is it these pads that are causing all the creaking as the weight that they must be under when travelling is far more that the side pads. I looked on ebay/amazon for friction pads and all the kits just have the side pads but not the lateral pads. is/could this be the answer, remove and clean/replace lateral pads.

we had new friction pads fitted at our last service in May/June and I have noticed that it started to creak with the new pads. The towball part lives in the car boot

the question is, did they renew just the side pads or all 4 pads as on the alko website???this is the qustion i asked previously, are members just changing the side pads or lateral pads as well. i bet they don't renew all at service.  

taken from alko website

http://www.al-ko.co.uk/pages/friction-pad-replacement.html

When our pads were changed at service, it didn't creak for a while, so I am guessing they did change all the pads.  However it soon started again and I can only assume that it is because of contamination.  Although I clean the towball with one of those fine emery sanding pads every time I use it - and then spray it with a proprietary pad cleaner and wipe it dry before use, I'm obviously going wrong somewhere.  What I have noticed is that the Westfalia fixed swan-neck towball isn't perfectly smooth (I suspect that most aren't) and therefore there are probably bits of rust or dirt lurking on it somewhere, despite using the cleaner. Having had a look at that useful link, I'm going to have a look at the pads, themselves.

Whilst being serviced they changed just the side pads and I left with no noise until I got near the storage facility. I took the caravan back and they then fitted top and bottom pads. After about 20 miles an odd creak sounded so I polished the ball with emery cloth and cleaned it with brake cleaner. We then left for a trip through France and I became aware of just how many roundabouts there are there. I store the removable ball inside a bag in the boot so it is not subjected to weather issues. Unfortunately, having a previous caravan become unhitched whilst on a dual carriageway we are very sensitive in that area. At that time (the caravan was written off) fortunately no one was hurt.Watching it drift into the fast lane is something I will never forget, realising it could have resulted something far more serious. So you can imagine why I want to resolve this issue, with the new caravan.