So just a thought, bought our current 2004 Fleetwood wilderness lite 24.5RK fifth wheel, used in 2010 and the dealer did what ever they do before one takes delivery of it, anyway I have never done the bearings. I have the EZ lube, so I have pumped grease in once or twice, but only till I see the old grease move, not till the new shows up.Anyway my question is that I have over time bought a few tubes of grease, even work in the transportation industry, so have access to lots of grease, and I was thinking of pumping one wheel full per instructions of dexter, then taking the bearings apart as now they probably should be inspected anyway just to see how or if the system works like it should, anyone ever experiment to see how it looks when taken apart, seems it would be an interesting thing to see, and like people say one should at some point start from scratch and go over everything once in awhile.we have not used the rig in at least two years and even then we might do only 1500 or so Kilometers a year.Just curious to see what you all think.

It's really not that interesting, you just end up with a lot of extra grease to clean off from inside the hub.After two years, I opened my hubs up, cleaned everything and replaced the bearings just for the heck of it - didn't see anything wrong with them but it's like a $5 part so why not.I only have a single axle trailer, so a double or triple 5R I can see it being a lot more work - ez lube might win out there.

The EZ-lube system is really just for refreshing the hub with some new stuff. A feel good check you have some decent stuff in the hub. Do not believe anyone who says the EZ-lube system blows seals. That is absolutely false, unless the seal is indeed bad. Only a bad seal will allow grease to pass! But do remove and manually repack the bearings by pulling the hubs every 12k miles as directed, do not rely on the EZ-lube system.Ironically, if you do manually repack the bearings every 12k miles or less, you really have no need to use the EZ-lube system.

I have always felt the E Z Lube system was most beneficial to boat trailers and the like. If you are going to roll your wheels into water, filling any cavities with grease prevents water penetration around the wheel bearings. I can see some advantage to using it on road trailers but if it gives you a false since of the quality of your wheel bearing grease it could do more harm than help.

One thing you always want to do when greasing with the EZ lube caps is, jack up the wheel and grease and rotate at the same time. That gets the grease evenly distributed better.

Our 5th wheel came with Dexter NeveRlube wheel bearings. We have put 60,000 miles on it with no problems.

Wheel bearings again | Good Sam Community

20 Replies

jimh406
Explorer III
Aug 24, 2017
jorn wrote:
jimh425 wrote:
If you pump too much grease, you might blow the seals. I think it would be better to clean/repack if you want to start over and make sure the grease is good.

Did you alert the manufacturer that their system doesn’t work the way they say it does?

Nope, because I was thinking of a different system that you also pump grease into ... oops.
fj12ryder
Explorer III
Aug 24, 2017
transamz9 wrote:
No, I believe he said a "reputable professional" not a dealer. I usually only get about 4 years out of my brakes on my RVs so I repack my bearing about every 4 years but I do pull the caps and do a visual inspection of the outer bearings every year. 6 point auto level makes short work of it.
To be fair, the poster I referred to didn't specify whether it was an RV dealer, a trailer dealer, or an independent shop. It's possible it was a reputable professional who had an off day, or an undeserved reputation.

And I really didn't mean take it to an RV dealer, I used dealer as a generic term. I probably should have used the word "shop".
transamz9
Explorer
Aug 24, 2017
fj12ryder wrote:
justme wrote:
Forget the easy lube. It was intended for boat trailer and the RV mfg's use it as a good sounding marketing ploy. Grease and inspect your bearing/races the old fashion way every 8-12K miles or once a year and you will have less problems. If you are not comfortable doing it your self, have a reputable professional do it for you.
You mean take it to a dealer like the poster before you? Seems like there are quite a few people who post they had problems after a shop has done their brake/wheel bearing job.

Doing it every year is silly. I finally did check mine after 6 years and they are fine. Every year just means there's more chance of messing something up. It's probably not a bad idea to have them checked when new to make sure they're assembled correctly and properly greased. After that ever few years is fine, unless you're putting on some big miles every year: 15,000-20,000 miles. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

No, I believe he said a "reputable professional" not a dealer. I usually only get about 4 years out of my brakes on my RVs so I repack my bearing about every 4 years but I do pull the caps and do a visual inspection of the outer bearings every year. 6 point auto level makes short work of it.
Dave_H_M
Explorer II
Aug 24, 2017
i agree with fj12. Sometimes if you have something that isn't broke worked on enough, it will need fixing.
fj12ryder
Explorer III
Aug 24, 2017
justme wrote:
Forget the easy lube. It was intended for boat trailer and the RV mfg's use it as a good sounding marketing ploy. Grease and inspect your bearing/races the old fashion way every 8-12K miles or once a year and you will have less problems. If you are not comfortable doing it your self, have a reputable professional do it for you.
You mean take it to a dealer like the poster before you? Seems like there are quite a few people who post they had problems after a shop has done their brake/wheel bearing job.

Doing it every year is silly. I finally did check mine after 6 years and they are fine. Every year just means there's more chance of messing something up. It's probably not a bad idea to have them checked when new to make sure they're assembled correctly and properly greased. After that ever few years is fine, unless you're putting on some big miles every year: 15,000-20,000 miles. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
justme
Explorer
Aug 24, 2017
Forget the easy lube. It was intended for boat trailer and the RV mfg's use it as a good sounding marketing ploy. Grease and inspect your bearing/races the old fashion way every 8-12K miles or once a year and you will have less problems. If you are not comfortable doing it your self, have a reputable professional do it for you.
Road_Phantom
Explorer II
Aug 22, 2017
We had a wheel come off our Cougar lite. Took the drum with it, which broke and had to be replaced. Four months prior to that we had brakes done. I would have thought they would have done the bearing grease then. I would definitely give bearings a check at least once a year.
jorn
Explorer
Aug 21, 2017
Dexter's overview video for the E-Z Lube System.
john_bet
Explorer II
Aug 21, 2017
Never pumped grease into my Montana in 12 years. Pulled the hubs twice in that time and all was well.
jorn
Explorer
Aug 20, 2017
jimh425 wrote:
If you pump too much grease, you might blow the seals. I think it would be better to clean/repack if you want to start over and make sure the grease is good.

Did you alert the manufacturer that their system doesn’t work the way they say it does?

Forum Discussion

Wheel bearings again

20 Replies

About Fifth Wheel Group

Related Content

Wheel bearing repacking

Wheel Bearings

Wheel Bearing Repack

Wheel Bearings

Wheel Bearings