As much of a fanatic as I am about maintenance of my vehicles, I am ashamed to say I totally neglected our old 16K fifth wheel hitch. Five years of use and I only maintained the visual surfaces and occasionally sprayed some white lithium grease on the jaws.
So last week I decided to pull the hitch out of the truck to dismantle and inspect all the parts. What I observed was a little more than frightening. I found lots of rust; grooves warn into shafts and pins, stretched and stressed metal parts and two very rusty welds that were starting to crack. All of this could have been prevented if I would have kept parts painted, rust free and all pivot points, shafts and bolts lubricated.
I ordered a new Husky 4 way pivot 24K hitch. It will arrive Wednesday and you better believe I will pay attention to this one. I ask the vender I purchased it from to send a maintenance guide. Something the dealer never gave us or explained.
Now I have a worn out 5er hitch in my shop that I don’t know what to do with. It’s too big to be a paper weight. Guess I will have to haul it to the dump.
Ed