Wheel bearings

I checked mine after I had it for a year. I found all of them had been overgreased at either the dealer or the factory. All four brakes were ruined which explained why they never worked very well. I cleaned all the bearings and repacked them with new seals and threw out all the backing plates/brake assemblies and started over. I'm thinking I'm good for a few years. If I ever buy another new one It's one of the first things I plan to check.

B.O.

CKNSLS wrote:

wilber1 wrote:

MTPockets1 wrote:

CKNSLS wrote:
The once a year repack is old school thinking that permeates this forum. Check temps with the $25.00 IR gun from Harbor Freight at every stop and go from there!

. If & when your IR gun detects an overheating status, the bearing raceways are already damaged. That's what is creating the heat.

Yup, heat is the result of a failure, not a warning of an impending failure.

OK-if your bearing fails it will overheat as well. Not sure of your point.

Checking the temperature just tells you if a bearing has already failed, not if it is going to fail.

wilber1 wrote:

MTPockets1 wrote:

CKNSLS wrote:
The once a year repack is old school thinking that permeates this forum. Check temps with the $25.00 IR gun from Harbor Freight at every stop and go from there!

. If & when your IR gun detects an overheating status, the bearing raceways are already damaged. That's what is creating the heat.

Yup, heat is the result of a failure, not a warning of an impending failure.

OK-if your bearing fails it will overheat as well. Not sure of your point.

MTPockets1 wrote:

CKNSLS wrote:
The once a year repack is old school thinking that permeates this forum. Check temps with the $25.00 IR gun from Harbor Freight at every stop and go from there!

. If & when your IR gun detects an overheating status, the bearing raceways are already damaged. That's what is creating the heat.

Yup, heat is the result of a failure, not a warning of an impending failure.

CKNSLS wrote:
The once a year repack is old school thinking that permeates this forum. Check temps with the $25.00 IR gun from Harbor Freight at every stop and go from there!

. If & when your IR gun detects an overheating status, the bearing raceways are already damaged. That's what is creating the heat.

CKNSLS wrote:

Highway 4x4 wrote:
All bets are off with the Never Lube bearings. They have a 100,000 mile guarantee that is good for 5 years. But you better R&R them at no more than 5 years or you will be watching your TT go down the road on the bed of a big rig tow flatbed.

More details PLEASE!
Thanks!

The dexter Never Lube system uses a sealed, cannot be lubed cartridge bearing that has to be pressed into the brake hub. The inner and outer bearings are about 1/16 inch apart. A cenetred wheel must be used. It is not a real strong system at all. They guarantee them for 5 years OR 100,000 miles. You can check them and even though they check OK, they could be just a few miles from failure and there is no warning. When they fail, you loose the brakes, probably the tire, then the rim, and last goes the axle. There is no way to road-side fix this mess. Good luck finding parts. The parts can be found, at dexter. So, the best thing is to R&R the bearings every 4 years to be safe at about $70 each plus labor. I called Dexter and they think this is a great system.

Puddles wrote:

jfkmk wrote:
Packing the bearings is so incredibly easy that I do it yearly. I go through absolutely everything every spring and have the confidence all is well throughout the camping season. In my opinion, it is pretty cheap insurance to ensure I have a happy and stress free season.

Enough Said...

With so many travel trailers on the road weekends...I find it hard to be believe there is annual maintenance done on the wheel bearings. BTW-for some of us it's not that easy. We don't have the space, nor the time,or the tools, nor do we want to get our hands dirty.

jfkmk wrote:
Packing the bearings is so incredibly easy that I do it yearly. I go through absolutely everything every spring and have the confidence all is well throughout the camping season. In my opinion, it is pretty cheap insurance to ensure I have a happy and stress free season.

Enough Said...

Packing the bearings is so incredibly easy that I do it yearly. I go through absolutely everything every spring and have the confidence all is well throughout the camping season. In my opinion, it is pretty cheap insurance to ensure I have a happy and stress free season.

It seems to me that the service interval for bearing on a trailer should be compared not to the service interval of a modern, sealed car bearing, but rather to the service interval of the front wheel bearings of a 1950's or 1960's drum brake car. Todays axles and brakes really are straight from that era.

On cars of that vintage, I used to re-pack bearings at every brake job. IIRC, that was somewhere around 20k miles.

I'd also consider the relative weight and abuse to which trailer bearings are subject. My 1971 Plymouth didn't weight 5 tons and didn't get dragged sideways around corners.