New product: SAF-Holland greaseless combo

SAF Holland recently unveiled an innovative ‘greaseless' fifth wheel and matching kingpin combination

Excessive grease build-up on fifth wheels, kingpins and locking mechanisms is an age-old truck industry issue, but SAF-Holland says this messy problem is a thing of the past thanks to its new ‘greaseless’ fifth wheel and kingpin combination, which it premiered at Melbourne’s recent 2014 Truck, Trailer & Equipment Show.

SAF Holland Product Manager Nemanja Miletic describes the technology as “a total innovation” and says the combination – which mates a new kingpin design with the firm’s existing FW311 ‘NoLube’ fifth wheel – eliminates one of the truck industry’s oldest headaches.

“Reducing grease is a big issue these days; people want to be more eco-friendly and more productive, and they don’t want to use grease,” he says.

“This is essentially a totally greaseless unit. Once everything’s assembled all it requires is some ‘Never Seez’ around the pins, cam plate and yoke, which is what the fifth wheel comes with, and a small one-finger smear of grease around the kingpin to help it bed in.

“The wheel plates never need greasing, there are no grease nipples and there’s no pouring of grease on the kingpin, so there’s no mess.”

Made in the U.S. by Holland, Miletic says the combination has been covertly trialled here in Australia over the past 12 months.

“We have had this technology on trial with three fleets here in Australia – three different applications in three different regions,” he says.

“We have it in NSW on a truck pulling a B-double; we have it in Queensland between an A and B trailer on a B-double; and we have it on just a single trailer that gets used between Victoria and South Australia.”

The combination essentially sees a new heat-resistant kingpin mated to Holland’s existing FW311 ‘NoLube’ fifth wheel. The latter features NoLube plate inserts that have been bonded to a unique, perforated steel plate. SAF-Holland says these plates generate very little friction, thereby precluding the need for grease, but it’s the new kingpin that completes the picture.

“It’s a specific kingpin with a specific heat treatment and hardness, while the jaws and locks and other components have also undergone specific heat treatment,” says Miletic.

Miletic says the small volumes of prototype kingpins will shortly make way for larger production volumes, and that users of SAF-Holland’s existing FW311 ‘NoLube’ fifth wheel will be able to retrofit a new kingpin to fully realise the combination’s benefits.

Visit www.safholland.com.au for more information.

New product: SAF-Holland greaseless combo

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