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falconbrother's avatar
falconbrother
Explorer II
Jun 19, 2018

Spare bearing question..

Just because I like to be prepared.. How do you determine the bearing size for your axles so as to keep a spare set on board? I suppose I could take the hub off and measure with a caliper but, there's got to be an easier way.
  • 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


    Because frankly cassette bearing suck. It's not uncommon for cassette bearings to go out on trucks <100,000. There is also no way to inspect them like regular taper roller bearings. The cassette bearings on my Dmax are bad at 110,000 miles. They cost $350/ side because you have to buy the whole hub. The bearings on my 93 diesel are happy to roll on at 185,000 miles and I can inspect them to see how they are doing.
  • My spares already packed with grease and stored in plastic jar. Then jar in plastic bag.
    I only use "double lip" seals. Hope I never need them on the road.
  • 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
  • If you're organized enough to cary a spare set... why wouldn't you want be sure that the brgs & seal you're caring be are right ones??? "easier way" could be a disappointment..
  • Get the bearings in the parts list in the manual for your axle. The manuals from Dexter & Lippert are available on-line. There should be a label on your axle with specs and model #. I find that the bearings for the Dexter & Lippert 3,500 lbs axles are the same. I see your 2017 Coleman 262BH trailer likely has a pair of 3,500 axles. Here's Lippert's parts list for those:
    122089 Outer bearing cone, L44649 125102 Outer bearing cup, L44610
    122092 Inner bearing cone, L68149 124296 Inner bearing cup, L68111