Holland Fifth Wheel Problems

A brand new aluminum Holland fifth wheel is $2000 it would’ve saved you a lot of downtime! My steel Holland was doing the same thing wouldn’t unlock hard to lock so I just got rid of it, mostly for safety sake !

 

I’ve been sliding 5th wheels a lot. Most people just leave the 5th wheel in the sweet spot, and never move it again. I slide it forward most of the times I am deadheading for fuel efficiency purposes and sometimes when on light loads. Otherwise, I leave it in the sweet spot.

Most 5th wheels need a little bit of lightly tugging back and forth to get the pins to release. Also, try turning on/off the 5th wheel switch. If you are loaded, you must drop your landing gear and deflate your airbags for a few seconds—only. Do NOT leave it deflating for too long as the king pin can come off or possible get stuck and damage the 5th wheel.

If you still can’t move it, turn off the 5th wheel switch and air up your air system to the max (about 135 PSI). You should be able to hear a popping sound when your system maxes out. Then try it again. It can also help to go for a short drive to get the air to fully circulate the truck.

The other possibility is that there may be a serious air leak in the 5th wheel system. You can spray the airline fittings coming out underneath the 5th wheel with soap and water.

One last pointer, you can actually grease the sliding mechanism of the 5th wheel. It helps your 5th wheel slide very smoothly.

 

That is not true I had a holland 5 th wheel spring go bad luckily I felt the it when it released and stopped in time to catch the trailer on the frame but I company wasn’t lucky enough to get another truck there before DOT SWEENEY in Greenville Kentucky shut the small town down to do an inspection he determined I needed a new 5th wheel and that a 1200 dollar fine was sufficient for the crime I’m just glad no one was hurt and I didn’t lose any points.

 

Does anyone know if the slider part of a fw35 holland should have latterial movement in that channel it slides on? (Hope I explained it ok)

 

Not sure exactly when you are having trouble but when dropping loaded trailer dump air in trailer before you lower landing gear as trailer will move forward several inches unless equipped with some kind of a automatic block between frame and axel. I generally do this with tractor brakes released to allow it to roll forward easily. Once air is exhausted you can then put truck in reverse and back into kingpin as far as possible then set tractor brakes this will give you the best chance of unlatching it. If that doesn't work and you also have trouble getting it to lock it sounds as though it is adjusted too tightly. If when latched the handle isn't all the way in it is definitely not to be trusted. Once handle is all the way in it is highly unlikely to come unhooked unless you high hook it which should be fairly obvious as the trailer plate won't be all the way against the tractor plate. While it is possible to rebuild a fifth wheel I have seen negative results with dramatic consequences. I'm assuming this is a new plate from factory.

 

I found this because I just dropped a loaded trailer. ( the bad way). I’m lucky the gear, although badly damaged, held up. I’m a little shook because it’s my first “accident” and I’ve been hauling tankers for over 10 years in every kind of weather except a tornado. Well another company driver was here and I had done 3 tug tests, 2 with gear up 2” then another before moving. I still can’t say for sure what happened but I know I wasn’t high hooked ( always look first) and the pin was in after the trailer went down. So somehow it may have gotten into locked position first, but then why did the tugs hold ? Still a little baffled and a little nervous about re-hooking after they unload the trailer. With the tractor bags down all I will need it two 2 by 4’s to sneak it up to the plate.