Nasty Bearing Failure

lucyloo wrote:
After a 2 month stay at the Canadian border with the fifth wheel (2006 Cardinal TSL33) we headed home on the 14th of August. A stop at a rest area 45 minutes in to the journey was uneventful. Everything was good on the Fiver during a walk around. Resumed the trip and headed down the I5 toward southern California. 10 minutes down the road a van puled beside us and got my attention, a glance in the mirror was horrific. Fire and smoke was streaming from the driver side rear axle. pulled over immediately in heavy traffic in Bellingham Wa. Jumped out and grabbed the gallon of water from the bed of the truck, the center hub cover was gone and was shooting fire from the hole. I jammed the open bottle in the hole and squeezed in a bunch of water which doused the fire but smoke was billowing out from under the rig and the alarm was screaming inside the trailer. Added some more water and got the fire out and situation under control. The bearing had disintegrated and destroyed the axle, hub, brakes and spindle. I put a jack under and the wheel and hub (still attached to wheel) just fell away from rig after I removed just 1 lug nut. Called for road side assistance (USAA, 4 hours to get some help). Mechanic chained up the axle and I limped the rig 3 miles to a shop. (Motor Weld). 3 days later and $1300 (new Axle, brakes, 1 hub, and new bearings all wheels) back on the road to Cali. the rest of the trip was uneventful. Another 10 seconds and we probably would have lost the wheel, had a rig on fire and who know what else.

Glad nobody was hurt, your rig survived and you made it home safely. That said, I have 2 general, non-critical, comments. First, you should have a dry fire extinguisher in your truck for just this type of occurrence. (Personally, I forget mine on occasion, but I do have one.) Second, you didn't mention anything about the tires, but you'd sure want to replace the other tire on the same side, as it was severely overloaded by chaining up the other axle. If you did, this is moot, but it's something to think about if you didn't. Also, an IR thermometer is a cheap and handy tool to do a quick check of tires and hubs as you do a walk-around.

Lyle