Gear Head Lube launches soy-based fifth wheel lubricant pad

ORLANDO, Florida – Gear Head Lube debuted a new fifth wheel lubricant that can be cleanly and quickly applied by hand at the American Trucking Associations’ Technology and Maintenance Council Annual Meeting at the Orange County convention Center. The soy-based grease simplifies fifth wheel maintenance for technicians while also providing economic and environmental benefits for fleets, the company stated during a press conference at the event.

“The use of grease guns or applying grease by spatula is messy and time consuming,” said Todd Whiting, director of product development at Gear Head. “Additionally, without measuring the amount of grease being used it can be easy to over-grease or under-grease the fifth wheel.”

To remedy this, Gear Head’s soy-based pads provide a consistent, fixed amount of grease and can be handled without gloves. The solution has a thin, hard, smooth shell that is easy to handle and contains the grease so that it does not stain drivers or technicians while being applied.

“The dry pad is placed on the fifth wheel’s surface [and] when that pad is engaged with the trailer’s contact surface, it is crushed and compressed,” said Brian Walker, head of business development, marketing, and sales, Gear Head Lube. “Then, during steering motion, it will spread across the fifth wheel and into the key critical areas for lubrication.”

Produced by U.S. farmers, the grease is produced with oil from soybeans which exhibit a polarity that attracts the oil to metal surfaces, providing greater protection for the metal surfaces of the fifth wheel. The company reported that users needed to lubricate their fifth wheels less frequently with the Lube Pads, and the product’s packaging and consistency makes them usable in a variety of temperatures.

“It really doesn’t matter what the temperatures are,” Walker explained. “When you put the trailer weight on the pads, [they’re] going to depress, even in very, very cold weather.”

From an environmental standpoint, this consistency of the Lube Pads provide less environmental contamination as well. Unlike conventional petroleum-based fifth wheel grease, Gear Head’s soy-based formulation is non-toxic and biodegradable. For fleets looking to achieve ESG (Environmental Sustainability and Governance), the company stated the product provides a simple solution as well.

“Fifth wheel grease is uncontained,” Walker noted. “It will shed onto the roadway… and from there, there’s really only one place for it to go and that’s from the roadway into the soil. We address that issue.”