greasing wheels

[lee_worsdell]

Just had the guys at the shop pull my drums. Only one brake was working the other 3 covered in grease. Said I put to much in this spring. Metal on metal so don't over do it with grease

[RAS43]

memtb wrote:
RAS43, I wish that was the extent of our work load around here. A large yard (irrigation, mowing, gardening, fruit trees, ect.), vehicle maintenance ( 2 rv's, boat, 2 UTV's, 4 wheeler, 3 trailers,tractor, 2 autos (truck and 4 Runner), rifles and handguns I don't have time to reload for and shoot. And those are just the highlighhts! We need to be "cloned", but that would be "clone abuse"! 😉 Not sure why we have an rv... it's tough to find the time to use them! Sooo, had a "throw-away" washing machine and used the tub for a debris strainer on the irrigation pump and thought that the motor might come in handy to speed and ease the bearing lube proceedure on 3 trailers. :@

I wish you well. 🙂

[memtb]

RAS43, I wish that was the extent of our work load around here. A large yard (2+ acres, irrigation, mowing, gardening, fruit trees, ect.), vehicle maintenance ( 2 rv's, boat, 2 UTV's, 4 wheeler, 3 trailers,tractor, 2 autos (truck and 4 Runner), rifles and handguns I don't have time to reload for and shoot. And those are just the highlighhts! We need to be "cloned", but that would be "clone abuse"! 😉 Not sure why we have an rv... it's tough to find the time to use them! Sooo, had a "throw-away" washing machine and used the tub for a debris strainer on the irrigation pump and thought that the motor might come in handy to speed and ease the bearing lube proceedure on 3 trailers. :@

[time2roll]

fj12ryder wrote:

Coach-man wrote:
...Every year you should remove wheel and hub, clean and inspect brakes, check your seals, replace as required! ...

Shoot, that ain't gonna happen. I don't do that with any of my vehicles and I put a heck of a lot more miles on them than the toyhauler. After 6 years and about 15,000-20,000 miles everything looked fine: brakes, bearings, seals. I'm not about to start spending several hours every year pulling wheels from my triple axle toyhauler. That's a lot of time and effort, or money if I have someone do it. No thanks.

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

OK and you don't pump your other vehicles bearings with grease either. Once you know it is done right it should be good for 5 to 10 years. Just inspected mine at 10 years and all was good. Replace the zerk with a plug and no more issues of greased shoes.

[avvidclif1]

RAS43 wrote:

memtb wrote:
If they are the EZ-Lube, rolling/turning/spinning the tire is "pretty" much a must. Kind of a pain if you're by yourself. I'm going to take an old washing machine motor, fabricate a base with rollers, driven by a belt/pulley system (to spin tire slowly). Then simply place roller against tire, power-up the motor,spin the tire, and commence "greasing". Before anyone calls "bull" on the system, I have several trailers with the EZ-Lube system! The "spin, grease, repeat" gets a little old!

If that works for you that is great. But for me that is too much thinking, designing and work. Wheel bearing maintenance isn't rocket science. My prior trailer had EZ Lube and I didn't use it. Repacked the bearings, checked the brakes and repeated in 3 years. Each spring I raised the tires and checked end play and listened for unusual noise. Never had an issue and traded it off in 11 years with original parts and minimal labor.

That's for 1 "one" trailer, he has several so a little engineering might be in order.

[RAS43]

memtb wrote:
If they are the EZ-Lube, rolling/turning/spinning the tire is "pretty" much a must. Kind of a pain if you're by yourself. I'm going to take an old washing machine motor, fabricate a base with rollers, driven by a belt/pulley system (to spin tire slowly). Then simply place roller against tire, power-up the motor,spin the tire, and commence "greasing". Before anyone calls "bull" on the system, I have several trailers with the EZ-Lube system! The "spin, grease, repeat" gets a little old!

If that works for you that is great. But for me that is too much thinking, designing and work. Wheel bearing maintenance isn't rocket science. My prior trailer had EZ Lube and I didn't use it. Repacked the bearings, checked the brakes and repeated in 3 years. Each spring I raised the tires and checked end play and listened for unusual noise. Never had an issue and traded it off in 11 years with original parts and minimal labor.

[fj12ryder]

Coach-man wrote:
...Every year you should remove wheel and hub, clean and inspect brakes, check your seals, replace as required! ...

Shoot, that ain't gonna happen. I don't do that with any of my vehicles and I put a heck of a lot more miles on them than the toyhauler. After 6 years and about 15,000-20,000 miles everything looked fine: brakes, bearings, seals. I'm not about to start spending several hours every year pulling wheels from my triple axle toyhauler. That's a lot of time and effort, or money if I have someone do it. No thanks.

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

[Road_Phantom]

We had a wheel come off in Biloxi, Ms and broke the drum. That was after having brakes and backing plates replaced six months prior. Would have thought they took care of the bearings at that time. Unless you do it yourself, having a mechanic inspect the brakes and bearings every year sounds like a good idea whether you pack on the mileage or leave the rig sit for long periods of time in one place where condensation can get in.

[Coach-man]

Well you can argue how often to attend to your wheel bearings, but consider this, while your wheel bearings may be good for a couple of years, you still need to pay attention to your grease seals and brakes! Every year you should remove wheel and hub, clean and inspect brakes, check your seals, replace as required! Now that you have done that, how much more would it be to clean, inspect, and re pack your wheel bearings? The big part is removing the wheel and hub, so again it may be a little over kill but you will have piece of mind that your good to go! A lot of brake problems can be traced to bad/worn seals along with to much grease! Oh and use a good synthetic grease!

[fj12ryder]

Hey, sounds like a good system to me.

[memtb]

If they are the EZ-Lube, rolling/turning/spinning the tire is "pretty" much a must. Kind of a pain if you're by yourself. I'm going to take an old washing machine motor, fabricate a base with rollers, driven by a belt/pulley system (to spin tire slowly). Then simply place roller against tire, power-up the motor,spin the tire, and commence "greasing". Before anyone calls "bull" on the system, I have several trailers with the EZ-Lube system! The "spin, grease, repeat" gets a little old!

[lee_worsdell]

That's what he said don't grease for atleast a couple of years. Said grease aint going anywhere lol. Another lesson learned

[azdryheat]

It is too easy to blow grease past the inner seal and onto the brake linings, which is why I don't do that procedure.

[fj12ryder]

ScottG wrote:
You don't need to renew the grease every year. That's just CYA stuff put out by the vendor. Talk to an old, highly experienced mechanic and he'll tell you the same.
Also, you would need to pump at least half a tube of grease through the hubs to get fresh stuff out the front. A couple of squirts does nothing at all.
I've taken apart front wheel bearings on decades old cars and the grease and bearings were still fine. No way a trailer will destroy grease in a year - or even 5 years.

I absolutely agree, but there are quite a few people on here who feel that bearings should be repacked at least every couple years. Makes no sense to me either.

[ScottG]

fj12ryder wrote:

ScottG wrote:
That's what EZ lube's do. Most people think they work fine until someone takes the hub off, then they find what your mechanic did.
Don't use them.
If bearings are packed properly, there is no reason to occasionaly squirt a little more grease in. They may eventually wear it out but they don't use it up.

I took my hubs off after 6 years, and several uses of the EZ Lube grease zerk, and they were fine. They don't all leak grease. But there are issues with some. Personally I think the grease seal surface is damaged during assembly and that's why some have problems.

And if the bearings are packed properly why do people insist that you need to pull and repack bearings every year or two? If it's to renew the grease, that's what the EZ Lube does. But much easier.

You don't need to renew the grease every year. That's just CYA stuff put out by the vendor. Talk to an old, highly experienced mechanic and he'll tell you the same.
Also, you would need to pump at least half a tube of grease through the hubs to get fresh stuff out the front. A couple of squirts does nothing at all.
I've taken apart front wheel bearings on decades old cars and the grease and bearings were still fine. No way a trailer will destroy grease in a year - or even 5 years.