Forum Discussion

braindead0's avatar
braindead0
Explorer
Jul 01, 2016

Lippert axles-how to determine if you have a Super Lube hub

I've got a Lippert axle, and it has a plug and zerk fitting in the hub. However I've seen these setups in the past where that's just to 'top up' so you have to be very careful about blowing out past ...
Huntindog's avatar
Huntindog
Explorer
Jul 01, 2016
braindead0 wrote:
Lynnmor wrote:
They can name them whatever they want. It either has a grease fitting or not. It is just a hole drilled In the spindle that exits right in front of the seal. Good luck.
Having a zerk fitting does not mean the grease is entering in front of the seal. I've had boat trailers and one popup that had a zerk in the spindle (NOT in a dust cap like a bearing buddy) and those both had the grease entering between the inner/outer bearings.. and no means to allow grease to exit through the outer bearing (both had a large washer that effectively blocked the exit). Those hubs are not the same as ez-lube/super lube hubs and that was what I was trying to determine by checking with Lippert.

Use them as designed or not, don't care. Just trying to help others positively ID.


I must have missed it..... I mean the hordes of people that did not know if they had them or not.
People must have been posting that question daily and I missed it...

Face it, you are wanting to stir the pot. You love the idea and want others to agree with you.

Here is the facts on how this works.

The zerk feeds a hole that will attempt to grease the inner bearing. How well this will work depends on the condition of the seal/hub interface, and the skill of the person doing it.
He needs to slowly turn the wheel while steadyling pumping the grease... It is working blind as you cannot see what is really going on in there. Is the fresh grease getting evenly distributed in the bearing? Or are spots being missed/skipped? Is the seal really in good shape? or is grease seeping past it onto the brakes?
One simply cannot be sure. All seals age and leak at some point. Sometimes a brand new seal is nicked during installation... Without superman vision, one cannot know.

But the potential problems don't stop there. In order to grease the outer bearing, the grease must travel thru the inner bearing, and the hub cavity to the inside of the outer bearing. This takes a considerable amount of grease... Several tubes each time for a dual axle TT... That's right EACH TIME... The video on Dexters site is misleading. The dirty grease that they show exiting the hub is only from the outer bearing. The dirty grease from the larger inner bearing is still in there some where.... Some of it may have even made it to the inside of the outer bearing!!
Without xray vision, one cannot know exactly where it is... So one must keep pumping and pumping and pumping,, until a second section of dirty grease emerges. Even then one cannot know if all the dirty grease is purged. It is a long trip for the grease, and it probably will not travel evenly around the hub..
With all of the pumping that must be done, a compromised seal will likely fail greasing the brakes... But hey, I hear that well greased brakes never wear out.:B

So you see it is not as simple as the marketing makes it out to be.

Now knowing all of the facts, if one still wants to use this "feature" I wish them well.

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