Question about 5th Wheel Release Arm.

Why would you buy a new 5th wheel plate when the only issue is extremely cold grease making things a bit "slow to move"? (As noted in the first sentence of the original post)

Truckers have been dealing with this issue in far northern climates since the latching 5th wheel was introduced.

 

Okay. But a good steam cleaning, rebuild kit, and regreasing with 100% synthetic would be a lot easier and cheaper. Or better yet, wait on the temp to warm up a bit. But in the mean time, the issue can easily be dealt with without risking safety.

 

Right now we're all assuming that the issue is in fact the cold weather. I will only say that if the distance from "fully locked" increases it is possibly the return spring going bad. We had this happen on a truck at school that began only latching halfway. The return spring had snapped and needed to be replaced. Just some food for thought and something to watch for.

Be safe driver.

 

Company I work for is in Fargo, ND. They see this a lot on the yard because we rarely do trailer swaps while out on tour. They see it with newer trucks and older trucks and they rarely see it until the temp goes below +5f. And I personally have never had this happen unless the temp was below 5 degrees. But do whatever makes you feel better.

Yes. It could be a "weak spring" but if getting it fixed immediately is not an option, I'm just recommending an action to get the poster going today. If later on, on a warmer day, he sees the same issue, then certainly he needs to get it looked at.

 

This what I was talking about. I will replace the whole plate instead of parts.

 

Why would you spend so much money replacing the entire system when a single part is all that is needed?

That is like changing the calipers/wheel cylinders, rotor/drums, master cylinder, brake lines, and pads/shoes every time you do a brake job on your car. Where is the logic in that?

 

The trailers I pull are worth 500k to 2 mil. Plus peace of mind is priceless. Also, my local shop won't rebuild them anymore. Guess something bad happened.

 

I agree! Here in Maine we have to do this, tool you will need to get that old grease out a long screw driver and some break cleaner, if it's really cold use a weed burner to hear it up .