Difficulty unhooking trailers in cold weather

Get an oil can from princess auto. Think I paid 8 bucks for mine. Fill with oil. Oil the pivot points and linkage points. You will see where it needs oil. I do mine weekly, can pull with two fingers and smooth like butter. If your jaws are really badly gummed up, as mentions a steam or hot water degrease, or spray with fuel to dissolve.

 

With many worn 5th wheels, sometimes it was necessary to set the trailer brakes and back up slightly, then set the tractor brakes. Takes any pressure off the jaws. Also, make sure you are in a straight line. Had an old FL that even slightly out of line with the trailer, it wouldn't release.

 

Chinook wind - Wikipedia

I grew up in Colorado, and the chinooks we got on the front range were strong enough to blow trees down and break picture windows. Are you an immigrant???

 

Others beat me to it. 5th wheel grease buildup causes a lot of it, especially if its full of crap. Clean it as best you can get it steamed and then slap some jetlube arctic on there. Never had an issue with my 5th wheel popping open even down to -50. Stuff is rated for down to -68F iirc. Has the consistancy of peanut butter though so id get a bucket and a spreader or a powered lube gun. Using it from a manual lube gun is pain lol.

 

Chinook winds, or simply Chinooks, are two types of prevailing warm, generally westerly winds in western North America: Coastal Chinooks and interior Chinooks. The coastal Chinooks are persistent seasonal, wet, southwesterly winds blowing in from the ocean. The interior Chinooks are occasional warm, dry föhn windsblowing down the eastern sides of interior mountain ranges. The coastal Chinooks were the original term, used along the northwest coast,[1] and the term in the interior of North America is later and derives from the coastal term.[2]

 

The only thing I've used on my hitch for the last 12 years is locas 5th wheal and slider lube..

When it cold it gets as thick as 40w motor oil.
In the summer it as thin as 5w oil..

It stays slick and tacky..

don't over apply it. My weekly is about 1 1/2 oz
Just the dry spots