Never Fail Bushings vs Wet Bolts?

Good one!! Never lube bearings do fail so never fail bushings do wear.

I kind of put the Never Fail bushings in the same class as the Nev-r-Lube Bearings. If you read the fine print on the Nev-r-Lube bearings they are not good forever, 5 years or 100K miles. Wonder if the Never Fail Bushings carry a similar disclaimer??

Maybe "Never Fail", but will they be "Never Wear Out"? :)

Thanks for all your feed back folks. I am leaning towards wet bolts as I actually LOVE puttering on my RVs and twice a year greasing won't be an issue. My last camper was a 1982 class b with 300000kms
on it! Sold it in 2012 to a wrecker when it finally died.:(
I have read a lot on EZ Flex installs and got the positioning of the grease holes figured pretty much figured out John but thanks for the reminder. The only reason I was looking at the Never Fail bushings is the name....I mean NEVER FAIL!!!!!!?????? how can you go wrong with that? But after reading a lot of experiences of folks on the forum with Lippert products......maybe the problem is spelled L_____T.

Old-Biscuit wrote:

ScottG wrote:
The thing I just thought of about the never fails.. Greasing the wet bolts also gets grease on the hanger strap, which should give it a longer service life(?). Using never fails means this strap stays dry and wears out just like always.

On my wet bolts (Dexter)
The supplied bushing is pressed into spring eye and then when greasing via wet bolt the grease only goes around inside of bushing & outside of bolt.
No grease gets to outside of bushing and inside of spring eye.

I would think the same holds true for 'never-fail' bushings

ScottG is correct. The wear may not only be on the surfaces where the pin meets the bushing, but also where the sides of the springs meet the hangers and shackles.

Also, keep in mind that the bolts are usually installed so the the grease hole is on the unloaded side and the grease just pushes right out instead of going to the loaded side where needed. If I were doing mine again, I would cut a figure 8 inside the bushings to allow grease to go all the way around.

I just got done installing the EZ flex on my 28 foot travel trailer. One of the things I learned: the spring eyes can be different sizes depending on the maker of the axle/spring! So…turns out I have Dexter axles but Lippert springs on my used TT! The bronze bushings were too small for my Lippert springs, so they couldn't be pressed in. This only applied to the end bushings, however, since you're putting new shackles on from the kit. So I bought new nylon bushings from my local trailer parts supplier. I will now make an appointment to get the axle alignment checked. All in all not a hard or time consuming install.

A note: I had an appallingly bad experience with customer service at Dexter Axle where I bought my kit. It was the best price and hey they're the manufacturer, right? What's not to like? Turns out, plenty! The kit arrived with 2 of the four shackle assemblies in unusable condition…..one had been USED! And the other one had a grease zero broken off inside the shackle bolt. You'd think they'd be apologetic…..maybe give me a further discount for my troubles? Noooooooo! While my trailer was up on jackstands in my driveway (which I told them) they had to ship out an entire replacement kit, not just the shackles (the only things I needed) AND they charged my credit card for it WITHOUT my permission! And they didn't exactly speed that package on its way, either! Oh and because its the holidays, they give most of the employees time off……including….yes…customer service! Which means I've now been double charged for a defective product sent out by Dexter! But it'll be cleared up in a week maybe two……..Outrageous. As retired military I'm just not used to being treated like a liar & thief who can't be trusted to return the other kit. So, I'm looking forward to seeing better trailer towing, but once again left baffled by more RV industry bad customer service! Happy Rving!

. . .I have the Dexter Kit on my 5th wheel & it made for a GREAT suspension improvement when towing; probably some of best money spent so far!!!!!

ScottG wrote:
The thing I just thought of about the never fails.. Greasing the wet bolts also gets grease on the hanger strap, which should give it a longer service life(?). Using never fails means this strap stays dry and wears out just like always.

On my wet bolts (Dexter)
The supplied bushing is pressed into spring eye and then when greasing via wet bolt the grease only goes around inside of bushing & outside of bolt.
No grease gets to outside of bushing and inside of spring eye.

I would think the same holds true for 'never-fail' bushings

The thing I just thought of about the never fails.. Greasing the wet bolts also gets grease on the hanger strap, which should give it a longer service life(?). Using never fails means this strap stays dry and wears out just like always.

ScottG wrote:
Could the never fails be added to existing wet bolts? I still have plastic ones with my WB's (I know I know).

If you have wet bolts, that only means the bolt is drilled for grease other wise the bolt is the same as the standard spring bolt. If you push out the old nylon bushing and put the Never Fail in its place, then good, move on. The grease hole at this point is then just going along for the ride not doing much, but not harming anything either. If the Never Fail ever wear out, then push them out and go bronze. Again keep the same pin unless it is wore out. BUT report back on the experiment and track mileage on the Never fail. We have no good data base of miles and camper weight to go by. Yet anyway. You could be a 1st!!!

The bolt shank diameter is the same wet or standard.