Wheel Bearings Packed? Yearly Maintenance

According to a previous reply 3oaks you still have the option of longer intervals. You really don't tow that many miles. How do they look when you perform the maintenance?

If properly maintained to start with, bearings packed-not over greased and bearing castle nut correctly set, along with brakes adjusted correctly, about every 3 years. I started out with yearly inspection intervals, then 2 years without any issues found or concerns and now 3 years between thorough bearing inspections and grease seal changes. And we average about 2,000 miles per year towing our TT.

When I was traveling a lot (about 40,000 miles a year) I repacked every two or three years. Unless you tow through relatively deep water there is no reason to grease them more often than you do the front bearings on a car/truck since they're pretty much the same bearing system.

retiredcamper2011 wrote:
I purchased my 24' tandem axle from a private party in 2012 who said new tires and bearing pack had been done earlier that year. I decided to wait til a full 2 yrs were up and do the bearings again in the spring of 2015. I don't know how far we went on a few trips, but certainly not "high" mileage. On a trip 100 miles out of town this summer (2014) the left rear wheel started smoking. Had to get a tow to tire shop where they said bearings needed repacked. So for me personally, I will do it once per year, or for certain no longer than 2 yrs if I keep track of usage closely. Just my opinion.

That's one of the issues with repacking bearings. More often than not your better off just using the bearing buddy (if equipped)and leaving the bearings alone as far as dismantling everything IMHO. I can't count the number of posters who say they repack their bearings every year, every two years, etc., and when they take them out they really even didn't need repacking. I'm going the bearing buddy route and checking temps with an IR gun.

I don,t trust the shops, its so easy for a SO CALLED MECH to take a grease gun and put to much in or not enough . on the ones without fittings WHO knows if they even did them. I do my own not a hard job.

My experience to date on 3 TTs is that on two of them, grease leaked into the brakes and all 4 wheels had to be totally rebuilt. Both were rebuilt under warranty. Not encouraging statistics. In each case, it was a different axle manufacturer.

I took our current TT into the dealer last month (7 months old at that point) for some warranty work and with all the negative things I've read about seals and bearings, I thought it would be a good idea to get the brakes checked out along with a bearing inspection and repack. Good thing I asked because as it turned out, ALL 4 brakes had grease in them. At first the dealer said this would not be a warranty item but then I phoned the axle manufacturer and they got covered in the end. Don't know if it was faulty manufacturing or from the dealer pumping grease into the axles.

I no longer trust anything to do with the bearings, seals or brakes. Once the warranty has expired, I will probably do a bearing repack myself. Whether I do it myself or pay a shop the $250 or so it would cost, I will get it done annually. I'll never put grease in the EZ-lube axles either.

I purchased my 24' tandem axle from a private party in 2012 who said new tires and bearing pack had been done earlier that year. I decided to wait til a full 2 yrs were up and do the bearings again in the spring of 2015. I don't know how far we went on a few trips, but certainly not "high" mileage. On a trip 100 miles out of town this summer (2014) the left rear wheel started smoking. Had to get a tow to tire shop where they said bearings needed repacked. So for me personally, I will do it once per year, or for certain no longer than 2 yrs if I keep track of usage closely. Just my opinion.

I do all the annual inspections/maintenance items, including repacking the bearings and adjusting the brakes myself. Some will argue you can go years between repacking the bearings, and they're probably right. However, it's such an easy job to do, annual is recommended by the axle manufacturer, and it helps ensure a trouble free camping season.

I believe every two years unless you're really high mileage.