grease or glide plate

fj12ryder wrote:
Okay, I'm officially confused. :) I do the same as you with my B&W Companion hitch: put my pin below my hitch head and slide the pin up and into the hitch. But the nylon disc doesn't interfere with any of that.

I must be missing something.

One of the things you accomplish as you back up under your king pin is level or position the truck 5th wheel hitch horizonally. This is why we start out 1/2 inch below the plate so the caming action can occur. Watch it sometime. When the square front of the plate contacts the hitch it levels it. In other words if the two plates are not parallel you risk "high hitching or having the king pin above the jaws." All I'm saying is that with the disk in place I sometimes did not end up with the plates totally parallel. The nylon disk did not interfere with the king pin or jaws. It just prevented the hitch in the truck from leveling itself and becoming parallel with the plate on the king pin.

Disc-- But if you start feeling a popped on corners, it's worn out, time for a new one.

OK likes to tow...Now I get it. What you call rotating hitch, I call tilting. Just a difference in terms. Thank you for explaining my confusion. Sorry.

Okay, I'm officially confused. :) I do the same as you with my B&W Companion hitch: put my pin below my hitch head and slide the pin up and into the hitch. But the nylon disc doesn't interfere with any of that.

I must be missing something.

Vulcaneer wrote:

Likes to tow wrote:
When you position this plate 1/2 inch below the surface of the hitch plate it will "cam" or move the rotating hitch to the correct positon. Now when there is a round teflon pad on the king pin, it makes the front of this area "round" and no camming or proper movement for alighnment will occur. This caused me great difficulty especially when trying to hitch up in areas that were not perfectly level.

The only hitches that I know of that use a rotating hitch plate, are the Highjacker, or SuperGlide automatic sliding hitches. There may be others that I am not aware of. What kind of hitch do you have?

The Teflon disk is NOT to be used with the SuperGlide. Not enough room for it, as that hitch uses a capture plate instead, and the hitch head rotates, so there is no benefit to using a teflon disk even if it did fit.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "rotating hitch plate." However my hitch is a Reese and it pivots side to side and back to forward. It must be at the same horizontal axis as the plate on the bottom of the 5th wheel (king pin plate) I always adjust the level of the 5th wheel to be at least 1/2 inch below the hitch plate. The square front on the 5th wheel plate (king pin plate) will cam or hit the 5th wheel hitch and level it to the proper horizontal angle. With a teflon disc, the rounded front of the disc would not do this.

Always a good idea. I've got one on my Companion.

Definitely!!

I have a B&W Companion on the way should i get a Teflon disk?

Likes to tow wrote:
When you position this plate 1/2 inch below the surface of the hitch plate it will "cam" or move the rotating hitch to the correct positon. Now when there is a round teflon pad on the king pin, it makes the front of this area "round" and no camming or proper movement for alighnment will occur. This caused me great difficulty especially when trying to hitch up in areas that were not perfectly level.

The only hitches that I know of that use a rotating hitch plate, are the Highjacker, or SuperGlide automatic sliding hitches. There may be others that I am not aware of. What kind of hitch do you have?

The Teflon disk is NOT to be used with the SuperGlide. Not enough room for it, as that hitch uses a capture plate instead, and the hitch head rotates, so there is no benefit to using a teflon disk even if it did fit.

Likes to tow wrote:
When I bought this 5th wheel it had one already installed. My first 5th wheel did not. I noticed after a few months that I continually had problems hitching up. It was embarassing sometimes. I experienced absolutely no problems with the old 5th wheel. Why all of a sudden now do I have trouble getting the hitch to pivot to a corresponding angle of the king pin plate.

The front of the king pin plate on the 5th wheel is square. When you position this plate 1/2 inch below the surface of the hitch plate it will "cam" or move the rotating hitch to the correct positon. Now when there is a round teflon pad on the king pin, it makes the front of this area "round" and no camming or proper movement for alighnment will occur. This caused me great difficulty especially when trying to hitch up in areas that were not perfectly level.

The king pin must be greased anyway. Those getting grease on their clothing will do it anyway even with the pad. Why have a pad and cause yourself hitching problems?

After removing the teflon pad I once again have absolutely no problem with hitching up.

Never have this issue with my disk. Maybe your pin plate was too high,I am usually 1" to 2" low of the hitch plate, never an issue.