Just how much wear do you guys allow in your 5th wheels? Is there always a little thunkin' going on or do you keep it adjusted then rebuild when it runs out of adjustment? just wondering,
I don't like a lot of 5th wheel slack. A little slack will turn into a lot of slack pretty quick. Lots of slack is real hard on trailer pins and those are a lot of work to replace. I am pretty lucky because the trailer I pull ALL the time is not quite 2 years old. I replaced the 5th wheel jaws last winter and keep an eye on the adjustment nut (Fontaine). My jaws were worn just as badly as yours and the slack was just starting to get annoying. When you rebuild the jaws, be sure to use never-sieze on all components, especially the adjusting nut.
If i can feel any decent amount of slack It gets rebuilt. The jaw in your pics would have been already replaced twice maybe three times with that kind of wear. I would grease my 5th wheel two maybe three times a week when things were booming. On the busiest days hauling the mechanical detach i would hook and un hook the wagon 40 plus times IN A DAY. Thats alot of action for a 5th wheel. Couple that with 120K+ loads. I didnt want to EVER have to doubt that the 5th wheel was anything but PERFECT.
There shouldn't be any noticeable clunking, we had this in a old prime mover and it drove me nuts, so I put in new jaws. Not that hard to and not that expensive, just a normal part of maintenance.
That's what I thought, I hadn't really paid much attention to the wear, I guess I just assumed the drivers would mention the slack and lack of adjustment. Yep ass u me 'd. It is a really fast and easy job, I spend more time cleaning the grease off than rebuilding it.
Hi ,Muffler Bearing.I adjust the fith wheel plate after about 3/8 to 1/2 inch of slop in the plate.The picture of the fith wheel jaws you posted dont look that bad.That type of fith wheel plate uses a forked wedge to lock the jaws to the king pin on the trailer.I have welded up the wedge in the past to tighten up the jaws on the on the king pin.
Muffler Bearing, when I was at the trucking company, we had a trailer pin that had been cut out of a trailer that had a handle welded to it, when the trucks were pm'ed we would insert the pin and check for slop, we would either try to tighten up the adjustment or replace the jaws, not a time consuming job, but definitely one to do at the end of the shift when you don't mind the grease as bad!