Pulling Wheels/Rims from Montana

[mail2us]

Please assist with the method or process to pull the wheels/rims from the Montana.

I am considering balancing and lube/packing inspection of all 4 wheels. Tks.

[dsprik]

Be very careful with your plastic hub protectors - those cones in the center of the rim. The tires/rims are quite heavy and it is easy to accidentally push the plastic cone right through the rim. Kind of a pain. I have one off right now. Not sure if they really are something we absolutely need. Maybe...

[Trailer Trash 2]

Dennis I kept my trailer conected to the truck for stability, and drive the trailer on 2- 6" hi blocks (one axel at a time) 2 two bottle jacks, one under each spring pad to lift the wheel off the blocks to remove the blocks from under the wheels, then I lowered the wheels with the bottle jack and removed the wheel from the axel. The jacks will also take the weight of the trailer on that side when the wheels are removed, and the truck will hold the majority of the weight forward and keep the unit from moving. as you can see from the pictuer attached.
Make sure you loosen the lug nuts first before lifting the wheel from the block.

[stiles watson]

I am not quite sure what you are asking, but I will give it a shot. I would jack the frame behind the rear wheels, raising it 3"-4" and put a jack stand under it. After loosening the lug nuts, I would jack the axle of the wheel you are addressing close to the wheel and take the wheel off. From there you can access the brake drum.

Remove the lube cap at the center of the hub and the cotter pin, nut and washer to access the brake shoes and bearings. Be sure to check the brake wiring connection. If you determine that you need new brake shoes, consider replacing the whole brake assembly. That will give you new magnates as well.

[mail2us]

What I'd like to do is remove the wheel and take it to our local tire shop to have balanced. I believe they can also check to see if they're lubed correctly or clean/remove old grease and re-lube. I believe Don (trailertrash2) approached my confused question with what I will have to do to remove the wheels.

[richfaa]

Dennis.. Use the Rich Method. Drive the rig to the nearest dealer or tire shop Point to the wheels and tell them. Pull the wheels, check and grease the bearings if necessary, Check and adjust the brakes, balance the tires and call me when finished...

[Glenn and Lorraine]

What do you know, for once I am in total agreement with Rich.
Over the years I have learned that it's a lot easier to pay those qualified to do the job than to try it myself only to have to pay later to correct my mistakes. Remember the old Fram commercial?? "You can pay me now or pay me later."
Been there, done that, lessoned learned.

[LonnieB]

quoteennis.. Use the Rich Method. Drive the rig to the nearest dealer or tire shop Point to the wheels and tell them. Pull the wheels, check and grease the bearings if necessary, Check and adjust the brakes, balance the tires and call me when finished...

I like this method the best. It's the same way I do it........almost

[stiles watson]

The idea that doing things yourself means that you will mess it up and have to do it over or pay someone else to do it is simply not true. I have saved thousands of dollars over the years by doing it myself and had very, very few redo experiences. If one is not mechanically adept, then take it to those who have ability. Same if you just don't want to do it. I never assume I can't do something until I research the matter and determine I either don't have the skill or the tools to manage it.

[Trailer Trash 2]

quote:Originally posted by stiles watson

The idea that doing things yourself means that you will mess it up and have to do it over or pay someone else to do it is simply not true. I have saved thousands of dollars over the years by doing it myself and had very, very few redo experiences. If one is not mechanically adept, then take it to those who have ability. Same if you just don't want to do it. I never assume I can't do something until I research the matter and determine I either don't have the skill or the tools to manage it.

I agree with Stiles, I have had some very shody work by the so called experts, and I know that I can do a better job 99% of the time.
I just had my brakes done by a pro, and I'm not at all happy with the work, they dont even take the 5er on a test run they just put on new pads, springs where needed, and check out the magnets slap on the drums pack the berrings and adjust the brakes, then tell me its OK, and when the shoes get burned in to the arch of the drum ( in a few miles ) it is OK. I have my P3 set to 8 volts for the vacation level B3, Im still not happy with the job I'll take it back when I get settled from our vacation.

This was a prevous 5er I had worked on when I purchased it the brakes were supose to be OK. after two years this is what they looked like,

Bad job

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...brakesnum1.jpg


good job by me

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Brakesnum2.jpg

[racerjoe]

Just pulling off the rims and tires only will let you take the tires and wheels in to be balanced. The garage can't properly check and lube the wheel bearings without the trailer on site. there will be no way for them to inspect the bearing spindles for wear. Take it to someone you trust and have them do it

[richfaa]

Our family had trucks an a big ole garage were skilled folks fixed everything. When something broke or needed work Rich took it to the garage and said..that's broke..fix it. Therefore ole Rich never learned to fix anything and became mechanically challenged. In later years Rich was not only mechanically challenged but acquired an aversion to anything that resembled work. Therefor I got a Government job where as everyone knows, government employees' do nothing and are highly paid for it. So here we are retired rv'ing and I have to take the truck and camper to someone who knows what they are doing.. There are folks who have acquired skills that I never had the sense to acquire and are very capable to do their own repair work no matter how complicated. For mechanically challenged folks like myself the Rich Method works.Then there are the folks who prefer to take their equipment to the professionals and experts. Since everyone knows more than i do we also fall in that group.

[wersqu]

I am lucky and have a mechanic as a friend that helps with the wheels. I like to get my hands dirty but have the expert there to tell me what I am looking at. I also do the refreshment runs between the refrigerator and the wheels. I (we) do the inspections every year and repack every two years as my mileage, between 7 and 10,000 every 2 years warrants a repack. After loosing a brake on a wheel in the first two years and not noticing or even feeling it gone, (who knows if it was even there brand new?)I look every summer. Having had this trailer since 2003 the plastic hubs have all worn and fallen through. Clean them and a few small pieces of duct tape hold them until the wheel is tight and next year comes around.

[LonnieB]

It's not that I am mechanically challenged, I spent the first 20 years of my working career as a mechanic and fabricator for a very large feedlot and farming operation with locations in Nebraska, New Mexico and Texas. I simply don't have enough time to do everythhing I need done. Also, I have people on my payroll that are very qualified and capable of doing the kind of work I expect, not only for me, but for my customers as well.
Maybe I'm just getting lazy in my old age

[grampachet]

Having grown up on welfare and my father died when I was 12 necessity was the mother of invention. Whatever was needed had to be made up or figured out. Therefore any repairs needed were done on the poor farm. Turning nuts and bolts just came naturally so these maintanence procedures are always done by me. Never lost a wheel bearing, only had one blowout, only been towed once when the tv license was expired and I was caught by the RCMP who would not let me drive it home. He called a tow truck so there I was with my nice dodge being towed by an old ford, grrrr.

[racerjoe]

Rich, are there any more of those do-nothing,highly paid jobs left? I am looking for something to do and that would sure fit nicely in my schedule.. LOL.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

Thank you racejoe, being mechanically inclined is one thing. Being mechanically inclined and know EXACTLY what to do isa whole different story. If I was 100% sure of what has to be done I will most certainly do it BUT if I am 80% sure I'd just as soon pay to get it done. Messing with the brakes, bearings, shackles, etc is a real safety issue and I am not willing to risk Lorraine's life, my own life and some totally innocent people traveling down the same hiway as me.
If you feel 100% confident than by all means go for it. But anything less than 100% just to save even thousands of dollars is not worth a human lifePERIOD

[mail2us]

Well, between all the great input, Richfaa's guverment employment, Stiles can-do attitude,TT2's pix, racerjoe's advice and Lonnie's closing the back door, I found that the small Michelin dealer in next town can take care of it all, even the steel stems, balancing, and checking brakes and lube. He has a 5th wheel himself and can move this 3400 around his smaller yard better than I ever will.
Again, thanks for the advice everyone. Glenn, I like that 80%!!

[Art-n-Marge]

No fair. LonnieB works at a tire shop and can point to one of his guys to get this done. For some of you others your pockets seem to run deep. For me, I like to be the handyman or apprentice plumber/electrician/mechanic and will save the tough jobs for the experts but it's mostly because I am retired and have plenty of time to get my hands dirty.

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), I often use maintenance like this to identify big problems that I can save for the experts to fix. It does require some common sense and familiarity so as not to mess up and you do have to know what you are looking for.

Whatever jacking method you use, just make sure to NEVER support the RV from the axles themselves or you could damage them! Use the frame or some other bracket that can support the weight of the trailer. There are some hints for support points in your manual.

As someone mentioned prior, be careful with the plastic hub protectors but they are only decorative. I had these on an old TT and they were good for knowing when a dust cap flew off the wheel because the force blew the hub protector off too. Okay, so I got replacement dust caps but didn't replace the plastic hub protectors.

If you don't have these types of axles you might have decorative metallic hub rings with an open center that allows access to a plastic grease cap if you have EZ-Lube bearings. Be careful to remove the decorative cover and pry off the plastic cap to access the zerk fitting. But since you plan to remove the bearings and inspect them you must continue on.

A third type of hub is called Never-lube but I am not familiar with it.

You can use TrailerTrash's method of supporting two tires at a time to take the tires to be balanced two tires (one axle)at a time. Then when you are finished with the one axle, you'll have to do the other axle.

After taking off the tires, you can take the hubs apart to check the bearings. A rule of thumb - if one bearing is showing signs of wear replace them all so they are all EVEN. You can also remove the brake drums to inspect them and the magnets and the electric wiring for the brakes. For me, same rule on the brake shoes and magnets.

From all this labor this is why sometimes it's cheaper just to tow your RV to a tire or brake shop and ask them to do all this stuff. My experience is that it is less expensive having this done at a tire or brake shop versus an RV shop assuming they have room to park your rig while they work on this. This is where guys like LonnieB come in. They tend to charge by the job plus parts, not like an RV shop that charges by some arbitrary hour amount, plus parts and sometimes extra labor (yup, that happened to me, too). I also find that I can see the work being done when at a tire shop or brake shop and cannot always do this at an RV shop (the 5er goes "into the back service area and you don't always get to monitor them).

If you plan to have this work done at a professional tire or brake shop, I suggest you call or visit them first to warn them you are bringing a trailer for them to work on. Some shops don't have the room or even don't like to work on them (for whatever reason). This actually happened to me once. You can tell because they start hemming and hawing and saying things like "you know, we don't normally like to work on these, but we'll do it....", just STOP saying any more, thank them for their time and go look for another shop. If their attitude isn't positive and supportive don't bother.

Good luck with this.

[Art-n-Marge]

Oh brother.... somehow, I missed the post that mail2us decided to surrender and have it done. LOL!

So instead of Good Luck, it will be more like Have Fun!