fifth wheel recommendation

Holland is the I would perchase one

 

I've looked at them all. Have a holland now. Will be getting a Jost real soon. I like the design and rebuildable on the truck without taking it off and turning it over. Greaseless is nice but you never know when you will change operations. I like the greaseable ones just to be more diverse

 

I had a Fontaine greaseless. After three years had to pound out the two pivots pins to grease them as the noise they made was getting loud. At four years the plastic pads on the face of the fifth wore out. It was almost $600 for new ones, so for $900 I just bought a whole new grease type fifth wheel instead.

 

The main down side to "greaseless" 5th wheels is you have to make absolutely sure you never hook to another trailer or let somebody else pull your trailer. If you do, you'll just get everything greasy and defeat the purpose.

 

i run a holland fw35 on my truck, been very happy with it so far. it is due for a re-biuld ordered a kit for it maybe this weekend ill find out just how much of a pain rebuilding it is. costs about about 285 bucks for the rebuild kit.

 

It really depends on how hard you are on it and how worn it is. More often than not if you drop and hook a lot (some guys just really ram it home) the top plates on most will have a lot of wear in the throat. Wipe the grease off the top of the plate at the front where the pin sits when closed. If its mushroomed up at the front or is raised I would toss it and get a new plate. Be careful with your bare hand this edge can be sharp sometimes.

So at a minimum if your old plate has wear after you get it built it may be near or at max adjustment when finished rebuilding which means the life cycle will likely be short before you will need to replace or rebuild it again. Do the rebuild yourself and your not out so much. Pay someone 4-6 hours to rebuild it and only get a year out of it and you'll be pissed you didn't buy a new plate to begin with.

JOST is up and coming favorite for durability and pricing. Holland is always a good choice too.

 

A Fontaine no-slack II is a decent option if weight isn't an issue. A full rebuild kit less the plate runs about $400 and you can rebuild it in an afternoon over a 6-pack.