EZ Lube axles/hubs

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. I pushed him a little on that and he said that people regularly blow their seals out by trying to service the hubs. He said that if I wanted to I could maybe do one squirt a year into the hub. He also said, don't fool with them for ten years. Just tow it and don't worry about it.

As a guy who has owned a few old Harleys with tapered roller bearings, and having personally repacked them at every new tire change, I'm really not comfortable with his instructions. I have pulled it for a few trips and the hubs are always cool.

Hi Falconbrother,

I 110% agree with you, the RV mechanic who stated the above to not mess with hubs for years, is not in the right context of a brand new trailer.

I have personally seen too many brand new trailers with the bare minimum grease in a bearing pack. You go years on that and you will have a fried bearing at the most unwanted time. OH48Lt had stated the same thing so he must of seen this issue too.

Since you know how to doing a bearing repack, pull the hubs, clean them out and pack them yourself. Then you know what your dealing with. Put a new seal in too.

I have always done my own and at time of repacking them, they have never gone too long. I am on a 3 year 15 - 20K mile cycle for a repack. I cannot trust the brakes to be OK any longer then that so once the drum comes off for the brakes, a new seal is a must and I do the bearing repack again. In my case I have self adjusting brakes that I added.

I do not know if you have had a trailer before, but unless you have the new feature of self adjusting brakes, they need to be tweaked/adjusted about every 2,000 miles. The standard trailer brakes do not self adjust. And since your trailer is brand new, odds are high they need a tweek now. The first 200 to 300 miles on new brakes is a need on this first interval as they are wearing/seating themself in. From there you can go the 2,000 miles.

So if you are going to do a repack to know what you have on the grease and new seals, then do the whole thing with adjustment and start tracking time and miles from there.

On the EZ lube feature, I'll add some to more to what I have heard from Dexter that OH48Lt had stated. The Dexter engineer I talked to stated, that they have had so many axle failures do to lack of lubrication from neglect that they started offering the EZ lube beyond the boat industry. The hope was that if the owner saw a grease fitting they might actually give it some grease in attempts to help save the axle from failure.

As to using the EZ lube or not, as was said there is a long debate on this. I have it on my TT axles but never use it. The other trailers I have do not have it. The seals used in these trailers are so poor that adding a pumped greasing to the mix is a leak waiting to happen. If you are going to attempt it, jack up the camper and spin the tire while hand pumping slow. It your seal is bad, then you will have bad luck. If the seal is good, then you will have good luck. It's a flip of the coin.

Hope this helps

John

PS. If you are in a state that requires annual trailer inspections, the inspecting place is often required to pull one wheel. They pull it, look and stick it back on. They also may have just nicked the seal putting it back on. They are not paid to put a new seal in.