Mills Manufacturing Fifth Wheel

Mills Manufacturing Fifth Wheel

The fifth-wheel coupling provides the link between a semi-trailer and the towing truck, tractor unit, leading trailer or dolly. The coupling consists of a kingpin, a 2-or-3+1⁄2-inch-diameter vertical steel pin protruding from the bottom of the front of the semi-trailer, and a horseshoe-shaped coupling device called a fifth wheel on the rear of the towing vehicle. As the connected truck turns, the downward-facing surface of the semi-trailer rotates against the upward-facing surface of the fixed fifth wheel, which does not rotate. To reduce friction, grease is applied to the surface of the fifth wheel. The configuration is sometimes called a turn-table in Australia and New Zealand, especially if it is a rotating ball-race-bearing type. The advantage of this type of coupling is towing stability.