EZ Lube axles/hubs
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 discou...
Forum Discussion
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. But, 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? There shouldn't be any pressure in there as a bead of grease will let you know you're done.
Years ago (actually, decades... back in the '80s), I was buying some commercial mowing equipment. I was surprised that the newest commercial mowers had very few grease fittings - I knew "homeowner" equipment was "maintenance free" (which meant it would fail in 5 years), but commercial equipment, when doing maintenance such as greasing, could in theory last forever. I asked the dealer about the lack of grease fittings on new equipment, and he said that so many people were "over-maintenizing" equipment - especially over greasing! - that they were bringing in equipment that wasn't running correctly due to issues such as grease globs in places they weren't supposed to be. So the manufacturers were going to "grease-less", "maintenance free" parts just to keep the backyard mechanics from causing problems.
So, long story even longer, the RV mechanic was probably just tired of seeing brakes, hubs, bearings with grease all over the place being brought in because they weren't working correctly.
Yes, you can "over-maintenize" equipment. Do the maintenance required, then stop. Go out and enjoy camping!
