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maxmorrow's avatar
maxmorrow
Explorer
Jan 09, 2016

Plastic disc on fifth wheel hitch

I bought the plastic disc for my fifth wheel hitch and thought it would help on the mess of grease. It worked fine and when I tried to hookup the other day the jaws would not close completely. I took off the disc and it worked perfect. Just wanted to let anyone that has same problem of what it could be.
  • You can order the thinner disc from Hensley. They are around $20.

    Jerry
  • maxmorrow wrote:
    I have a B&W companion hitch and only thing we could see was that the jaws are thicker than on most other hitches. I hated to take it off because it really worked great when towing.


    You don't have as much room to hitch to 5er's pin...I use a disc also with the hitch in my sig., B&W 3600 RVK Companion, and if you hitch too high or too low, you may have an issue....Wife watches as I back truck under 5er and she raises or lowers 5er as needed and I'm able to use my disc...no issues.


    There use to be two thickness disc sold, a thinner one may be an option for you.
  • I have a B&W and use a disk with no issues. I do believe there are thinner ones, however. Not sure but my feeble brain tells me I read that somewhere. Have used my plastic lube plate with two different pin boxes without problems (OEM Lippert and Mor Ryde).
  • Yes, a secure hitch was a challenge at first. After moving to a long-bed truck and pinning/removing wedge from my Sidewinder pinbox, I was able to use a disc for the first time. Reese R16 hitch and the 16k Sidewinder, the jaws of the hitch wrapped very low on the "neck" of the king pin. Adding the thickness of the plastic disk caused the jaws ride a bit lower and would catch the lower "flange" of the king pin.

    Uncomfortable with this, I went back to grease for a few trips. Tired of the grease, I tried the disk again. Took two tries, but got jaws to settle in around neck. Don't know if disk has compressed or worn slightly, but since then, jaws are now grabbing okay. I still watch it really close though.

    Hope this helps.
  • I have a B&W companion hitch and only thing we could see was that the jaws are thicker than on most other hitches. I hated to take it off because it really worked great when towing.
  • I've sold a lot of them and never heard any thing back on this problem