Thanks to Frantone for submitting this guide

Use a thin blade to remove the end covers

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Tap out the friction pads with a blunt drift. There are 2 'stops' before the pad will be loose in the socket and can be pulled out.

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The pads become glazed with use.

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Before.

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Gently held in the jaws of a cordless drill they can be deglazed with a piece of emery cloth.

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After

This can of course be done by hand if you don't have access to a drill.

The other two fixed friction pads in the head can be removed or cleaned up in situ.

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There is a small O ring in the shaft of each friction pad and when refitting the pad this is easily displaced. A touch of silicone lubricant on the shaft will help to ease it back into place.

I believe that much of the hitch noise that people experience could be attributed to the shaft being tarnished, contaminated with dust or rubbing. A touch of grease may help as long as it is kept away from the pads.

Brake cleaner spray (available from a car accessory shop) will remove dust from the socket.

The pads only need finger pressure to relocate them in their shafts and that's it, the job is done.

. Apart from the fact that they look quite different does the ALKO 3004 stabiliser out perform the 1300 or are they very much the same?
Randa

That's an interesting question.

The 1300 only has pads that operate on the sides of the ball while (as I learned from Tony's guide) the 3004 has additional pads top and bottom so it should damp out pitching as well as yawing motions.

Can anyone with experience of both stabilisers enlighten us?

I left a French campsite one morning and as I was building up speed on the autoroute (I was doing about 65mph) something didn't feel quite right with the caravan. It's hard to explain but something felt 'different', as though a tyre had deflated.

When I pulled over to investigate I found that I hadn't pressed the lever on the1300 damper down so the pads hadn't engaged with the ball.

Once I'd readjusted the ratchet and pressed down the lever, the transformation was very noticeable. The outfit felt much more stable, safer and 'normal'.

If this had happened as part of a deliberate test, I might have thought that the perceived instability was just my imagination but the experience convinced me that the stabiliser really does perform a useful function.

Since then I regularly check that the pads are not glazed and that the towball is kept free of rust. It's also a good idea to follow Tony's and Hob's procedures to make sure that the pad shafts are not rusty and are free to move inside their sleeves.