Grease and Wheel Bearings

[fawnhaven]

What type of grease and how often do you pack or grease your Montana.
We have a 2012 3455SA and noticed one hub was hotter than the others. It had some leakage outside the rubber stopper. I pulled out my little grease gun and put in what was in the gun. Seamed like the problem was solved. Stayed cool the rest of the way(200 miles). Should I have them professionaly pack of make sure they are lubed?

[1retired06]

Short answer: yes.
There has been a lot of discussion on wheel bearings. The general consensus (and mine) is that hub zerk fittings do not get the job done, and the only way to ensure bearings are in good shape is to pack them the old fashioned way, by hand, put in new seals, and inspect brakes at the same time. Grease to use is a good hi temp lithium. How often should be driven primarily by miles towed, not time. I pack ours every 10,000 miles and that is probably overkill since each time I have packed them, I found them in good shape with plenty of grease. Some like to do once a year. Good idea to inspect the brakes periodically, and when you do that, might as well repack those bearings at the same time.

[dieselguy]

If you put near a whole cartrige of grease all at once in the infamous EZ lube nipple on the end of your spindle, you might as well jack her up and remove the wheel. You probably have as much grease in the brake drum as you do in the wheel hub. There are a couple of guys on the MOC that have had success using the EZ lube invention, but many of the rest of us hand pack them. Pumping too much grease too fast just shoots grease on past your wheel seal. 2 - 3 shots of grease at a time is about max unless you jack the wheel up, spin it while s-l-o-w-l-y pumping the grease gun. If one wheel ran a bit hotter, the brake shoes may have been adjusted up a bit tight, it may have had the spindle nut a bit tighter than the others, or you have more weight on that side of the axle for some reason.

[Art-n-Marge]

And ONLY use the hand-operated grease guns slowly if you do the Zerk method. The stronger motorized type of grease guns can be too strong and cause the problems mentioned with getting grease into the brake areas.

I gotta get me one of those IR temperature tools. Harbor Freight (just opened one near my house), here I come!

[bigskyjimmy]

I use the EZ lube with REDLINE bearing grease and it works great for me just spin as you pump SLOWLY like Art said use the hand pump Also I had a same situation when I pulled over recently and ONE hub was hot turned out that a Brake adjuster fell off and was jammed in the Hub and it also ruined the magnet, Just bought a whole new backing plate with shoes and magnet for 40 bucks EASY FIX

[Tom S.]

If you search, you'll find a LOT of threads on this, but here's the basics.

The Easy Lube system comes from the factory with just the wheel bearings greased. That means if you wish to use it, you have to fill up the space between the two set of bearings, which can amount to half a tube of grease. As suggested, raise the tire off the ground and slowly rotate it while pumping in grease and don't use a pneumatic or electric grease gun. Many have reported failed inner seals with this system and many here advocate doing the chore by hand. To do so, you need to raise the wheel off the ground and remove the wheel, drum and hub. You can remove them together, but I don't recommend it (more on this later). Clean the bearings either with a safe solvent or using compressed air, then repack them by forcing the grease into the bearing race by hand. Whenever you remove the hub, it is wise to replace the rear, aka inner, seal. If you are careful and feel lucky, you can reuse the old one, but doing so risks damaging it and causing it to leak grease when it gets warm, all over you brake shoes, which is not a good thing. For that reason, I do not recommend removing the wheel, drum and hub together, because putting them back on that way is an easy way to screw up even a new seal and cause problems. It goes without saying that this is a good time to check and adjust your brakes, if needed, or do other maintenance. It's also a good time to check your U-bolts for the proper torque, if you've never done it, and grease the shackle bolts if you have the wet bolt kit installed.

[moutard2]

quote:Originally posted by bigskyjimmy
Just bought a whole new backing plate with shoes and magnet for 40 bucks

Where did you get the brakes for that price? I haven't had to buy any yet but the time is near and I've priced them at a dealer for a lot more.

[Irlpguy]

Both my axles were replaced under warranty by Dexter and they came complete with drums, brakes everything. I had the local shop repack the bearings on all 4 hubs as there was very little grease in any of them. I believe this was the problem in the first place.

I am comfortable adding a couple of shots of grease in the EZ lube once a year and every couple of years I will pull them and manually repack and change the inner seal. I use Pennzoil Premium 707L wheel bearing grease and have used that for a long time.

I bet the cheap brakes were made offshore, I have found them advertised at about that price.

[7.3Ford]

This is going to be hot topic.

I following the manual and shot grease in until it comes out the front (a lot more than a couple of shot). You are to spin the tire while shooting grease in there. I made a little piece of aluminum in a J shape clean out all the grease that comes out the front bearing. I have had no problems, and I think I have around 25,000 miles on the Monty.

When packed like the manual, the axles can be submersed in water without out harm, at lease that is what the manual said.

[bigskyjimmy]

Moutard2 you can get them at www.trailerpartsdepot.com

[dieselguy]

Moutard2 ... you can also get real Dexter electric brake assemblies here ... awesome prices! http://www.easternmarine.com/Electri...ke-Assemblies/

[kylec2]

We repack our wheel bearings yearly. I have always done it the old fashioned way (pull the assembly, clean, inspect, replace seals, and repack) and last year found break assembly issues which resulted in Dexter warrantying a new set of axles. The Easy Lube system usually works fine if done properly, but you miss the opportunity to inspect for damage and avoid a breaksown somewhere out on the highway. Just my opinion for what it is worth.

[Phil P]

Hi

I use the EZ lube system, follow the instructions from Dexter, the first time you lube the wheel bearings this way you will use 3 to 4 tubes of grease. This should be performed in the first 500 miles the manufacturer puts very little grease on the bearing at assembly.

I then do the job once a year and only pump enough grease in the hub to get a fair amount out the front.

At 60,000 miles I replace the brake shoes because one wheel had been dragging the brake. The hinge pin for the arm the magnet was on rusted causing the brake to come on late and come off late creating higher temperatures when in traffic. I did not replace any bearings or seals.

Now have 3 round trips to Lincoln Nebraska for an additional 10,000 miles on the trailer. We broke one spring but haven’t had any problems with the wheel bearings.

Again I believe my good results with some items are from using the trailer so much. Wheel bearings that sit for 3 to 6 months a year seem to give substantially more problems.

Phil P