5th wheel lube

garyp4951 wrote:
I had to get the thinner lube plate so my hitch jaws would lock correctly.

Yes. The lube plates come in 2 or 3 different thicknesses, so you need to get one that will work with your hitch. I remember reading a number of years ago, where a guy ended up ditching his hitch because the fit was so tight that NO lube plates would work and he hated having to grease the hitch plate. AFAIK, most mfrs do have a recommendation for which plate to use.

Lyle

garyp4951 wrote:
I had to get the thinner lube plate so my hitch jaws would lock correctly.

What hitch?

I had to get the thinner lube plate so my hitch jaws would lock correctly.

Another benefit to my Pullrite Superglide, the king pin is locked so it doesn’t swivel. It’s recommended to lube with wd40 - not nearly as messy as grease. Ive done this for ~7yrs and >50k miles and all is good. I do clean up and check the hitch every year or two.

YUP, another Lube Plate User here.

That is just an example of what is available

I also came from the big truck world. The plastic plates are great on our 5ers, no so much on the big trucks. However, grease works great, but as you know it is messy.

In the beginning we used red chassis grease on the hitch top plate. Then the white plastic nylon disc became available so no more grease stained clothes/hands.

Make sure your hitch mfg recommends using one.

You'll see some 5th wheel rv trailer owners use nothing or some type of spray on lube.
My 11400 lb 5er has around 2200-2400 lbs on the plate ...nothing like the load your OTR rigs top plate carries ...or the miles per year of use.

1) Teflon disk
2) white lithium per manufacturer on uprights
3) spray heavy duty lube
On jaws
4) medium duty grease in the zerk fitting on the pivot bar.

I use the white teflon disk and grease the pin and jaws on the hitch

Diamond c wrote:
Ok thanks that makes since I hadn’t thought of that. We tried them on our trucks at work for a while but they didn’t hold up but I can see we’re they might work better for this.

I get multiple years out of each $12 - $15 lube plate on our 15K fifth wheel. As for the hitch, PullRite specifies what lubricants to use on each part of the mechanism underneath the plate (jaws, pinion, latch, springs, etc.). I just follow the manual on that and put a thin film of all-purpose grease around the pin where it makes contact with the hitch and latch parts.

Rob