Bad day at the dealer

[MAMalody]

I have my brakes inspected and the bearings pulled and repacked every spring. Never had a problem.

[sreigle]

Re the comments about these really being intended for marine use to keep water out of the hubs. I had those on my boat trailers but these are not the same thing. These actually route grease into the wheel bearings. The bearing protector type used on boat trailers uses grease pressure to keep water out of the hub. They do not put grease into the wheel bearings.

My dealer told me to use two squirts once per year no matter whether we're fulltiming or not. No more than two squirts once per year. I know Rich's have not been touched but wanted to stress this point. Any more than that and you risk blowing out the seal and getting grease on the brakes. I followed the dealer's advice and have had no wheel bearing problems.

This animation shows how they work. This one is for Alko-Kober but is essentially the same as all of them work.

[mobilrvn]

My turn for a dumb question, what is the procedure for Never-Lubs vice EZ Lub? My understanding is that they are good for 100,000 miles or five years and then you have to replace the hub portion of the axle. Check underneath about once a month for leaks, broken wires, etc.

[richfaa]

Just got off the phone with Dexter axle about my seal failure. Spoke to Jackie a very nice lady. Short story.. there is a 2 year warranty on the entire assembly and they will cover the cost of the brake and seal replacement. Send them the bill and some other informatiom, Vin # and part # and they will reimburse me. The bill was 409.00. There Is a limit on how much they will pay as I understand some of you paid twice as much and then some for the same work. I called 574-295-7888 and spoke to Jackie...Excellent customer service..

[ARJ]

See my post "Greasy brake linings". In my opinion using the EZ lube function on the axle is asking for trouble. The hubs in my TT were jammed full of grease and that just increases the possibility of the seal leaking and allowing grease onto the linings.

Is it really necessary to lube the bearings once a year? We don't do it on our trucks and they get a heck of a lot more use than the trailers.

[clutch]

quote:Originally posted by ARJ

See my post "Greasy brake linings". In my opinion using the EZ lube function on the axle is asking for trouble. The hubs in my TT were jammed full of grease and that just increases the possibility of the seal leaking and allowing grease onto the linings.

Is it really necessary to lube the bearings once a year? We don't do it on our trucks and they get a heck of a lot more use than the trailers.

With our old Prowler tt I only had the bearings packed twice in the 13 years we owned it. The last time I had it done the mechanic said that they looked good but he cleaned them and packed them anyway. He did install new seals. I am thinking that I will give mine a pump in a couple of years.

[clutch]

OOPS! doubble post. The server was slow and the message said timed out. Could a Mod please delete one? Thanks

[Ozz]

Clutch, you can do it, hit the edit button, then a small screen will pop up, enter your password and hit delete.

[ARJ]

One thing that I assumed everyone was aware of is that using the EZ lube zerks requires the use of CHASSIS grease. Chassis grease does not have the same viscosity of wheel bearing grease (which is quite a bit heavier).

[DL N K]

Here's what Dexter told me last spring when I was preparing to repack the bearings on our rig.

My question to Dexter,

I am preparing to clean/inspect/repack the wheel bearings on my 38 foot Montana 5th Wheel travel trailer.
What is the proper procedure to insure the hub is completely full of grease so the E-Z lube feature will work?
Since this is a travel trailer, is the E-Z lube of any real benefit, or should the bearing just be cleaned and packed every year or two as normal bearing would be during brake inspection? It seems to me that adding a couple of shots of grease once a year is not really contributing to bearing lube

Dexter answer:

The E-Z Lube feature was originally intended for boat trailer use. The idea is to fill the hub cavity with grease to prevent water from getting in and if water does get in you can purge it out by pumping in more grease. The E-Z Lube feature was selected by trailer builders and sold as a maintenance reducing feature. But as you have determined, you still need to do a brake inspection annually so you can just inspect the bearings at that time.

I think repacking the bearings annually by hand would be better because you reduce the chance of forcing grease past the grease seal.

[richfaa]

I think repacking the bearings annually by hand would be better because you reduce the chance of forcing grease past the grease seal." Dexter also told me that as did a local dealer..We will do that...

[skypilot]

ARJ asked, in the earlier post, if it really was necessary to repack every year. I can only answer from what I've seen at 4 Seasons RV in Abilene (Enterprise) Kansas -- and I would say that I strongly recommend it. I was also questioning doing mine since I used my unit only for a few short trips and locally the first year we had it. The service manager pulled out some pictures and two sets of bearings with races -- bearings and races had rust on them in places where grease had been light; the pictures showed condensation in the hub and on the seals. Their explanation was that when the trailer sits, it still gets air into the hub and wet air, cool nights equal condensation. Over time this gets into the metal and rust begins.

One set of bearings were actually rusted through on the metal holding the 'rollers' in. I didn't ask how long this took to get that bad but I figured being as damp as we are (humid), and the fact that I do at times drive in the rain (and on one occassion, snow), doing a bearing repack was cheap insurance.

As a side note I was told to Never, ever use the ez-lube feature. Yet, while I was there watching, I saw a 'delivery tech' take a grease gun out to a brand new trailer and pump and pump and pump. I brought that to the attention of the service manager and I then saw the tech removing the wheel assembly !!!!! (For my benefit or not, I really don't know but they did take care of it!!).

Finally, I was just in Goshen and upgraded my axles and bearings to Never-Lubes. According to the installer, I should not have to do anything to them for many many years and miles.