How many strokes??

I purchased my 2nd fifth wheel slightly used. It was two years old and had very little road miles. The previous owner had only towed it short distances and apparently used a grease gun each time he was preparing to go out. He had totally soaked the brakes with grease and there is no way to fix this other than replacing the brake shoes.

Do not use any method of greasing bearings other than removal and hand packing. Replace the seals each time. This only needs to be done on a yearly basis if you tow a lot or less often if you only go a few miles each season. Grease on brake shoes is very dangerous and destroys the shoes. It cannot be washed off with a solvent. There are numerous how to videos on youtube, this is not rocket science!!

...and there's about 500 YouTube videos on the topic. No need to make it more complicated than it is.

To the OP and as noted above and in my prior answer there is no set number of strokes. Follow the instructions

cummins2014 wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
My Mobile Suites came with the Dexter system. Every or every other year I raised the RV and grabbed the outer edge of each tire and did the push pull to feel for bearing pay. Never needed adjustment so I did the grease pump method. Never a bit of grease escaped. Bearings and races looked new when I changed to oil bath system. I use AMZ/OIL grease.

All sounds just dandy , but noticed no one wanted to answer any of my questions. So I am assuming you keep pumping grease until something goes wrong .

As noted, read the Dexter manual or watch the video and tells you how much to pump. No set number of strokes,

Ken

cummins2014 wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
My Mobile Suites came with the Dexter system. Every or every other year I raised the RV and grabbed the outer edge of each tire and did the push pull to feel for bearing pay. Never needed adjustment so I did the grease pump method. Never a bit of grease escaped. Bearings and races looked new when I changed to oil bath system. I use AMZ/OIL grease.

All sounds just dandy , but noticed no one wanted to answer any of my questions. So I am assuming you keep pumping grease until something goes wrong .

I, basically, did. I said that I pumped until I could hear air crackling through the seal, then stopped. We did that for decades on the farm and rarely had any issues. Only had one cultivator that had small gauge wheels that just had crappy hubs and the seals didn't fit tight from new. We ended up having to silicone them all in when we changed them, not for sealing around the outside, but as glue to try and keep them in place.

Lyle

BB_TX wrote:
Some have reported having grease on the brakes without ever having used the zerks. Apparently the assembler didn’t follow instructions either.

Back in 2016 I had my brand new fifth wheel at a local shop to have the drums replaced with disc brakes.... The trailer was a few months old at best, 3 of the 4 drums had grease on them from assembly.

cummins2014 wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
My Mobile Suites came with the Dexter system. Every or every other year I raised the RV and grabbed the outer edge of each tire and did the push pull to feel for bearing pay. Never needed adjustment so I did the grease pump method. Never a bit of grease escaped. Bearings and races looked new when I changed to oil bath system. I use AMZ/OIL grease.

All sounds just dandy , but noticed no one wanted to answer any of my questions. So I am assuming you keep pumping grease until something goes wrong .

With Disk brakes you can see if the seal fails. The design of the seal compresses to the shaft when pressure is applied. Simply pumping synthetic grease will not push past the seal unless it’s bad.

It’s a simple system but I like oil bath better. If I had drum brakes I would only hand pack.

Cummins12V98 wrote:
My Mobile Suites came with the Dexter system. Every or every other year I raised the RV and grabbed the outer edge of each tire and did the push pull to feel for bearing pay. Never needed adjustment so I did the grease pump method. Never a bit of grease escaped. Bearings and races looked new when I changed to oil bath system. I use AMZ/OIL grease.

All sounds just dandy , but noticed no one wanted to answer any of my questions. So I am assuming you keep pumping grease until something goes wrong .

My Mobile Suites came with the Dexter system. Every or every other year I raised the RV and grabbed the outer edge of each tire and did the push pull to feel for bearing pay. Never needed adjustment so I did the grease pump method. Never a bit of grease escaped. Bearings and races looked new when I changed to oil bath system. I use AMZ/OIL grease.

This is one of those subjects that apparently needs to be re-debated about every 6 months. It's doubtful either side will ever change the other.

Personally, I repack bearings by hand. When I do, I put the grease in my palm and force the grease into the bearing by sliding the bearing over my palm. Many have done this for years. I don't have a clue as to if this the best way vs. pumping it in.

My question is it takes a fair amount of pressure to get the grease up in the bearing rollers. How can you pressure pump grease this hard into the bearing without it coming out the seal? Even if you are pumping grease successful to fill the wheel, are you really getting it into the bearing? I honestly don't know.

Also, by filling the wheel cavity with grease, would this eliminate the ability of an empty cavity being able to dissipate heat??