Lost dust caps

Gdetrailer wrote:

BarneyS wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:
Snip...
Takes a whole 10-15 minutes to pull the bearings and drums and clean out the old grease and refresh with new grease...Snip....

WOW! You work a whole lot faster than I do!!!! :E
Barney

I have the routine down to a science, jack up in the correct place and you can lift both axles on one side at the same time. I also make use of air tools to remove the lug nuts, makes for very quick work

I do that twice per yr since I have not only a travel trailer but a 18ft flatbed trailer both with dual axles. Takes me a whole hr for all four drums on each trailer.

PA requires a trailer safety inspection once per yr, one of the requirements is the mechanic must pull a drum on each side and inspect the brake shoes condition.

Instead of waiting to get surprised with a failed inspection I suck it up and pull them and verify the condition myself before hauling the trailer to the inspection station.

Being proactive has saved me a few trips over the years and paying for a failed inspection.

IMHO, even for a pro, with all the equipment, 15 minutes is pretty quick. I spend about half that much time just cleaning and inspecting the bearings if they're good.
Working on my camper, I make it a point to use only tools in the rig. If I ever had to do it on the road I know I may not have my best tools, but I have tools that can work.
1 trick I learned to save time is the first step when you get it apart is clean the inside of hub. You will almost certainly will re-use it. And cleaning it you will clean the races. And once the races are clean a bad spot is easy to see. And if you see a bad place on a race, no reason to clean the bearing.