Wheel bearing Grease
How often do you check your wheel bearings? This weekend I had to replace one of my tires, so I decided to check the wheel bearings. Mine have the hub caps where the entire rim and tire have to be rem...
Forum Discussion
There have been many posts and threads on EZ Lube hubs. I've had some experience with these devices and consider them an improvement over other devices such as Bearing Buddies where spring loaded tension continuously tries to force grease toward the seal. I have a 5th wheel and a tandem axle boat trailer. I think the EZ Lube hubs are absolutely great on a boat trailer. The constant submersion in water with sometimes hot brake drums is really hard on bearing cavities. It's a constant battle. My current boat trailer has disc brakes and I really think this is the best type for keeping an eye on the rear seal. You can actually look behind the wheel and see if the grease is coming out of the seal. It's not always been easy like this, for decades I had drum brakes on boats and you could never see when the rear seal had failed unless you pulled the drum. Seals do let go sometimes after a few seasons and you can just pump grease onto the brake shoes.
With my 5th wheel I had a bad experience with it after purchasing it from the original owner. It was two seasons old. He had been "grease gun happy" and pumped so much grease in the EZ Lubes that all four brake clusters were covered. Needless to say I had practically no brakes. There is a proceedure to grease EZ Lube hubs, you must spin the wheel as you apply grease. Also grease will expand after it gets hot with the brakes heating up in mountain driving and this can actually push out on the rubber cap or also can apply pressure to the rear seal!! Once the seal is breached it will continue to leak grease onto the brakes.
In summation I would caution those who are always shooting grease into the hub. You hand pack your bearings on the tow vehicle and they are good for years. Without backing the trailer into water like a boat trailer, why would you need to always be greasing a travel trailer?? I have never used my EZ Lube feature on my 5th wheel. It's just a selling feature for those folks who do no like to hand pack bearings or cannot do it themselves and get ripped off by mechanics to have it done. The video link in one of the above posts above has a promotional video from Dexter and by the way did you notice they used a BOAT trailer in the example. EZ Lubes are great on boats and not necessary on RV's. For those who pumped several tubes at one maintenance session I would highly recommend you pull each hub and see if the brakes are contaminated. Grease on brake shoes is a bad thing.
With my 5th wheel I had a bad experience with it after purchasing it from the original owner. It was two seasons old. He had been "grease gun happy" and pumped so much grease in the EZ Lubes that all four brake clusters were covered. Needless to say I had practically no brakes. There is a proceedure to grease EZ Lube hubs, you must spin the wheel as you apply grease. Also grease will expand after it gets hot with the brakes heating up in mountain driving and this can actually push out on the rubber cap or also can apply pressure to the rear seal!! Once the seal is breached it will continue to leak grease onto the brakes.
In summation I would caution those who are always shooting grease into the hub. You hand pack your bearings on the tow vehicle and they are good for years. Without backing the trailer into water like a boat trailer, why would you need to always be greasing a travel trailer?? I have never used my EZ Lube feature on my 5th wheel. It's just a selling feature for those folks who do no like to hand pack bearings or cannot do it themselves and get ripped off by mechanics to have it done. The video link in one of the above posts above has a promotional video from Dexter and by the way did you notice they used a BOAT trailer in the example. EZ Lubes are great on boats and not necessary on RV's. For those who pumped several tubes at one maintenance session I would highly recommend you pull each hub and see if the brakes are contaminated. Grease on brake shoes is a bad thing.
