Broken fifth wheel release handle help

You *should* be able to buy a rebuild kit. It's easy to do, and fairly quick. I rebuilt mine in a rest area, as I had the kit and couldn't take the slack anymore.

Or buy a new assembly, if there's broken parts under the top plate. Most shops will not rebuild a fifth wheel. My buddies say anything related to that gets completely replaced. Best bet is to do it yourself or have your company fix it.

 

When the 5th wheel seems not to latch and hold onto a trailer kingpin do this: Pull AND HOLD the 5th wheel handle all the way out for about 5 seconds. Not, like you usually do to drop a trailer, pull and set it in the release position, but PULL ALL THE WAY OUT AND HOLD IT THERE FOR 5 SECONDS or more while not under a trailer. Sometimes, especially when you try to hook to a high trailer or the kingpin sits down onto the jaws of the 5th wheel, the jaws will look exactly like they are closed and ready to get on the road, but they will not pull any weight. Every time you do a tug test the trailer stays put and tractor/trailer separate. Many drivers will try back into the kingpin harder to fix the problem. Try the PULL & HOLD method first. This allows the springs in the 5th wheel mechanism to do reposition the jaws and reset. The key is HOLD the handle fully out for maybe 5 or more seconds. I drove a lot of years and never saw this problem until I was dropping & hooking several trailers a day. The mechanic showed this to me after I had been doing multiple D&H for 15 years.

 

No kidding!!!!!!!
I always get out and check pin height.
I often have to raise or lower a trailer, to get it right.

 

I did the exact same thing with mine it was a jost went to kenworth bought new handle had to take the plate off flip it upside down on the back of the truck to fix it took about an hour .Hopefully your pins come out easy otherwise you might have to cut the ends off of them ,pound them out and then replace them also those are around $300 for a pin kit.