amount of pull needed for a 5th wheel handle

Depends on the kind of fifth wheel and how it was taken care of. Mine takes about 5-10 lbs of force generally. Also remember to pull with your arm not with your body don’t want to knock the socket between your arm and shoulder very painful.

 

Exactly. I use a 5th wheel puller because it allows me to pull with both hands, meaning that I never pull from a direction that is likely to damage my shoulder joint.

There are angles that are very bad for our bodies to exert a lot of force on. One-handed pulling directly away from the side of the shoulder is one of them.

 

I always set the trailer brakes then nudge the truck into it, and mine will take less than 10 pounds, one hand with nearly no effort. Now that is when things are pretty level, if the trailer or truck is parked on a slope it can change dramatically.
I have had to pull some that required a binder hooked to a trailer parked next to it to get it to release.

We regularly drop and hook in extreme cold weather on the slope, if you use the right grease, they are no more trouble than summer time temps.

 

A jacket? I think there's one on the truck that the wife is always pestering me to wear....

 

I drop and hook every shift. Deff wouldnt wanna be w/o my puller. Esp my short arms and my 5th wheel handle is real short. I would say my 5th wheel is around 25-30 pounds of pull and its 25 years old

 

My feet and hands are all that really get cold on me. Having had frostbite a time or two, the fingers burn like fire in really cold temps. It makes being a flatbedder more...interesting. Most of the winter, all I'll wear is a sweatshirt. North Dakota and Montana occasionally make me break out the carhartt, though.