Fifth wheel hitch plate mechanism repair
Channel: Cj Fix It
Date: 2019-05-23

I was met with hell when we tried to unlatch the truck from my Parents fifth wheel. We fought to get it to release but nothing would force it to unlatch even a solid steel bar couldn't force it. So I decided to unpin the hitch plate from the saddle. So that I could get my head under there and see what was going on and see if I could get it to come off.

Finally it came after some gentile persuasion it pulled around the king pin. Now having it off I needed it cleaned to figure out what was actually the problem and find a solution. The latch mechanism was too small for the hole and binding up when the handle was pulled.

Solutions come to me at times after beating myself over the head with all the B.S. and working through the issue over and over again. Sometimes it comes from others mistakes and failures. This time it was My Dad's failed attempt at gas welding it. His mini torch kit couldn't produce enough heat to do anything. So I got a good opportunity to pull the arc welder out and place some metal on the part ever so violently. Then gently massaging it back to shape. In the end I was absolutely shocked when it was perfect the first time messaging it to shape.

At that point I reassembled the hitch plate greasing the hell out of it the whole way. Then I tested it. With absolute satisfaction it went perfectly the way it is meant to go. I filmed this but unfortunately that video is lost to a fried computer. 

My last editing computer fried and I lost some video. Being the footage is on a IDE hard drive I will not be able at this point recover it.

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