Wheel Bearing Maintenance Frequency

[rohrmann]

I'm not sure where 3 shots or 30 shots or pumps of grease will do any good if using the E-Z Lube process. It takes almost an entire cartridge of grease per hub to just fill the hub before grease will start coming out past the outer bearing, and these axles do not come from Dexter filled with grease. The exact procedure for using the E-Z Lube is spelled out on pages 57-58 of this Dexter manual: https://www.dexteraxle.com/docs/defa...sn=cfe1e328_42
I used the E-Z Lube one time after running the trailer we have about 6,000 miles, doing the lube exactly as described in the Dexter manual, and after another 6,000 miles, had three of the four brake assemblies greased up. That was the last time I used the E-Z Lube. Four new brake assemblies, four drums turned, and other assorted materials cost over $400, so the E-Z Lube was not cost effective for me or worth my labor to risk doing it again.
Also, on page 58, note 5, it clearly states that if a hub is removed from an axle with the E-Z Lube, the seal must be replaced to avoid the risk of getting grease on the brakes.

[Jester]

Originally Posted by speedster100

Many years of maintaining industrial equipment in various plants, over greasing caused far more problems than under greasing. Most rotating equipment requires periodic greasing (one to three shots) quarterly. This is on equipment running 24/7, if you are pumping 30 to 40 shots of grease into a wheel you are going to push the seal out and damage the brakes. But do what you want, touch wood I've never had a bearing issue on a trailer in 40yrs of towing....

That’s true, but will you agree grease when pumped in will find the weakest or easiest way out? If the seal is not warn ( new or relatively new) the easiest way out would be the opening where the grease gun is attached.

[jeffba]

Originally Posted by beeje

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

Dexter Manual

[Jester]

Dexter web site has videos in detailed for those who has difficulty understanding what they read.
Besides that, has anyone ever looked at a seal?
The engineers did a fine job on designing it.
It’s designed in such a way that as pressure is applied to the inside , the rubber portion of the seal gets tighter on the axle. Therefore become more effective.
Again, if the seal is new or relatively new it should work fine.
You run the risk of damaging the seal by checking the bearing.
So many opinions based on only members personal experience . I’ll stick the the company instructions . They’re the ones that spent millions of dollars for their engineers on research and development.
Does that sound like a better idea.

[432bartman]

Originally Posted by mhs4771

The only time I had an issue was after I had a Shop do the Bearing repack. In less than 200 miles a bearing over heated and melted the plastic cap, saw the smoke and pulled over.

Michelle & Anne, what was the cause of the overheated bearing? Not enough grease, over torqued the nut?

[Dave10]

After having a motor home and now a 5th wheel for the last 8 years, I found that motor homes are great for traveling and 5th wheels are great for stationary. I believe the trailer's weak point is the suspension because most trailers are marginal at best is the reason their advantage is stationary over motor homes. Saying that I have learned a lot about wheel packing. First, forget the Easy Lube aspect because it is intended for boat trailers that submerge in water and not travel trailers and it can be a hazard more than an asset. All mfg. recommend annual inspection and packing for a good reason. The oil does separate from the grease medium if stationary for an extended time and the Easy Lube can introduce foreign stuff (brake lining dust) into the bearing-- not to mention grease blowing by the seals into the brake shoes. I have blown a bearing and damaged the axel in the first year of ownership while following the mfg. recommendation for Easy Lube. That made me a firm believer the repack the bearing manually. I follow the Timken guidelines for re-packing and highly recommend them. The most important things about repacking are the type and quantity of grease and the bearing pre-load. If the pre-load is too tight, you expect bearing failure soon, and if too loose it will take longer for the bearing to fail. It is also good practice to monitor the wheel drum temperature while traveling. If it is too hot to hold for several minutes bearing failure is soon to happen. I use a laser temperature device to spot check the temperature of the hub while traveling. While following the Timken guidelines the hubs never get hot while doing long-distance travel.

[beeje]

I said it earlier in this thread and a similar thing in many other threads. My current trailer I've had for 5 years. I bought it used and had the dealer repack the bearings at that time cuz I had no history of that being done. The trailer has disc brakes so you can clearly see the entire back side of all of the seals. Since that repacking I have pumped 30 to 40 pumps of Grease by hand while the wheels off the ground spinning and not one drop of Grease has ever bypassed a seal. So what does that tell you, it tells me that those who are using the EZ Lube are doing it incorrectly. Or as previously stated they're actually checking the bearings by removing the Hub and damaging the seal putting them back on.
For those of us the only travel 2-3-4 thousand miles a year it is a waste of time and money to repack every year.

[Jester]

Anyway you want to do it is ok with me. But if you send it out to have done, you better be sitting there watching them do it. I mean be standing over their shoulder .
If you do see them doing it it’s not getting done. But you pay for the job.
Good luck and happy camping...

[Jester]

Finally, a smart man...

[beeje]

Originally Posted by Jester

Anyway you want to do it is ok with me. But if you send it out to have done, you better be sitting there watching them do it. I mean be standing over their shoulder .
If you do see them doing it it’s not getting done. But you pay for the job.
Good luck and happy camping...

This is the very reason I built a large pole barn. I don't trust anybody to do anything right. I don't care whether it's a car camper motorhome house whatever. Every time I let someone else work on my stuff they screw it up

[mhs4771]

You know the old saying "If you want it done right, do it yourself".
To 432bartman, the bearing and race were pretty much destroyed, but since we pulled off early and pulled the wheel we saved the spindle and the drum was ok.

[Dave W]

I really don't care what Dexter or anyone else recommends or says. I have done ours every year regardless of miles - that is but 2020 when we weren't going more then 218 miles. One was pulled though and inspected though. It's dirty and time consuming - that is until you sit alongside an interstate with a smoking hub.


If you are of the age when cars had front wheel bearings that needed service every 12,000 miles, you will see exactly the same design bearings that require exactly the same service - and that outer bearing, I believe is exactly the same part number as many Ford products used.


Do as you may, you wont change my mind or convince me that E-Z Lube is a good design for towable RVs. Amazingly, Dexter thinks the same inner bearing is good enough for 5.2K through 8K axles - WOW!!

[beeje]

Originally Posted by Dave W

I really don't care what Dexter or anyone else recommends or says. I have done ours every year regardless of miles - that is but 2020 when we weren't going more then 218 miles. One was pulled though and inspected though. It's dirty and time consuming - that is until you sit alongside an interstate with a smoking hub.


If you are of the age when cars had front wheel bearings that needed service every 12,000 miles, you will see exactly the same design bearings that require exactly the same service - and that outer bearing, I believe is exactly the same part number as many Ford products used.


Do as you may, you wont change my mind or convince me that E-Z Lube is a good design for towable RVs. Amazingly, Dexter thinks the same inner bearing is good enough for 5.2K through 8K axles - WOW!!

Yes, I am of the age to remember when you repacked your front bearings. At 12k NOT ?. If I remember correctly, it was when you needed new brake pads. The rotors were pulled/resurfaced/bearings repacked and new pads installed. I believe more like 20-30 k miles thought. But I guess it depended on how many miles you were driving.

[DebNJim B]

I had the dealer repack ours in Aug during our annual warranty inspection and
before our annual trip south. They pull the wheels and repack the bearings and do a full detailed brake inspection. This was our third year since new and we had about 9000 mi on it. The inspections showed no wear of any kind other than minimal brake wear.
The dealer recommends doing this every year. At $350 I guess he would.

[mtlakejim]

Originally Posted by Ram Montana High Country

I have a local shop - less than $150 ... annual for me regardless on mileage. Cheap insurance

I checked one shop nearby (that I would trust to do it right) and they were close to $400. But I do have a triple axle.

At that price I was starting to think about pulling up to Indiana to get the IS and disc brakes installed. $400 is a good start on paying for same.

[Dave W]

Originally Posted by beeje

Yes, I am of the age to remember when you repacked your front bearings. At 12k NOT ?. If I remember correctly, it was when you needed new brake pads. The rotors were pulled/resurfaced/bearings repacked and new pads installed. I believe more like 20-30 k miles thought. But I guess it depended on how many miles you were driving.

Pads? You are not just old enough then. Few cars before approximately 1968 had disc brakesAnd yes, most people did a wheel bearing pack or paid a garage 3-5 bucks to have it done with stringy chassis grease at least yearly. I spent too many years at least part time supplementing my income as a mechanic, doing this kind of maintenance



Front brake shoes might have lasted 15,000 miles for mom, but not for me or most of my 'pack'. If you had a Chrysler product with Lockheed design brakes - those were even faster wearing then 1949 and later Ford and GMs Bendix design - unless one of the two wheel cylinders per backing plate leaked on your Plymouth

[432bartman]

To Michelle and Ann, Thank you for letting me know how it went haywire.

[DebNJim B]

Originally Posted by Dave W

Pads? You are not just old enough then. Few cars before approximately 1968 had disc brakesAnd yes, most people did a wheel bearing pack or paid a garage 3-5 bucks to have it done with stringy chassis grease at least yearly. I spent too many years at least part time supplementing my income as a mechanic, doing this kind of maintenance



Front brake shoes might have lasted 15,000 miles for mom, but not for me or most of my 'pack'. If you had a Chrysler product with Lockheed design brakes - those were even faster wearing then 1949 and later Ford and GMs Bendix design - unless one of the two wheel cylinders per backing plate leaked on your Plymouth

I was thinking the same thing Dave. Did some part time grease monkey work in the mid 60's and early 70's and most brakes were drums. No pads, just shoes. Did a lot of brake jobs and packed my share of wheel bearings.

[BiggarView]

From my "bearing expert" source(over 150,000 miles of towing RVs and a few bearing failures along the way)... the issue with ez lube vs split bearing is if ez lubes fail it will be sudden and catastrophic where the split bearing will give more gradual indication of imminent failure. If you service your bearings regularly and on schedule this may never be an issue for either type of bearing assemblies. Trailer bearings endure lateral forces that truck bearings never face, this is why they fail far more frequently than your tow vehicle.

He does not recommend EZ lube bearings on RV trailers. His experience, YMMV.

[phillyg]

Originally Posted by BiggarView

From my "bearing expert" source(over 150,000 miles of towing RVs and a few bearing failures along the way)... the issue with ez lube vs split bearing is if ez lubes fail it will be sudden and catastrophic where the split bearing will give more gradual indication of imminent failure. If you service your bearings regularly and on schedule this may never be an issue for either type of bearing assemblies. Trailer bearings endure lateral forces that truck bearings never face, this is why they fail far more frequently than your tow vehicle.

He does not recommend EZ lube bearings on RV trailers. His experience, YMMV.

I didn't know the easy lube hubs used different bearings.