Profile For Wes G.

I have heard of people who had their own trailers who never unhooked, and in every case they were flatbedders, who never greased theirs and had to end up replacing the 5th wheel. Ours were greased every time we had service on the truck, so we did not worry about it.

One of our instructors in school told a funny story about how he never greased his for a while and on a turn, his tractor did went straight because the trailer hung up on the 5th wheel, and he took out a mailbox. The mailbox was one of those ones that the owner had fixed up to look special and was like a mini windmill. He talked to the owner and offered to pay right away of course, and the owner wanted 1000 bucks. He said every other mailbox on the road was just the old cheap type you can get from Walmart for less than 50. The important thing he was stressing though, is it can cause problems like that if it is never lubed.

Driving flatbed you get to unhook/hook quite often. A few shippers/receivers require you to unhook for safety reasons, and then there is dropping the trailer to drive the tractor home, and everytime the truck is in the shop, which is quite often for scheduled service, the mechanics unhook it also.

This is not always the case. I know owner operators that only unhook to grease their fifth wheel. Not trying to pick a fight or anything, just explaining that gypo truck drivers sometimes don't unhook.

Congratulations man

Up until here recently I was a mechanic in a truck shop, the guy two posts above me said it best. Greasing these things isn't rocket science, you pop the end off a tube of grease and squeeze a bit out onto the first couple inches of the flat portion of the fifth wheel. the trailer will spread the grease over the rest of it. Be sure to get a good amount of grease on the jaws while you are at it.

Happy Turkey day to all

Happy Turkey day to you

I should be starting school with swift in Phoenix soon. This was great info. Let us know how working for them is going for you.

You can Look for Log truck, water, forest service fire, ect.... There are jobs for young guys out there. Just gotta think of the less thought about jobs.

Found the Randy McNally 720 for $289 on Amazon. That was cheaper than the 520. My Mom and Sister pooled their money together and ordered it. So I get an early Christmas present. I look now (to confirm the price I quote) and I see that the 520 is now on sale for $219.

Thanks for all the input. Seems like Randy McNally is's going to be. Now to be able to talk them into spending 400 bucks. lol. I'll do my best to keep you all updated here.

And of course I don't plan on having only the GPS, I just feel that it could be very helpfull.

Awesome, quick response. Thank you Old School.

I was just looking at the Rand McNally, for $399.99. It's one of the only ones that had any reviews. all good reviews for that one as well.