fifth wheel

[johan77]

update on my m275 tractor...found finaly the right fifth wheel for my tractor, even in working condition, doors are also restaured, now the hard part,,,, remove and replace all rusty parts from the cab......

 

[rosco]

The grooves in the face of the plate are, no doubt filled with dried grease & need to be cleaned. You will find zerk fittings under the plate too. That plate will tip horizontally, as well as fore & aft, for off road use. All mounting holes shall have bolts in them, of the proper size & grade, but not through the frame flange. Good find.

 

[NDT]

That is the correct one. There are two spacers that go underneath made of flat bar.

 

[johan77]

The grooves in the face of the plate are, no doubt filled with dried grease & need to be cleaned. You will find zerk fittings under the plate too. That plate will tip horizontally, as well as fore & aft, for off road use. All mounting holes shall have bolts in them, of the proper size & grade, but not through the frame flange. Good find.

in total i counted 8 zerk fittings, all cleaned and 2 replaced because they were broken, new grease pumped in all of them , also the bolts for the wedges are loose again and turning smooth….

 

[johan77]

do i need the spacers ? i've seen tractors with the fifth wheel directly on the chassis and still the height of the fifth wheel looked fine, and nice alligned with the 2 angled ramps in front of the fifth wheel … i wil look how it will appears when i install it on the truck, do you happen to know what's the thickness of these spacers just in case i might need them ?

 

[msgjd]

I see your 5th wheel still has the adjusting wedges. They are the long narrow odd-shaped things sliding underneath from the front. They are held by one large hex bolt each, if I remember right they are either 1' hex or 1-1/16" on a deuce but I only have 5T tracs here. Yours appear NOT to be slid all the way back in the pic. All the way back is the on-road position and limits lateral (left-right) tilt of the 5th plate. The wedges can be slid forward to facilitate trailer tilt for off-road terrain. Maximum off-road tilt is obtained by removing the wedges completely. If you are only hauling on-road and do not anticipate needing any degree of trailer tilt, you should slide the wedges to the rear until the bolt has no more slot to go. It would be the safest position of the wedges if you're OTR. OTR trucks have no lateral tilt whatsoever. Perhaps you already know all this but since it hasn't been mentioned, I would like to add it here for those that may not know.

 

[NDT]

I think the spacers are 1/4” x 2”, just to provide a base for the fifth wheel above the frame rivets.