Soy-based fifth wheel pads take mess out of greasing

March 1, 2025 | Bethany Baratta

Todd Whiting spent his career dealing with the mess of grease guns. The cumbersome task of moving the grease gun where he needed it, getting it loaded to use, and then ensuring that the product was disposed of properly without dirtying the spaces not intended for grease — like his clothing and vehicle seats — was clumsy and dirty.

Now a retired engineer, Whiting and his business partners, Ken Budke, have found a soy-based way to make the job easier.

Today, the fifth-wheel grease pads they’ve patented and are now marketing have gone global.

“The main objective of this product is to be crazily convenient,” says Whiting, director of product development for Gear Head Lubricant.

The Cedar Falls-based company produces the soy-based, square-shaped grease pads that lubricate fifth-wheel hitches found on semi-tractors and other heavy-duty trucks. The fifth wheel is used to couple the kingpin of a semi-trailer, livestock trailer or RV to the tow vehicle, according to Whiting.

Application involves simply placing a pad by hand at both the nine and three o’clock positions on the fifth wheel. After the trailer is hooked up, the grease from the pads is evenly distributed around the fifth wheel with no mess.

Soy advantage

The pads, comprised of over 80% U.S. soy, are listed on the United States Department of Agriculture’s Certified Biobased Product program.

While petroleum and soy-based materials can be formulated to make excellent greases, soy molecules exhibit a technical property referred to as ‘polarity’, explains Whiting. This means that soy molecules form a tight bond to a metal surface. The result is better protection of the metal surface, which can extend the life of the fifth wheel.

The soy oil used to make the product is sourced in Iowa, made from Iowa-grown soybeans.

“It’s the circle of soy,” says Brian Walker, the head of business development for Gear Head Lubricant. “We are taking the soy product from the agricultural community and bringing that into our facility and making the grease. We take the grease, and convert it to grease pads, which the farmer will use to haul the grain back to the grain storage.”

On average, a semi-truck uses 20 pounds of fifth wheel grease a year. With approximately 3 million semis operating in the country, this amounts to a market in the United States of 60 million pounds of fifth wheel grease each year.

Gear Head’s grease pad is predominately made from raw soy oil. Thus, the U.S. fifth wheel lubricant market could potentially consume more than 6 million gallons of soy oil using this new product.

A recent promotional initiative conducted between the Soy Transportation Coalition (STC) and trucking companies highlighted this new use for soybeans and soy products and the products’ environmental sustainability attributes.

“These products have been in existence for a number of years, but given STC’s extensive relationships within the transportation sector, we concluded we could play a meaningful role in increasing the awareness and the utilization of these soy-based fifth wheel lube pads, says Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the STC. “Unfortunately, there can often be a significant delay between the development of an innovative and effective product and the widespread utilization of it.”

Through the project, STC aimed to increase awareness and promote the use of soy-based fifth wheel lube pads to further accelerate their benefits.

Ruan, one of the largest family-owned transportation management companies in the nation, partnered with STC in evaluating the grease pads for their own fleet.

“At Ruan, we examine each aspect of our business to identify opportunities to implement more sustainable practices,” says Mike Elliott, Ruan’s technical maintenance operations manager. “The use of soy-based fifth wheel pads is one such example. These pads are very effective, easy to use, and affordable.”

Iowa soybean farmer Robb Ewoldt used the grease pads on his own semis as part of the STC initiative.

“As a farmer, I usually see soy as a component in feed rations or biodiesel, but it’s cool to see how soy goes from bean to block as a lubricant in this application,” says Ewoldt, a past ISA president and current lead for the United Soybean Board’s (USB) infrastructure and connectivity priority group. He also serves on USB’s export work group.

Sustainable alternative

Fifth wheel grease is predominately petroleum-based and applied by hand, grease gun, or via small plastic pouches, which often become litter after application. Utilizing the soy-based pads has proven to be an environmentally sustainable alternative that are easier to apply while providing better lubrication over the entire fifth wheel.

Whiting says most market greases utilize potentially hazardous materials in their formulations. That’s not the case with Gear Head Lubricant’s soy-based truck pads.

“Considering the unique additional materials in our formula, we find it unnecessary to utilize any metals at all in our product,” he says. “Our pads present no harm to the environment and are fully biodegradable.”

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