Never Lube Bearings

[Capn__Don]

I have a two part question.

Has anybody replaced Dexter never lube bearings themselves? If so what did you use to press out the old and press in the new bearings?

Has anybody had never lube bearings replaced at an RV shop? If so when was it performed and what did the job cost?

My preferred RV shop does not do never lube bearings and I received a $1,250.00 estimate from camping world. That seems high to me.

Thanks in advance, Don

[larry_barnhart]

Our 2001 35 ft alpenlite does not have the never lube. I saw a pile of them at the factory for going into the model built after ours. Yes the shackles get greased and the center point suspension and the brakes get inspected every other summer. I think $200.00 covers the work. To me it is not the money spent but knowing what we have. Have a good camping season everybody.

chevman

[rockintom]

Denny & Jami wrote:

larry barnhart wrote:
We are still using the bearings that came with our 2001 alpenlite that get greased every other year. Always told they are good or they would be replaced. Why are the never lube going bad so soon?

chevman

Nev-R-Lub can't be greased so they have to be replaced , it's to bad that some places take advantage of people like they do for normal service. What are shops charging now just to repack a normal bearing,I will bet it's more than what you can replace sealed bearings for over the same time period.

Denny

Larry, they must be greasing your shackles, cause like Denny says, NevRLube brgs. can't be greased. Replacement is the only cure. Here's some of the things I've noticed in our 12 years of FTing.

*NevRLube bearings have a built in lateral freeplay of .040-.050. Normal. Folks being sold new ones based on that.
*The bearings are big and robust.
*Many/most bearing failures are a result of side blows to the wheels and then in time the bearing will fail down the road.(bearing brinelling)
*Some grease "weeping" on wheels is normal, especially in the early days.
*In maybe 150-175,000 miles of RVing, we've never had one fail.
*I still check my hub/tire temps at rest stops.
*There was a short period of time when NevRLube had a run of bad/defective bearings and got a bit of a reputation from that episode.

rockin'

[Denny___Jami]

larry barnhart wrote:
We are still using the bearings that came with our 2001 alpenlite that get greased every other year. Always told they are good or they would be replaced. Why are the never lube going bad so soon?

chevman

Nev-R-Lub can't be greased so they have to be replaced , it's to bad that some places take advantage of people like they do for normal service. What are shops charging now just to repack a normal bearing,I will bet it's more than what you can replace sealed bearings for over the same time period.

Denny

[larry_barnhart]

We are still using the bearings that came with our 2001 alpenlite that get greased every other year. Always told they are good or they would be replaced. Why are the never lube going bad so soon?

chevman

[netjam]

After 5 years Camping World said I needed them replaced with the brakes. Estimate was $6700 complete and the bearings were about what you were quoted. I went elsewhere for a better price. The bearings were $215 each and the install was about $400 so almost the same as your CW quote. The rest of the job was pricy but a couple grand less than the CW price in total.

[Jerry_B]

Anyone stocking a few Nev r lubes for the future in case they become extinct? I replaced mine at about 8 years of use. They were fine but I just wanted to install new ones. My garage pressed the old ones out and pressed the new ones in for 37 bucks each drum.

[RAS43]

I did mine 2 years ago when the trailer was 10 years old. Removed the hubs and took them to a machine shop with the new bearings. They charged $10 a hub to swap out the bearings, which I bought on line for ( not from Dexter) for $122 each. So I had about $525 in parts and labor plus my time. It was an all day job for me.

[jamway]

I replaced one of ours after it was a little loose. (about 60,000 miles) The next year another one was a little loose so I replaced the rest of them.

I have a 20 ton press and used varies spacers to get the first one out. I ground the race from the first one a little on the outside and used it to replace all of the new bearings.

One of the bearings had to be pressed in a tad to get the snap ring out. Other than that it was pretty straight forward.



Capn' Don

Pull your trailer and new bearings down and we will put it in our shop. After I point and you work about three hours your trailer will have new bearings.

[TXiceman]

Least expensive way is to pull the hubs your self and take them to an automotive shop with a big press. Order the bearings your self and supply them to the shop.

Ken

[Denny___Jami]

I replaced my originals after 7 years, I had to take them to a shop that had a 50 ton press to get the old ones out. I already had the snap rings out so all they had to do was press out the old ones and the new ones in. You have to press on the inner race to get them out so they will be shot after you get them out. They used a flat bar to push the new ones in until they where even with hub and one of the old bearings to push them the rest of the way so the inner race never had any pressure on it.

I used Dexter bearings for $140 each that I could have got the same China bearing from etrailer for $90. The shop only charged me $50 to change them.

Denny