Nasty Bearing Failure

[lucyloo]

After a 2 month stay at the Canadian border with the fifth wheel (2006 Cardinal TSL33) we headed home on the 14th of August. A stop at a rest area 45 minutes in to the journey was uneventful. Everything was good on the Fiver during a walk around. Resumed the trip and headed down the I5 toward southern California. 10 minutes down the road a van puled beside us and got my attention, a glance in the mirror was horrific. Fire and smoke was streaming from the driver side rear axle. pulled over immediately in heavy traffic in Bellingham Wa. Jumped out and grabbed the gallon of water from the bed of the truck, the center hub cover was gone and was shooting fire from the hole. I jammed the open bottle in the hole and squeezed in a bunch of water which doused the fire but smoke was billowing out from under the rig and the alarm was screaming inside the trailer. Added some more water and got the fire out and situation under control. The bearing had disintegrated and destroyed the axle, hub, brakes and spindle. I put a jack under and the wheel and hub (still attached to wheel) just fell away from rig after I removed just 1 lug nut. Called for road side assistance (USAA, 4 hours to get some help). Mechanic chained up the axle and I limped the rig 3 miles to a shop. (Motor Weld). 3 days later and $1300 (new Axle, brakes, 1 hub, and new bearings all wheels) back on the road to Cali. the rest of the trip was uneventful. Another 10 seconds and we probably would have lost the wheel, had a rig on fire and who know what else.

[agesilaus]

kirbybear wrote:
agesilaus Do you have a repeater on your TST system?

Repeater? It has a control unit with an LCD that shows the pressure and temperature on one tire at a time. It takes it several minutes to cycle thru all four tires and even more time if you have sensors on the truck tires too.

[lucyloo]

I have no idea what type of bearings were on the fiver before the incident. But will be more pro-active in the future with routine maintenance on them. We were up at the Canadian border for the summer to escape the heat of the high desert here in So. Cal, but the summer up there this year was the warmest on record. We still had a great time, Camping in the fiver is always a great time no matter where we go.

[Cummins12V98]

YakFishMo wrote:
Why is it that camper bearings need repacking? Cars go hundreds of thousands of miles and don't need repacking. Does anyone know? My 2012 Cedar Creek has not had the bearings repacked. Am I on borrowed time?

The bearings on cars that don't need servicing are the sealed type. Yes you should have your bearings serviced by someone that knows what they are doing like a frame and axle shop.

[RustyJC]

kirbybear wrote:
agesilaus Do you have a repeater on your TST system?

I'm not agesilaus, but I use a repeater on my TST 507 system with the flow-through sensors. I forgot to plug it in on a short trip, and I got 2 alarms for loss of signal from trailer tires within about 30 miles, so I guess it's necessary for our setup with the distance from the trailer tires to the TST receiver.

Rusty

[Veebyes]

At highway rest stops the route to the restroom includes a walk around the trailer touching tires & feeling lug nuts for excessive heat. It takes seconds but may someday save hours dealing with a bearing failure.

[kirbybear]

agesilaus Do you have a repeater on your TST system?

[YakFishMo]

Why is it that camper bearings need repacking? Cars go hundreds of thousands of miles and don't need repacking. Does anyone know? My 2012 Cedar Creek has not had the bearings repacked. Am I on borrowed time?

[jfkmk]

agesilaus wrote:

rjxj wrote:
How long had it been since the bearings were serviced or replaced?

There is no servicing for the NEV-R Lubes just replacing. You should check the wheels by jacking them up before the trip and doing the wheel shake test. A lot of people carry a spare hub with a new bearing already pressed in with them. They are known to fail catastrophically with little warning. Happened to us just north of SLC and I had to replace the brakes and get new bearings pressed in. It took three days and a lot of running around the area trying to find parts.

Someone flagged us down from a passing vehicle before we had a fire but the wheel was smoking.

BK

OP never stated they were Nev-R Lubes, someone asked if they were and everybody assumed the answer was yes.

I don't trust "permanently" lubed bearings, even in my vehicles. I've never had a car with the sealed bearings that DIDN'T eventually fail, requiring replacement.

IF the bearings were the repackable kind (I won't assume the are, I'm saying IF), this illustrates why I do annual inspections/maintenance. I'd rather spend a little time in my driveway doing preventive maintenance than hours stranded on the side of a highway.

[cruiserjs]

Scary incident and thanks for sharing. BUT why were you 2 months at the Canadian border??

[ZOSO]

Geez, that's a scary incident!
Glad you were able to get over safely and take care of business.
Undid one lug and the whole issue came off??!! Man...Scary!!!

[3oaks]

Yes, I have read pros and cons about TPMS systems. Modern technology certainly is not foolproof. There are no guarantees in life.

[agesilaus]

Thanks for the tip on Tire Minder. I'm really dissatisfied with my current TPMS (TST). It does not display all the tires at the same same and you have to watch it s-l-o-w-l-y cycle thru each tire. It's a dangerous distraction on the road. Plus it did not catch the two blowouts that we had this last summer.

[MPI_Mallard]

The Nev-R-Lube bearing failed on our 07' CC Daydreamer on the way home about three years ago, same thing happened and toasted everything but the axle and had us sitting for a week in Griffin GA. waiting for parts. Those Nev-R-Lube bearings are guaranteed for five years or 125.000 miles but ours failed at around 30.000 miles, when I got home I replaced the other three and found one more was looking hinky. I called Dexter and spoke to their customer care people who in turn had the area rep call me and he said that these bearings failing at 30.000 miles was very rare and I was very happy when Dexter sent me a new set of complete hubs for my trouble! I TOTALLY AGREE with previous posts saying to have a tire monitoring system on board (I myself have the Tire Minder System which I'd never leave without it, great customer service there as well) and to carry a complete hub ass. as well! The only reason I have confedience in my running gear is because of my Tire Minder and that I check all my tires before going anywhere, good luck!

Red Green:
Remember, I'm pulling for ya. We're
all in this together

[justafordguy]

X2, A TPMS can save the day.

[golf_bears]

Very close call, too close for comfort. Happy to hear all turned out well. If you haven't already, you may want to give thought to a TPMS system. I have one and it saved my bacon about 4 years ago. Same problem as you, burnt a bearing. The TPMS shot up to 237 deg F and the tire pressure got up to 167 PSI after I pulled over. Alarm went off at 160 deg F. Will never be on the road without my TPMS.