5th wheel care & wisdom

I buy this by the case of 12 on eBay. Keep one in the truck. Yea, could be stringy in the winter, but it works for me.

 

This, so much this. It was one of the first things dad beat into my skull. As for grease. I keep a grease gun in my side box with a tube of arctic jet grease, The jet grease holds up so much better in winter and is salt resistant besides. Been using it since i started driving. Only downside is if you run in nasty conditions you gotta reapply it every 2 or 3 weeks. Though in winter i add more every week anyway because of the salt.

One thing he didnt mention though. Is before winter starts, get into the locking jaws and really clean them out. I typically scrape all the grease off and flip the plate then degrease it and the jaws directly before i powerwash it with dawn and then use a blowtorch to very lightly burn off anything i missed (as in dont heat the parts up a lot, just look for smoke) and let it dry/cool for an hour.

Those little clumps of crap can turn hard as stone and bind up your 5th wheel something ferce in winter. Even had one time where it froze the jaws open. And another where it wouldnt let the jaws close fully.

Granted i live in SD so it gets bloody cold here.....but someone may find it helpful.

 

I'd switch to a no lube plate if I pulled the same trailer all the time and could keep it all clean-clean. Then just the latch needs a *little* bit through the zerk every so often.

 

Teflon plate.

I disconnect a little before deflating. Otherwise it locks back in when deflating.

 

I cleaned mine up and put yesterday when I got back from Grand Forks. I have to keep reminding our mechanic to quit over greasing the 5th wheel on my truck and converter. He uses WAY too much.

I’ll take the excess and apply it to landing gear legs or my friends door handle

 

I'm really no mechanic, but I used to run into northern Ontario and Quebec in the winters. A thick coating of grease will solidify into something about the consistency of plastic at -20°F. A Quebecois flatbedder who was running loads um to the Manic cinq hyrdo-electric project gave me some cold-weather advice for 5th wheels:
Get yourself one of those heavy-duty hand-held plastic garden sprayers at the local Lowes/Home Depot/Menards/Canadian tire store, and fill it with diesel fuel. Every time you drop a trailer, spray the heck out of the jaws and mechanism with the diesel fuel. Guaranteed to not solidify in the cold...

 

I didn't watch the video. I really don't care

But I will say this: The 5th wheel grease is one of the few parts of the vehicle that gets too much attention. Some people think the whole world is going to end if the rear frame of their truck is not dripping with grease. Grease dripping from the sliders, grease dripping from the frame rails Grease turning into an asphalt sculpture on top of the axles. Goobers of grease on air lines, air bags, suspension.

I have seen fools with dry slack adjusters, worn shoes, crunchy u-joints, air leaks galore, cracked frames, dead lights..... all wasting time slobbering up a fifth wheel plate.

The top of the fifth wheel wears very very slowly. The bushings and the jaw wear is really what you need to attend to. Yet, most fifth wheel goobers ignore those parts. So quit making a greasy mess of the rest of the truck. Much of that grease on top the 5th just turns in asphalt if you bobtail a lot.