Blocking a fifth wheel for an End Dump? How do you do it?

There’s two ways to do it- the safe, legal, factory pinned fifth wheel plate, or the Billy Bob cobble-it-together method, of which there are hundreds of variations.

If you decide to modify yours, you are in luck with the Fontaine because the ones I have had were steel, not cast, and you could actually weld an ear on the plate. I’ll post a photo of one tomorrow. HOWEVER, the far better setup is the Holland factory pinned fifth wheel with removable pin that makes swapping between end dumps and regular trailers so much faster. That’s all I use now, if the voice of experience is worth anything to you. The downside is it’s going to set you back $1700 to $2500. But you won’t get a DOT violation with it, which you might with a Billy Bob job.

 

Here's how page did mine.

 

I'm pretty certain that mostly today you'll find that now the Industry is utilizing a long solid inch and a eighth bar thats a good thirty six to forty two inches long that is placed in back of the fifth wheel through a series of inch thick long, nine or ten inch steel tubes. You can purchase the "set-up parts", the long, big tubes and the pin from an end-dump manufacturer such as East, Mac, Trailstar, or Raven. I'm in the proces of hunting these parts also.

 

IMHO In the long run it's much safer and cheaper to change over to a factory blocked 5th wheel. I've done it both ways. The homemade blocking periodically has to be re-done as fails at the most inopportune times. I ordered a completely new Jost 5th wheel for my truck for several reasons, but being able to easily block/unblock when I change trailer types and the ability to slide the 5th wheel were the main reasons. Not to mention the old 5th wheel blocking has been repaired/replaced too many times and the unit has over 2 million miles on it. Over-all safety and convenience were the determining factors for me.