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 removed to access the grease fittings.I was surprised at how much grease I had to pump in. On a triple axle I went through two tubes of grease. I pumped enough grease into each until I saw the grease come out the front. Do manufactures not fill these things up w/grease?

Sounds like a lot of grease. When I do mine, I just do a couple of shots in each wheel. (Mine are different than yours, I don't have to remove the wheel.)I am curious as to what others will have to day.

This is one of those topics that will bring out strong opinions about how you need to disassemble and clean the bearings annually, and if you use a grease gun you'll blow out the seals at the back. Here is my opinion: I use a grease gun, but I am cautious about how much grease I give the fitting. I give each fitting two squirts, then the next day another two squirts, and so on, so the grease can migrate and take off any pressure from the seal before it can start to leak. When clean grease appears, I'm done. It has worked for me, and I've pulled my trailer 20K miles over three years. Another option is to grease slowly while rotating the wheel. For sure, you want to hand-grease, never power grease, and I'd say it should always be done in warmer temps, not in February, so the grease flows well.BTW, the quality of the grease is very important. I don't recall the specs and I'm far from home, but you can't buy too good grease. There is a Lucas Oil place in my town, and I buy the best they have for wheel bearings.

slarsen wrote:This is one of those topics that will bring out strong opinions about how you need to disassemble and clean the bearings annually, and if you use a grease gun you'll blow out the seals at the back. Here is my opinion: I use a grease gun, but I am cautious about how much grease I give the fitting. I give each fitting two squirts, then the next day another two squirts, and so on, so the grease can migrate and take off any pressure from the seal before it can start to leak. When clean grease appears, I'm done. It has worked for me, and I've pulled my trailer 20K miles over three years. Another option is to grease slowly while rotating the wheel. For sure, you want to hand-grease, never power grease, and I'd say it should always be done in warmer temps, not in February, so the grease flows well.BTW, the quality of the grease is very important. I don't recall the specs and I'm far from home, but you can't buy too good grease. There is a Lucas Oil place in my town, and I buy the best they have for wheel bearings.Yes, I am with you on the whole blowing grease out the rear seal. At first I was very concerned about that. But I have greased a lot o wheel bearings in my time. If you own any farm equipment and trailers, U will know what I mean. But I did not feel any resistance while pumping the grease in. In fact, the dang things did not seem to have any grease at all. I knew I needed to pump until I saw grease come out the front. Yeah, the axles on this camper are 6000 lbs each. So, it has some pretty huge hubs and I suspect pretty good sized bearings, but I have never took a hub off this, so I cant say. All I do know is, It is better to have grease than no grease. Hopefully I avoided a huge disaster. I have seen others stranded on the side of the road with the axle on the ground. We all know what happened there.

It sounds like you are talking aobut EZ Lube axles (with the grease zerk in the end of the spindle). If so, it sounds like you filled the whole hub with grease which was not necessary. All you needed to do was grease the bearings. About 5 shots in each wheel would have been sufficient depending on how long its been since you did it last.

If the bearings were packed in the traditional way, the cavities in the hub and the capillaries aren't greased, so when you put the gun to the zerk for the first time you have to fill all of those voids first before you feel any resistance, assuming you havent just pushed the seal off the back. At least that is what I experience on my boat.I'm not clear on why I should feel compelled to grease these, when I don't do my car until it's normally scheduled repack, and the trailer gets far less miles on it.

Wheel bearing Grease | Good Sam Community

pcm1959
Explorer
Jul 02, 2013
Great video from Dexter Axle about their EZ Lube system.....for what its worth. Phillip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT0RKDGgDm8&feature=player_embedded
fj12ryder
Explorer III
Jul 02, 2013
thomasmnile wrote:
All this makes me wonder why RV manufacturers even use the Ultra-Lube, EZ-Lube, & Never Lube bearing assemblies.Convenience? Cheap? I have the EZ-Lube setup on our WhiteHawk. Haven't touched it since we bought the trailer, have towed about 500 miles and nothing has seized up or fallen off...........yet. :h
Yep, we've towed ours nearly 10,000 miles with the same result. :)
ScottG
Nomad
Jul 02, 2013
fj12ryder wrote:
ScottG wrote:
nickthehunter wrote:
It sounds like you are talking aobut EZ Lube axles (with the grease zerk in the end of the spindle). If so, it sounds like you filled the whole hub with grease which was not necessary. All you needed to do was grease the bearings. About 5 shots in each wheel would have been sufficient depending on how long its been since you did it last.

Sorry but this isn't accurate. Grease wont flow to the front bearing until the entire hub is full. It takes a ton of grease the first time. You know the front bearing is lubed when you see grease flow out the front of it.
That being said, I would never use this feature. They have about a 50% failure rate even when the directions are followed perfectly. If one just pumps a few shots of grease in without turning the wheel, your almost guaranteed to blow grease past the seal and onto the brakes.
Where did you get the 50% failure rate? And are you talking bearing failure, grease seal failure, spindle failure? Was the procedure followed correctly, or just a bunch of grease pumped in?

Sorry, grease seals failure resulting in grease on friction surfaces.
Where do I get it? Lots and Lots of experience and hours of reading of others experiences. Yes procedures followed by experienced people. It's a bad system that sounds good in theory but fails in real world use.
93mastercraft
Explorer
Jul 02, 2013
jwakeman wrote:
Hey folks after running close to 3000 miles over 18 months I gave each wheel 1 pump and blew 3 out of 4 rear seals. That is the way I had done for 10 years on previous trailer, and never had a problem.
Something has changed and we are not aware of it.

What brand is your axle/hub/bearing-grease mechanism? Mine is the AL-KO Ultra-Lube. My directions specifically call for pumping grease until it comes out the front. In an exploded view of the wheel-hub assembly it clearly shows the center of the spindle with a grease channel. The grease hits the rear bearing and then fills the cavity between the rear and front bearing then fills the front bearing and out the front.

http://www.al-ko.us/download/ALKO_2kto7k_OwnerManual.pdf
thomasmnile
Explorer
Jul 02, 2013
All this makes me wonder why RV manufacturers even use the Ultra-Lube, EZ-Lube, & Never Lube bearing assemblies.Convenience? Cheap? I have the EZ-Lube setup on our WhiteHawk. Haven't touched it since we bought the trailer, have towed about 500 miles and nothing has seized up or fallen off...........yet. :h
jwakeman
Explorer
Jul 02, 2013
Hey folks after running close to 3000 miles over 18 months I gave each wheel 1 pump and blew 3 out of 4 rear seals. That is the way I had done for 10 years on previous trailer, and never had a problem.
Something has changed and we are not aware of it.
93mastercraft
Explorer
Jul 02, 2013
Wiley75 wrote:
93mastercraft wrote:
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 removed to access the grease fittings.

I was surprised at how much grease I had to pump in. On a triple axle I went through two tubes of grease. I pumped enough grease into each until I saw the grease come out the front. Do manufactures not fill these things up w/grease?

Two tubes of grease sounds about right for a triple axle trailer. I used just over 1 tube to do my twin axle trailer. Dexter recommends spinning the hub slowly while you pump the grease slowly. By doing this it is VERY unlikely that you will push grease past the seal. You keep pumping grease until fresh colored grease is coming out of the front of the hub. Then you pump a little more. Wipe off the excess and put the cap back on. Done.

Wiley75,

I was very concerned about "blowing out" that rear seal. But I've greased a lot of different bearings including those dang Buddy bearings. They should call those Hateful bearings! But those is where the front would move out and you would feel resistance while pumping, you knew then it was full. These newer Ultra Lubes are a piece of cake. Grease comes out the front. Not the back. Put the cap back on and no slung grease!
93mastercraft
Explorer
Jul 02, 2013
pcm1959 wrote:
When using the EZ Lube feature, you will know if its a success when you tow your rig the first time after using it. Braking performance will be the clue as to whether or not the rear seal was blown. For that reason, I had pack only. Just my 2 cents. Phillip

Okay folks, I had to pull out the owners Manual. I only want to present the Facts. So here it is:

ULTRALUBE
1. Remove the rubber plug from the grease cap.
2. Insert grease gun on the grease zerk.
3. Pump until new grease begins to appear.
4. Replace rubber plug.

Not all wheel bearing grease mechanisms are the same. I guess reading your owners manual is the correct thing to do. So after getting conflicting information, I dug mine out and read it. I M fairly confident I did the correct thing.
pcm1959
Explorer
Jul 02, 2013
When using the EZ Lube feature, you will know if its a success when you tow your rig the first time after using it. Braking performance will be the clue as to whether or not the rear seal was blown. For that reason, I had pack only. Just my 2 cents. Phillip
Wiley75
Explorer
Jul 02, 2013
93mastercraft wrote:
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 removed to access the grease fittings.

I was surprised at how much grease I had to pump in. On a triple axle I went through two tubes of grease. I pumped enough grease into each until I saw the grease come out the front. Do manufactures not fill these things up w/grease?

Two tubes of grease sounds about right for a triple axle trailer. I used just over 1 tube to do my twin axle trailer. Dexter recommends spinning the hub slowly while you pump the grease slowly. By doing this it is VERY unlikely that you will push grease past the seal. You keep pumping grease until fresh colored grease is coming out of the front of the hub. Then you pump a little more. Wipe off the excess and put the cap back on. Done.

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