# Grease for 5th Wheel



## MikeS2942

Are you suppose to grease your 5th wheel hitch and what type of grease?

If you do grease it, how do you prevent getting grease all over everything you put in the back of the truck?


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## Hunter11

As far as the hitch and pinbox mating area get you a lube plate and forget the grease.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/lube-plate/26249

As far as the hitch itself I use silicon spray or a dry lube spray on all the moving parts about every three months.


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## seabo

^. usually pull it dry but i did grease mine last time(like a dummy) due to screaching noise when turning..


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## Don Smith

You haven't lived until you've has a fifth wheel freeze up due to lack of lubrication. Lots of bad things happen all at once and most of them have to do with total lack of control. You've got to either grease it or use a lubri-plate. If you look at a big trucks fifth wheel, you will see liberal amounts of grease and there's a very good reason for it.


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## seabo

thx for the heads up Floatin Doc.i thought it was just personal preference.


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## MikeS2942

Doc, It sounds like you have personal experience with lank of grease.


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## Hunter11

On the 5th wheel we owned before the one we have now I used the lube plate for four years and never had a problem. The 5th wheel we have now I do not use one because it has a Sidewinder pinbox so it is locked in at the hitch and swivels at the trailer. Just remember if you use grease to keep it fresh and don't let it get caked up and hard.


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## Don Smith

MikeS2942 said:


> Doc, It sounds like you have personal experience with lank of grease.


Yep. Colorado mountains about 10 years ago. Nearly shat myself.


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## MikeS2942

Floatin Doc said:


> Yep. Colorado mountains about 10 years ago. Nearly shat myself.


I think I will invest in the grease recommended..... I hate listening to the popping noise.


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## Ducatibilt

MikeS2942 said:


> I think I will invest in the grease recommended..... I hate listening to the popping noise.


Personally I would go with the lube plate, I've been using them on my fifth wheels for the last ten years with out issue. But defenitely lube the locking mechanism. Besides fifth wheel grease is some nasty stuff!
Also I used to get alot of popping on my old hitch that was mounted on rails because there was movement where it was pinned to the rails, since I got the B&W hitch I get none of that anymore.

BTW, the reason the big trucks primarily use grease instead of the lube plates is because the lube plate stays on the trailer and they rarely are hooked to the same trailer. 
The big truck guys that do run lube plates are the guys that have their own trailer or have a dedicated trailer so they don't have to worry about getting a trailer without one.


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## rodmir

I would not use grease either, the lube plate works great. The only problem I have had with a lube plate is when I hitch or un-hitch. If it is to much of an angle it will snap the edges of the plate.


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