EZ Lube axles/hubs

centerline wrote:

falconbrother wrote:
I bought my TT in 2017 and it has the EZ lube hubs, but.. When I bought it the RV mechanic that gave us the walk around was emphatic that we shouldn't mess with those hubs for a few years. He discouraged even squirting grease in them.

what's the point of EZ lube axles if you don't need to squirt some grease in there every once in a while?

How can grease in a hub/bearing blow out a seal unless it's under pressure?

the mechanic is correct. ez lube axles are for adding a half a squirt of grease every couple of years, so that you dont need to disassemble and repack...

and yes, those who dont know any better can, and often DO, fill the cavity with grease to the point where the grease only has 2 ways to go.... either out the front, or out the back, and a grease gun can generate thousands of PSI with very little effort, and it doesnt take but a few PSI to push the seal out with too much grease.

no matter is one understands the concept or not, they can save themselves some troubles by forgetting those grease fittings for awhile....ansd if the bearings are packed and tightened correctly and the seals are good, they will go many, many thousands of miles without any problems at all

bearing buddy caps will do the exact same thing to the seal if they get too much grease pumped into them...

That info is totally incorrect. Bearing buddies are for adding a little bit of grease to keep water out. Ezlube IS for greasing bearings. There is a hole built into the system to allow old grease to come out as the new grease goes in. For correct info go to their web site and read about the system and not the sometimes false and incorrect info here. I have used it for years without any problems. But don’t take my word read their site.

falconbrother wrote:
Thanks. I will do this one and manually repack every few years.

As a note that I know will get some folks wired.. We bought our first TT in 1992. It was a 1991, used, Prowler. I'll be honest, in those days I knew jack about these things. It never occurred to me that axle bearings needed repacking. I pulled that trailer all over creation with nary an issue for years. Not even so much as a flat tire. I guess I was lucky.

Maybe a little, but you hear a lot about trouble with bearings, but you rarely hear about people that have no trouble with their bearings. It's like most things on forums, you hear all the bad, but rarely the good. There's lots more people who don't have trouble than do.

centerline wrote:

falconbrother wrote:
I bought my TT in 2017 and it has the EZ lube hubs, but.. When I bought it the RV mechanic that gave us the walk around was emphatic that we shouldn't mess with those hubs for a few years. He discouraged even squirting grease in them.

what's the point of EZ lube axles if you don't need to squirt some grease in there every once in a while?

How can grease in a hub/bearing blow out a seal unless it's under pressure?

the mechanic is correct. ez lube axles are for adding a half a squirt of grease every couple of years, so that you dont need to disassemble and repack...

and yes, those who dont know any better can, and often DO, fill the cavity with grease to the point where the grease only has 2 ways to go.... either out the front, or out the back, and a grease gun can generate thousands of PSI with very little effort, and it doesnt take but a few PSI to push the seal out with too much grease.

no matter is one understands the concept or not, they can save themselves some troubles by forgetting those grease fittings for awhile....ansd if the bearings are packed and tightened correctly and the seals are good, they will go many, many thousands of miles without any problems at all

bearing buddy caps will do the exact same thing to the seal if they get too much grease pumped into them...

Thanks. I will do this one and manually repack every few years.

As a note that I know will get some folks wired.. We bought our first TT in 1992. It was a 1991, used, Prowler. I'll be honest, in those days I knew jack about these things. It never occurred to me that axle bearings needed repacking. I pulled that trailer all over creation with nary an issue for years. Not even so much as a flat tire. I guess I was lucky.

wilber1 wrote:
They are also a waste of grease, only about 20% of the grease you pack into the hub is actually lubricating the bearings.

You're off by a 0 there. Takes half a tube of grease to completely cycle the grease in an EZ Lube hub, but only a small ball of grease in the palm of your had to properly pack both bearings for the same hub.

centerline wrote:

the mechanic is correct. ez lube axles are for adding a half a squirt of grease every couple of years, so that you dont need to disassemble and repack...

and yes, those who dont know any better can, and often DO, fill the cavity with grease to the point where the grease only has 2 ways to go.... either out the front, or out the back, and a grease gun can generate thousands of PSI with very little effort, and it doesnt take but a few PSI to push the seal out with too much grease.

Nuf said, but I would recommend other reading this thread disregard the really bum info and total unfounded and unsupported speculation in the post I quoted above.

Larry

We bought our 2010 camper new and I didn't touch mine for 5 years then took it in to an axle shop and had them check and repack the bearings. The mechanic told me the bearings we in perfect shape, all he had rto do was repack them and reinstall.

JBarca wrote:


The Dexter tolerance on lining replacement is 1/16" or less remaining. I think Alko is the same. And yes, these are no where the same thickness of car or trucks from years gone by. You will be shocked...

search hard and you can find aftermarket brake shoes that have a thicker lining for a longer wear...
and I have taken the shoes into the local friction supply and had them relined with thicker lining.... one has to know what the shoes measure when mounted and seated correctly, and the ID of the drum....

but it does little good to use a nice thick lining inside a large space due to a worn out drum... the drum has to have enough left on it to outlast the thicker lining..

falconbrother wrote:
I bought my TT in 2017 and it has the EZ lube hubs, but.. When I bought it the RV mechanic that gave us the walk around was emphatic that we shouldn't mess with those hubs for a few years. He discouraged even squirting grease in them.

what's the point of EZ lube axles if you don't need to squirt some grease in there every once in a while?

How can grease in a hub/bearing blow out a seal unless it's under pressure?

the mechanic is correct. ez lube axles are for adding a half a squirt of grease every couple of years, so that you dont need to disassemble and repack...

and yes, those who dont know any better can, and often DO, fill the cavity with grease to the point where the grease only has 2 ways to go.... either out the front, or out the back, and a grease gun can generate thousands of PSI with very little effort, and it doesnt take but a few PSI to push the seal out with too much grease.

no matter is one understands the concept or not, they can save themselves some troubles by forgetting those grease fittings for awhile....ansd if the bearings are packed and tightened correctly and the seals are good, they will go many, many thousands of miles without any problems at all

bearing buddy caps will do the exact same thing to the seal if they get too much grease pumped into them...

TBammer wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

TBammer wrote:
I just pulled the drums on my ez lubes and what a mess. Good news, no leakage into the brakes. Brakes need replacing though. Pricing things out and wonder if the cost for never adjust is worth it. Thoughts? Also, are the bearings that come with the drum packages any good?

How many miles do you estimate you have on your brakes? Was the braking material pretty much gone? How much do you estimate you have left? I've checked mine and was appalled at how thin the shoe material is compared to car brakes.

TIA

Brake lining was pretty thin in my estimate when compared to what I used to see when doing car brakes back in the day. Lots of brake dust in the drums. I think they are original (previous owners did not use the trailer much). I had them checked when I bought (2 years ago, put about 6K on since then) and the mechanic said they were used but not replacement level. Also replacing 10 year old tires. Wondering if it cheaper to replace the drums or see if they can be turned on a drum lathe and reuse. Shoot, does anyone have a drum lathe anymore?

The Dexter tolerance on lining replacement is 1/16" or less remaining. I think Alko is the same. And yes, these are no where the same thickness of car or trucks from years gone by. You will be shocked...

Turning brake drums. If you can find a good shop, it is doable. However.... I asked at the local auto parts store which had a machine shop if they could turn my trailer drums and what tolerance would they hold? He said he could turn them but could not quote or guarantee a final turned tolerance. He said they would be in spec. He was only charging $15 a drum. I told him if he cannot guarantee a tolerance we agree on, then I'm not interested. For $15 I have little confidence they will even indicate the drum in accurately before they start turning them. Just chuck it up and go.

Hope this helps

John

TBammer wrote:
I just pulled the drums on my ez lubes and what a mess. Good news, no leakage into the brakes. Brakes need replacing though. Pricing things out and wonder if the cost for never adjust is worth it. Thoughts? Also, are the bearings that come with the drum packages any good?

I did the the Never-Adjust brake upgrade. All in all I am glad I did. If you are staying with drum brakes, they are then at top efficiency all the time.
Dexter Self Adjusting Brakes (long W/pics and details)

A few tips.

I found by doing a brake wire upgrade at the same time (since you have all the coils open) was a major upgrade. The combo of being at top adjustment efficiency and lower voltage loss to the brake coils was a very good upgrade. Independent Brake Wire Feed Upgrade

If your old brake drums have more than 0.015" TIR (Total indicator runout) you will have a problem with self adjusting brakes in enough time. I had one drum what was out by 0.020" TIR and on manual adjust brakes you never know you had an issue. The brake just never worked totally efficient, ever. On the self adjust, if the out of round is bad enough it does an adjustment into the out of round area and then is locked on too tight all the time. A problem.

If your old drums run true, then no issues. If you are buying new Dexter drums, their spec is to run within 0.015 TIR and they will stand behind it if it is out and replace it.

As to bearings in a new drum, sometimes when you buy a new drum it will come with new outer races installed but no bearing cone. The issue with that is, the bearing even if new is not a match to the new race in the drum. It is discouraged to mix races and bearings that are not from a match set. However in this and age of sloppy tolerances, I have no idea if the cheap kits you buy are really a match set. They make different precision grades of tapered roller bearings. The high precision I know are true ground as a matched set. The low ends one, well I do not know.

Hope this helps

John