Freddy Ex!

good thing it was just full of sailboat fuel

 

When the jaws look like that, somethings wrong.

@AModelCat can explain all the various ways 5th wheels can wear and fail more eloquently than I can. In short - springs break, sears wear, grease builds up, cotter pins break.

My guess in this case is excess grease fouling the mechanism.

The other cause of bad hooks is uneven ground or bad alignment before coupling. Things getting jostled around can screw things up. In 12 years of being a safety critter, I have only heard of one guy who dropped a trailer because the 5th wheel was bad - every other time it was user error.

 

who would win, dropping a trailer twice in a row or high hooking the same trailer three times in a row

 

Honestly besides adjusting a 5th wheel once 15 years ago I haven't really done much with 5th wheels. 99% of everything I've worked on was a straight truck or had pintle hitches.