Question about 5th Wheel Release Arm.

Clean all the old, dirty grease from the jaws and lock and put a very light layer of new, clean grease there. What is happening is the buildup of grease is freezing into a rock hard lump preventing the jaws from fully closing.

 

I've had them freeze because of ice....

 

I use the 3 lb shop hammer [I keep for frozen drums] to gently "coax" it back in on those really cold days where it doesn't want to fully close on it's own. Usually just one "tap" on the handle does the trick. Otherwise a brick or big rock or 4x4 post, or board or whatever else makes itself available should work as well.

FYI drivers, any time the temperature drops below about +5 to +10 degrees F and you're hooking up to a trailer, always make a visual inspection of the latch handle to insure it's all the way in after hooking up. A tug may seem fine, but some times the handle will still be half way out. But even still, I usually make it a habit of doing several push and tugs to massage the mechanism full closed (to the extent it will) given the very cold grease doesn't want to allow for a lot of easy movement of metal parts.

 

I suggest having a mechanic look at it soon.You shouldn't be having that much trouble all the time no matter how much crap is on the pin.Also you don't say screw it in hopes it'll fix itself.One of these days it won't fix itself.Your job as a trk driver is to make sure everything is in working condition before you start driving.So do your part and take your trk to the shop.

 

The only way you can work to reduce this issue (extreme cold caused) is to use fully synthetic grease and even then it's no guarantee if it gets cold enough. Many shops in northern fleets do, but then some other shop uses regular grease and effectively undoes previous attempts to help the issue.

 

If that is indeed the case then he needs to take it to the companies shop.He should look over the fifthwheel before hooking up.

 

That's cause you are from LA. A few years back, we had a cold snap here that it didn't get above 0 for over a week, and most nights were -20. I seen the shop guys taking an air chisel to some of the grease buildup on a few of the trucks as this exact thing was happening. Might not have been rock hard, but it was hard enough it took effort with the air chisel to clear it out.

Now why they didn't simply keep it in the warm shop a few hours and simply wipe it off after it warmed up is unknown to me...

 

At the FIRST sign of trouble I buy a new fifth wheel plate. Too important to jack around with something like that