Spare bearing question..

Huntindog wrote:

SoundGuy wrote:
Just an observation BUT ... surely by now the RV industry could be using bearings that don't need any servicing at all, just as the automotive industry does. Sure, any car / truck bearing could fail but it's pretty rare, I've had but one bearing fail on all the vehicles I've ever owned for the last 50 years, and when it did fail it wasn't a matter of life or death, replace it now or else. It just got noisy so the service manager said to just bring the truck in at my convenience, in the meantime I could continue to drive it, no biggie ... so why are we still dealing with this nonsense with our trailers? Good grief, is it not time we can have tires that don't blow up at a moment's notice for no apparent reason and bearings that don't fail during the lifetime of the trailer?! :M

Lippert had them, my TT came with them. Dexter (last I looked) still makes them. They were considered a premium upgrade.

Around 2014 I lost a wheel when the sealed bearings failed. I wrote about it here at that time. I called Lippert and was told that they no longer made those axles or any parts for them. They offered me a buy one get one free deal on replacement axles. After looking around (The Dexter sealed bearings are very close to the same) I could not beat the deal they offered me. I really did not want the remaining axle since it was an orphan. So I ended up replacing my 5200# axles with 7000# axles at a very good price.
I always like to upgrade whenever I have a failure.

I never want sealed bearings when I can avoid them. I had a buddy that had sealed bearings on his 5er and had a wheel fail on the way to the beach. I'd rather have a bearing that I can service/lube. I have had two old Harleys that had tapered roller bearings. I lubed (re-packed) them with every tire change and after 100,000 miles they looked brand new. Heck, the old 1988 FLHTC had nearly 200,000 miles on those bearings and they were still in great shape.