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.

lucyloo wrote: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.Glad nobody was hurt, your rig survived and you made it home safely. That said, I have 2 general, non-critical, comments. First, you should have a dry fire extinguisher in your truck for just this type of occurrence. (Personally, I forget mine on occasion, but I do have one.) Second, you didn't mention anything about the tires, but you'd sure want to replace the other tire on the same side, as it was severely overloaded by chaining up the other axle. If you did, this is moot, but it's something to think about if you didn't. Also, an IR thermometer is a cheap and handy tool to do a quick check of tires and hubs as you do a walk-around.Lyle

You might check with Forest River. I know they have provided some financial assistance with bearing failures. You don't say but were your bearings the Nev-R-Lube. I know those bearings have been particularly problematic.Another quick and easy check on your bearings is to place your hand on the hub every time you stop for gas, breaks, etc. It may feel a little warm to touch but if you can't hold your hand on there, you have a problem.

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

Tires are 10 ply (E) rated, yes that tire was stressed and I will replace them all soon. As to when the Axles were serviced last, never by me, had the rig about a year. They have never been too hot to keep my hand on, but they will be an item I pay much closer attention to in the future. A note on road side assistance with a fifth wheel: expect some push back from towing companies if the rig needs to be trailered or put on dollies in Washington State. Recent bridge incidents on the I5 have tightened up the height restrictions for towing. In fact, 3 companies would not help me, they just pushed me off to another company. The USAA rep finally found a shop that was able to help.

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

Nasty Bearing Failure | Good Sam Community

laknox
Nomad
Sep 02, 2015
Charlie D. wrote:
laknox wrote:
Not saying it's right, or advisable, but I ran my Komfort for 10 years before having the bearings done; maybe 10-11k total miles since I bought it new. They are EZ-Lubes and I'd give each one about a half-dozen shots of grease every year and check for play. As I was having some other work done on it at a shop, I just told them to replace them all, along with the seals and adjust the brakes. Had no (or minimal) grease past the seals and there was no appreciable wear on the bearings. Just my experience...Lyle

Where did the grease go if it was not on your shoes? 6 pumps x 10 years=60 shots. That's a lot of grease in that bearing cavity. I do agree that people, myself included, may be over doing it on bearing maintenance. Properly greased and adjusted and bearings should last many years. Longer, IMO, that the brake shoes if one does a lot of traveling.

Dunno, but it wasn't on the shoes, according to the shop that did the work, and I =did= ask. Frankly, I think a =lot= gets forced back out the front, as the area around the zerks was pretty full of grease. Nothing leaked beyond that...

Lyle
Charlie_D_
Explorer
Sep 02, 2015
laknox wrote:
Not saying it's right, or advisable, but I ran my Komfort for 10 years before having the bearings done; maybe 10-11k total miles since I bought it new. They are EZ-Lubes and I'd give each one about a half-dozen shots of grease every year and check for play. As I was having some other work done on it at a shop, I just told them to replace them all, along with the seals and adjust the brakes. Had no (or minimal) grease past the seals and there was no appreciable wear on the bearings. Just my experience...Lyle

Where did the grease go if it was not on your shoes? 6 pumps x 10 years=60 shots. That's a lot of grease in that bearing cavity. I do agree that people, myself included, may be over doing it on bearing maintenance. Properly greased and adjusted and bearings should last many years. Longer, IMO, that the brake shoes if one does a lot of traveling.
laknox
Nomad
Aug 29, 2015
Puddles wrote:
laknox wrote:
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?

Not saying it's right, or advisable, but I ran my Komfort for 10 years before having the bearings done; maybe 10-11k total miles since I bought it new. They are EZ-Lubes and I'd give each one about a half-dozen shots of grease every year and check for play. As I was having some other work done on it at a shop, I just told them to replace them all, along with the seals and adjust the brakes. Had no (or minimal) grease past the seals and there was no appreciable wear on the bearings. Just my experience...

Lyle

Hey... You should be out there buying lottery tickets..

I wasn't worried, since I did check every year and, frankly, didn't travel all that much. I have an IR thermometer and check my tires and hubs at every stop, too.

Lyle
trail-explorer
Explorer
Aug 29, 2015
justafordguy wrote:
X2, A TPMS can save the day.

x3
http://www.tiretraker.com/ is the one I run. It shows temp too.
Puddles
Explorer
Aug 29, 2015
laknox wrote:
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?

Not saying it's right, or advisable, but I ran my Komfort for 10 years before having the bearings done; maybe 10-11k total miles since I bought it new. They are EZ-Lubes and I'd give each one about a half-dozen shots of grease every year and check for play. As I was having some other work done on it at a shop, I just told them to replace them all, along with the seals and adjust the brakes. Had no (or minimal) grease past the seals and there was no appreciable wear on the bearings. Just my experience...

Lyle

Hey... You should be out there buying lottery tickets..
YakFishMo
Explorer
Aug 29, 2015
MPI_Mallard wrote:
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?

My mechanic came to my trailer on-site and pulled the remaining three hubs and pressed the new bearings in place and re-assembled everything and checked the whole she-bang for $150 (minus the cost of the bearings), I figure i'll have that done every five years when I swap out my tires and that should keep me on top of things!

That's probably not a bad idea.
MPI_Mallard
Explorer
Aug 26, 2015
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?

My mechanic came to my trailer on-site and pulled the remaining three hubs and pressed the new bearings in place and re-assembled everything and checked the whole she-bang for $150 (minus the cost of the bearings), I figure i'll have that done every five years when I swap out my tires and that should keep me on top of things!

Red Green:
If life gives you lemons, throw 'em into
a quart of vodka.
laknox
Nomad
Aug 26, 2015
agesilaus wrote:
laknox wrote:
agesilaus wrote:
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.

Repeater = "signal booster" if the base unit has a hard time "seeing" the trailer sensors due to distance.

Lyle

Distance hasn't been a problem, it does have an external antenna but it can see the fiver sensors as is.

OK. Just making sure that you knew that this was something that some applications need to use, either because of distance or because of interference. Frankly, I'm a bit of a tech-head, and have always thought it would be neat to have 2 cameras and IR sensors in each wheel well to =see= what's going on in real time. :-)

Lyle
RedRam
Explorer
Aug 26, 2015
I have the TPMS system and I also have my mirrors adjusted so I can see my trailer tires all the way down the side of the camper from the tires back.I make it a habit to glance in those mirrors every once in awhile and I guess it's habit from many years before technology came out.
agesilaus
Explorer III
Aug 26, 2015
laknox wrote:
agesilaus wrote:
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.

Repeater = "signal booster" if the base unit has a hard time "seeing" the trailer sensors due to distance.

Lyle

Distance hasn't been a problem, it does have an external antenna but it can see the fiver sensors as is.

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