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Old 11-09-2020, 04:01 PM   #1
RKassl
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Wheel Bearing Maintenance Frequency

OK, here goes. I don't what opinions, I want facts. The last time I had a wheel bearing service was April 2019. That year we put on less than 500 miles and in 2020 less than 400 miles. For the Spring of 2021 is a complete bearing service required. If this virus crap goes away we may hit the road, safety is always a major concern. I just don't want to waste the money if not needed.



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Old 11-09-2020, 04:25 PM   #2
Snowwolfe
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It shouldn't be needed. But if you are inclined to do it buy a bearing packer. Makes the job a lot easier.
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Old 11-09-2020, 05:00 PM   #3
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Sometimes opinions are better than alleged facts. I have strong opinions based on years of experience. Since I have no facts I guess I have nothing to offer.
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Old 11-09-2020, 05:19 PM   #4
richfaa
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Sometimes opinions are better than alleged facts. I have strong opinions based on years of experience. Since I have no facts I guess I have nothing to offer.
I am with jimcol. We have had a wheel bearing failure on the Montana on I 95 returning from Florida. It was not a good experience. We have the maint done every year at the fall rally
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Old 11-09-2020, 05:19 PM   #5
Hblick48
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If it was me, I'd skip checking, less than 1,000 miles on them.

Just did mine last week. Had less than 6,000 miles and 2 years since new bearings installed. Grease was dirty and one outer bearing was discolored, so I replaced it. Even with bearing packer it's a dirty nasty job.
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Old 11-09-2020, 05:35 PM   #6
DadsHemi
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I put about a 1000 miles on mine before I used the easy lube, I just pulled all 4 and repacked them and replaced all the seals and it was a good thing I did. I had 1 factory damaged seal that grease was getting by and 1 hub that was loose. All the bearings need to be repacked and properly tightened. Also found a magnet wire issue. For got to say I have a total of 4,000 miles on our 5th.
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Old 11-09-2020, 05:49 PM   #7
Hblick48
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I put about a 1000 miles on mine before I used the easy lube, I just pulled all 4 and repacked them and replaced all the seals and it was a good thing I did. I had 1 factory damaged seal that grease was getting by and 1 hub that was loose. All the bearings need to be repacked and properly tightened. Also found a magnet wire issue. For got to say I have a total of 4,000 miles on our 5th.
Been said 10,000 times on this forum....NEVER USE THE E-Z LUBE! If you do, you'll need to pull the drums to make sure grease didn't make it past the seal.
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Old 11-09-2020, 06:17 PM   #8
DadsHemi
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Been said 10,000 times on this forum....NEVER USE THE E-Z LUBE! If you do, you'll need to pull the drums to make sure grease didn't make it past the seal.
It was past the seal because the seal was damaged from the factory, the other 3 had no grease that got past them.
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Old 11-09-2020, 10:59 PM   #9
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The other reason to pull the drums off is to inspect the brakes. Can’t do that with the E-Z Lube. If you haven’t put many miles on the rig, every couple of years would be OK. All this assuming your brakes are good. In the spring of 2019, I was inspecting and packing the bearings. Found one brake assembly totally destroyed and had no evidence that there was a problem. The parts inside were completely ground up inside the drum. That’s the real reason to periodically pull the drums, annually is recommended by Dexter.
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Old 11-09-2020, 11:30 PM   #10
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Been said 10,000 times on this forum....NEVER USE THE E-Z LUBE! If you do, you'll need to pull the drums to make sure grease didn't make it past the seal.
I completely disagree with that statement. If you do it correctly you should not have any issues. I have had 3 different trailers since 2006 and all have had the EZ lube. We travel around 3-4k per year. Every spring I would jack up each wheel and pump 30-40 pumps of grease in while rotating the wheel. Never had any issues with bearings of seals. Never repacked bearings on any of them. And before you say it, my current trailer has disc brakes, so the seals are visible from behind. No grease past the seals in 5 years.
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Old 11-09-2020, 11:38 PM   #11
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Also, in June of this year we had the IS installed at Mor ryde and the bearings looked perfect. I know for a fact that that the camper has been towed around 70k miles and the bearing are original. I did opt to replace them with new Timkin bearings anyway, just cause it made since since it was already apart.
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Old 11-10-2020, 04:53 AM   #12
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If you want only facts, what does your manual say on the subject?
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Old 11-10-2020, 06:11 AM   #13
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If you want only facts, what does your manual say on the subject?
If you're talking about a keystone manual that is about as worthless as tits on a bull. I did question a few people at Mor ryde about that subject and most stated for someone who only travels 2 to 4000 miles a year you can easily go three to five years as long as the bearings are packed correctly from the get-go
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Old 11-10-2020, 07:54 AM   #14
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I have a local shop - less than $150 ... annual for me regardless on mileage. Cheap insurance
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Old 11-10-2020, 08:05 AM   #15
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As for how often do you need to pack the bearings, I would think the mileage would determine how often you would need to do this. I had mine packed by a well know west coast tire shop in Aug last year. This was right before we left on our east coast winter trip. I knew we were going to put on quite a few miles so I wanted to repack them before we left. I had some extra time so I wanted to do them myself this time and boy was I glad I did. I had one of my hubs and rotor that was wore to bad to be turned after inspection. Granted we put about 12,000 miles on the trailer but I didn’t expect to see this problem as the didn’t mention anything about the brakes needed to be serviced. He did have to replace one bearing at that time. Since I have the Morryde I/S it was a little difficult to locate a new hub. I eventually bought one from Morryde and them them ship it to me in Olympia. Cost of the hub/rotor and new bearings was $329.00 including shipping.
I was able to locate brake pads at Napa after I came up with a cross reference car model that I found on my internet. After telling them I needed front pads for a 1990 Buick Century they found the needed pads.
So if it was me I would probably wait, but that’s me. I would lift the trailer and make sure there is not any extra play in the wheel assembly as that’s easy to check.
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Old 11-10-2020, 10:30 AM   #16
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For what's its worth from experience (so my facts) in 5yrs I never took apart the wheels, drums off the axles and accessed bearings. Thousands of miles on the bearings, what I did do was once a year in the spring pump about 3 shots of grease into the ez lube. The same system I've used on my large landscape trailer for 20yrs, with no issues. These are not boat trailers and don't get dunked into the water regularly where they pick up moisture and fines of sand etc. Never have I had an issue. Recent changes in our MTO licensing requirements for large landscape trailers etc is the requirement for a yearly safety check which requires a certified shop to pull the wheels and check the brakes on it. For the past 3yrs they've done that, they indicated the first time that the bearings were in good working order for the years of use as described above without any repacking. My Opinion now is people waste alot of money repacking bearings yearly, you don't do it on your cars & trucks so why are you doing it on a trailer that gets much less use ???
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Old 11-10-2020, 11:41 AM   #17
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For what's its worth from experience (so my facts) in 5yrs I never took apart the wheels, drums off the axles and accessed bearings. Thousands of miles on the bearings, what I did do was once a year in the spring pump about 3 shots of grease into the ez lube. The same system I've used on my large landscape trailer for 20yrs, with no issues. These are not boat trailers and don't get dunked into the water regularly where they pick up moisture and fines of sand etc. Never have I had an issue. Recent changes in our MTO licensing requirements for large landscape trailers etc is the requirement for a yearly safety check which requires a certified shop to pull the wheels and check the brakes on it. For the past 3yrs they've done that, they indicated the first time that the bearings were in good working order for the years of use as described above without any repacking. My Opinion now is people waste alot of money repacking bearings yearly, you don't do it on your cars & trucks so why are you doing it on a trailer that gets much less use ???
Pretty much the same thing I said. I suppose people are just doing it for peace of mind but to me it's a complete waste of money and time.

If you're old enough think back to the days when your car needed a front brake job that had repacking wheel bearings the only time you repack them is when you put new pads on maybe 30-40 thousand miles
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Old 11-10-2020, 05:22 PM   #18
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Speaking of repacking bearings. I'm getting ready to do mine next week before a Thanksgiving trip. What's the consensus on repacking? Do it the old fashioned way (grease in your palm) or use one of those grease packing tools. Another question is how much grease will I need? Will one (1) lb. container be enough, or should I have two?
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Old 11-10-2020, 05:33 PM   #19
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Just like lots of other things it'll never go bad by 2 sooner or later you're going to use it
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Old 11-10-2020, 05:43 PM   #20
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I have a real nice portable bearing packer that you attach you grease gun too. It works real good. It still a messy job cleaning the old grease from the hub.
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