How much grease for wheel bearings?
I have run into this problem more then once over the years with boat and camping trailers. Over greasing zerk fitting on wheels and pushing grease through the seals and getting grease into brakes. ...
Forum Discussion
The Dexter manual since at least our 2003 trailer has always said you have to clean off the old grease and check the bearings for spalling etc before you regrease. Then it says to check the brakes every 12K or yearly whichever comes first. You need to take the hubs off to check the brakes. You need to take the hubs off to clean the old grease off the bearings.
Strangely enough, the interval for doing that is the same as for checking the brakes. This leaves regreasing with the hubs off--ie manually.
There is never, ever an occasion in the manual for ever using a grease gun on the zerks. Unless you park your trailer in a river so now it is like a boat trailer.
So why oh why did they put those EZLube things on an RV? "Sales" said it would look good in their ads as a neat feature.
Bottom line-- if you own a grease gun and get the urge to use it on your EZ Lubes RV, lie down till the feeling goes away! Do the bearings manually and inspect them while clean before regreasing like it says. Do the brakes like it says at the same time while the hubs are off.
Why do the brakes so often even if you haven't gone very far in a year? Dexter tech support told me the reason is that they are air- cooled and moisture can get in while you are parked--especially on wet grass. So the brakes can get rusty even though hardly any miles on them. So the brakes are setting the pace for how often you regrease the bearings and how-- ie, manually while the hubs are off.
No reason to ever grease the bearings more often than that (unless you park in a river---but that can't be too good for the brakes either :) )
Strangely enough, the interval for doing that is the same as for checking the brakes. This leaves regreasing with the hubs off--ie manually.
There is never, ever an occasion in the manual for ever using a grease gun on the zerks. Unless you park your trailer in a river so now it is like a boat trailer.
So why oh why did they put those EZLube things on an RV? "Sales" said it would look good in their ads as a neat feature.
Bottom line-- if you own a grease gun and get the urge to use it on your EZ Lubes RV, lie down till the feeling goes away! Do the bearings manually and inspect them while clean before regreasing like it says. Do the brakes like it says at the same time while the hubs are off.
Why do the brakes so often even if you haven't gone very far in a year? Dexter tech support told me the reason is that they are air- cooled and moisture can get in while you are parked--especially on wet grass. So the brakes can get rusty even though hardly any miles on them. So the brakes are setting the pace for how often you regrease the bearings and how-- ie, manually while the hubs are off.
No reason to ever grease the bearings more often than that (unless you park in a river---but that can't be too good for the brakes either :) )
