5th wheel jaw not staying open.

Holy crap! Take a putty knife and scrape all that goop off the sides. Did you know that a nitpicky DOT cop can give you a ticket for too much grease? No reason to have dirty caked grease on the fifth wheel.

 

Midnight you have to actually remove the fifth wheel and clean the underside of all the grease.

But that said, if it is worn out, they make a repair kit for it. Springs will wear out but I think you still have to flip the fifth wheel over to get to them.

Also Volvo had a recall for your model year on the fifth wheel, you may want to call Volvo and see if your covered

 

Ok

 

I looked up your 5th wheel. The adjustment is on the 5th wheel. I googled Holland 7F12 manual and It tells you how to adjust it

 

You need heat, hot water. You should call a pressure washer company and see if they can clean it for you.

 

Best way way to clean a fifth wheel is laying a 4 feet by 4 feet plywood across the frame rails, flipping the fifth wheel over upside down. (Some models are very heavy.)

Hot water pressure wash all the moving parts.

(Wear old clothes or something. This is extremely messy process.)

Then you can see how everything looks.

While grease is good, it gets caked in road grime etc over time and prevents the moving parts from either locking, staying locked or unlocking or staying unlocked properly regardless of mileage.

Some models of 5th wheels moving parts actually would prefer 80/90 oil over grease and just grease on the plate. Or spray lube.

 

I would advise to do the hot water steaming AFTER you clean the fith wheel with something like a putty knife.
The mess you have on the floor if you steam clean immediatly is BIG.

Needed tools clean a fith wheel:
2 pair off old gloves.
Putty knife or some other kind off scraper tool.
Disposable buckets(kfc or icecream buckets,......)
A lot off rags.
A quart off diesel.
Old paint brush.

Last 2 rebuilds i did ,i didn't steam clean anything.
And i own a steam cleaner.
Unless you are going to paint it,it isn't worth the extra work.
The rags combined with diesel are more effective in time and effort.

 

You’re right, I forgot the putty knife step.

Would've been big mess.