Older Blue Ox tow bar reluctant to latch

[BananaCollis]

I bought a used Blue Ox tow bar, the old style with no rubber dust boot / bellows protecting the piston, and with a round collar to pull back and unlock the pistons.


Looks like this one, but more beat-up: http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/4/9...8177590_tp.jpg


At first it worked great, but after driving 6 hours in caked-on salt, washing the salt off with fresh water, and a couple nights below freezing, one of the arms is now very reluctant to latch.



When I hold it in my hand with no toad involved, I can slide the piston out and push on the plastic latching collar, and it will pop into place and latch. But it took about 6 miles of hair-raising driving on a busy road with frequent stops before the 2nd arm would finally latch and settled the car in the middle of the lane.


Have I ruined my tow bar? How do you grease these things?

[Finance]

You didn’t ruin it in 6 hours, more likely you just discovered why the previous owner sold it. For a quick fix hose it out with brake cleaner to clean the internals then grease the shaft and internals by squirting lube into the small vent/drain holes in the tube. Use aerosol grease with the straw attached to make it easy.

These things do wear out. I replace mine about every 50k miles (of severe service).

You can also send them to Blue Ox for refurbishing, or better yet catch them at one of the RV shows.