E-Z Lube Axles

You know Larry, you would get farther in explaining your opinion to others if you wouldnt be so condisending and insulting in your comment's. Im not going to get into an argument with you because you dont want to hear a differing viewpoint. Have anice day.:R

bid_time wrote:
I guess I must be very lucky, 11 years and no problems. Or maybe the difference is I don't try and grease dry bearings to begin with. Who's to say; in any event I won't change your mind and you won't change mine.

It really has nothing to do with LUCK and again the point of that pic of the two pumps of grease was not to start with a dry bearing, but to demonstrate how little grease gets to the bearing with only a few pumps and just how INEFFECTIVE and basically WASTED TIME, EFFORT and GREASE to even think these types of axles are the best thing since sliced bread. I real good job of hand packing with a quality Moly fortified grease IMO could easily allow one to probably go 5 years and/or between 15 to maybe 25K miles for any bearing service is really needed. I can't recommend going against the yearly or so manufacturers recommendations on bearing service, but personally I think that frequency is WAY OVERKILL.

These E-Z lube axles are sort of like the standard run of the mill factory installed stabilizer jacks in that on the surface they appear to be good ideas, but only for those not digging into the real details and actual effectiveness of them and the better alternatives.

Larry

I guess I must be very lucky, 11 years and no problems. Or maybe the difference is I don't try and grease dry bearings to begin with. Who's to say; in any event I won't change your mind and you won't change mine.

DUPE

Larry

bid_time wrote:

LarryJM wrote:

mosseater wrote:
Yes, do tell. Inquiring minds want to know.

It's called hopeful wishing ... there is no way E-Z lube axles will save you money when it takes close to 2 to 2.5 large tubes of grease to do 4 wheels properly and then more when adding grease and then loosing all that when you have to do the normal tear down and inspect every couple of years anyway.

Larry

Just curious, I give my E-Z lube axles four shots with my grease gun (same as the ball joints on my truck). How does that add up to 2.5 tubes of grease for four wheels? All you need to do is replace the grease in the bearing with new grease. Nothing else but the bearings needs new grease.

With your four shots of grease you are basically doing SQUAT to effectively use the E-Z lube function on your axle. Unfortunately you like a lot of others in this thread that say they like the E-Z lube capability apparantly don't understand exactly what they are, how they work and what is involved in using that capability effectively. I did the research and documented my findings with pictures and I guess I need to restate my findings here in the hopes that some folks with reason will see what I'm trying to convey and point out concerning these overly praised type axles.

Here is a pic of the spindle of an E-Z lube axle and you can see the zerk fitting on the end of the spindle where you pump in the grease.



Below is a picture of the hole where the grease comes out. The grease goes into the zerk thru the center of the axle and exits that hole. It is located just inside of the grease seal that rides up on that flat portrion in the picture and the grease inters the area between the larger diameter of the inside bearing and the grease seal. This is why one has to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL and follow carefully the directions such as rotating as you pump (which takes two people since one needs to be rotating the wheel while the other pumps the grease SLOWLY) and ONLY USING a hand pump grease gun since a powered one can force the grease into that small area too fast and blow past the grease seal. This significant downside is still there even with hand pumping if the conditions are just right.



Here is another picture of that exit point with some grease coming out of the hole in the axle.



Now to the meat of the main issues with these E-Z lube axles. To analyze this at my first bearing service after I carefully cleaned all the bearings I pump grease into the zerk to just where it starts to come out of that hole. I then installed a completely dry bearing and the old grease seal into the hub and mounted the hub to the axle. To properly document a snapshot I then did TWO FULL STROKE pump on a standard hand grease gun w/o rotating the hub since I wanted to get a feeling for how much grease actually got to the bearing. This was because there had been multiple posts like yours where individuals were giving their axles one to like five pumps of grease and thinking they had actually done anything. I was appalled at the result.


Below in just how much grease you get in that area with those two full pumps I described above.



As they say a picture is worth a thousand words.:p

Now here are the real issues and why these E-Z lube axles are a great idea, with poor execution and dismal effectiveness. To even have a hope of being effective the entire void between the two bearing inside the hub cavity has to be 100% packed with grease w/o voids or air pockets. The only way I can even think to accomplish this is to some how install the hub with the inner bearing and grease seal installed leaving the outside bearing out and then somehow stuff grease into that cavity ensuring you don't have any voids or air pockets. This is critical since the how concept of these axles is to pump grease into that zerk with it coming out at that inner cavity and forcing enough grease out thru the hub and thru the outer bearing so you replace a large amount of grease in each bearing. No body says how much grease you should see come out from zerk end of the axle thru the outer bearing. Also, there is absolutely no way to tell for sure if the grease pumped in or expelled has been evenly distributed around each bearing. This requires IMO a whole lot of HOPE and some serious PRAYING.

I will readily admit I didn't document as well as I could exactly how much grease one wastes in filling that hub void around the axle between the two bearings and on some more noodling my first SWAG of close to two tubes for 4 wheels once everything is said and done is I think closer to being right that my second SWAG of 1/3 tube per wheel or 1 and 1/3 tubes for 4 wheels. There is a lot of space around that axle between the bearings that must be 100% filled with grease and in any event ALL THAT GREASE in there is WASTED since that is not used with a normal hand pack bearing service. I won't even get into how you initially fill up the cavity initially w/o leaving air pockets or voids and am still wanting to see how someone SLOWLY PUMPS in grease while SIMULATANOUSLY ROTATING the wheel so you evenly distribute the grease around the bearing and don't accidently try and force a lot of grease at a concentrated spot with the least point of resistance probably being that immediate grease seal since what you are doing is forcing the grease against that seal and HOPING is pushes grease the entire length of the hub and out the outer bearing area. SORRY anyone logically looking at what is required and what is to be accomplished that wouldn't have nightmares is IMO just not RIGHT INSIDE as the ole car commercial said.

As I've already said I think I have done the leg work and documented things to again say HOGWASH to those that I can only conclude either aren't maintaining these axles effectively, are simply wasting their time and effort with these 4 or 5 pumps of the grease gun and calling things good, or simply again are employing WISHFUL THINKING and believing that these E-Z lube axles are really worth extraordinary effort and time to maintain them properly and if you're not doing it properly you are WASTING YOUR TIME AND $$$ in grease.

So all those wanting to blindly jump on that LOVE THE E-Z LUBE BAND WAGON go right ahead, but that's one band wagon I sure do not want to be riding on when it tips over or breaks down. I especially get a kick out of those that like to nitpick details such as the significance of between like 1 and 1/3 tube of grease and even double that since it's ALL WASTED to start with and good tubes of grease are not free the last time I looked.

Carry on, I'm bascially thru with what I wanted to say and try and convey in the hopes of enlightening those that are willing to admit they might be able to learn something from those of us that have done basically the "heavy lifting" so to speak.;)

Larry

Add me to the list of EZ Lube lovers.

Make that 5, I hand pack every 4 to 5 years never had a problem! But you have to be careful and spin the wheel so you don't get grease past the seal! And pump the grease slow and on a warm day so it flows easy!
Oh I should add this was on my last Camper a 03 Jayco Designer, plan to do the same with this one!

Make that 4! I love them and I do extensive traveling. Dealer filled me in on how they work. If you dont like them, dont use them.

So far at least three of us understand how to use our E-Z Lubes and let them work for us. I'm sure there are a lot more ;)

LarryJM wrote:

NanciL wrote:
I love my EZ-lube axels !
Who ever says it does not save time and money has evidently never used them.
I am on my second trailer with them, and grease them once a year.

Saving time: I just jack each wheel and then squirt the grease in until the old stuff comes out.
Saving money: one tube of grease will do more than four wheels:

All I can say is HOGWASH I have used them and have even done a fairly good analysis and documentation of exactly what is involved ... something I doubt you have done. Just do a search on "E-Z Lube" and my username in posts over 12mo old to see my detailed posts and how these E-Z Lube hubs work and what is involved in using them properly. Unfortunately all the detailed pics I took aren't there since they were hosted on Webshots before that system was abandoned and I haven't seen a need to redo them in photobucket. I just peaked at my prior posts on this and I guess one clarification is that back in 2010 or so when I did my analysis I came up with about 1/3 of a tube per hub so it will take upwards of 2 tubes so I embellished the amount somewhat in my last post.

I'm not one to adhere to the once a year inspection, but more along the line of around 3 to 4 years and a good hand pack of the bearings with a good quality Moly fortified grease doesn't require any additions like using the E-Z Lube option so THERE IS NO TIME SAVINGS and because of all the additional needed grease to fill the hub cavity is simply wasted grease AND WASTED MONEY .... Thus I content the FACT IS THERE IS NO TIME OR $$$$ SAVINGS in using the E-Z Lube option on our trailers ... end of story:p

When and if I ever have a bearing failure, I'll come back and tell you, but the first trailer was five years old when I traded it, and this one is now six years old

FWIW I owned my last trailer from 1982 to 2007 and now this one from 2007 and in those 32 years have done all my wheel bearing maintenance and have also never had a bearing failure.

Jack L

All I can say is I am glad you corrected yourself on the quantity of grease that you conveniently told wrong. and I'll gladly stick to my much easier and quicker method.
Do you use that "hog wash" to clean your bearings too !

Cheers,
Jack L