Wheel Bearings

[Esacnj]

How often should they be packed?

[jfkmk]

laknox wrote:
I guess my "trailer guy" must be a real bargain. Charged me about $250 to change out the 4 bearings and seals and inspect the brakes. Worth it to me to have it done =right=, and with better quality than what came off.

Lyle

Did he replace the bearing race as well?

[bad99ram]

laknox wrote:
I guess my "trailer guy" must be a real bargain. Charged me about $250 to change out the 4 bearings and seals and inspect the brakes. Worth it to me to have it done =right=, and with better quality than what came off.

Lyle

If you can get 4 new bearings and seals installed for $250 stay with that guy. Cost me 325 just to have repacked on my previous unit.

[laknox]

I guess my "trailer guy" must be a real bargain. Charged me about $250 to change out the 4 bearings and seals and inspect the brakes. Worth it to me to have it done =right=, and with better quality than what came off.

Lyle

[bad99ram]

After reading all the posts I repacked mine today. 3 1/2 hrs from start to finish. Found 1 seal that was chewed up a bit. Good thing DW just went thru the closets as I used quite a few rags. Total cost $25

[MFL]

goducks10 wrote:
I only have two axles and it's a PITA to do. Pull the hubs and clean the old grease out. Pop out the seals, Clean bearings, pop the seal back in, assemble. I can't ever seem to have enough clean rags. Grease always ends up somewhere where I don't want it. Maybe it's just me but I find it the worst maintenance thing to do on my 5er.

Ha, funny you mentioned never having enough rags! I have a pile of newspaper, then a roll of paper towels, and cloth rags for last wiping, before moving on to next hub.:C When hand packing I have a garbage can with liner right by my work area.

I use the EZs, unless further service is needed. Yup, still paper towels, and rags.

Jerry

[goducks10]

I only have two axles and it's a PITA to do. Pull the hubs and clean the old grease out. Pop out the seals, Clean bearings, pop the seal back in, assemble. I can't ever seem to have enough clean rags. Grease always ends up somewhere where I don't want it. Maybe it's just me but I find it the worst maintenance thing to do on my 5er.

[fj12ryder]

^^^^^^Exactly right. I have a triple axle and doing all the wheel bearings is not a "ridiculously small amount of money and time".

[valhalla360]

jfkmk wrote:


Absolutely no need for a hoist or pneumatic tools to repack bearings. Yeah, the job could take a couple of hours but really isn't too messy. Nitrile gloves keep me clean, and a bearing packing tool makes the job easy.

The only bearings I've ever had fail are the no maintenance hub assembly type. And I've had many fail.

One thing I don't understand are folks who nnot only don't maintain their vehicles, trailers, etc. but then try to convince others it is the right thing to do.

"Need" of course not. But when you say "the ridiculously small amount of money and time", that implies to me a few minutes not a 2 hour job (significant cash if you farm it out). Only way I can see getting that time down significantly would be with a hoist and pneumatic tools prepped and ready to go. But even then, it's going to take an experienced guy with all the tools and everything prepped and ready to go at least a 1/2hr. It easily takes me a couple hours.

Who is trying to convince you or anyone else not to do appropriate maintenance?

I've asked why the equipment selected needs so much more maintenance than the equipment used on other vehicle applications that only very rarely has failures.

[TxGearhead]

jfkmk wrote:


Absolutely no need for a hoist or pneumatic tools to repack bearings. Yeah, the job could take a couple of hours but really isn't too messy. Nitrile gloves keep me clean, and a bearing packing tool makes the job easy.

The only bearings I've ever had fail are the no maintenance hub assembly type. And I've had many fail.

One thing I don't understand are folks who nnot only don't maintain their vehicles, trailers, etc. but then try to convince others it is the right thing to do.

Not sure if you are referring to my post, but...probably 90% of saltwater boat trailers on the Texas coast are now sold with UFP Vault hubs. I've never heard of a failure.
And if you can jack up a trailer, remove the wheel, hub, seal, inspect brakes, clean bearings, inspect bearings, install new seal, reassemble hub and wheel 4 times on a double axle trailer in 2 hours you are one heck of a mechanic.

[jfkmk]

valhalla360 wrote:

jfkmk wrote:


I'm not sure why trailers don't typically use sealed bearings. Some do, but most don't. Perhaps it's because they may be used for boat trailer applications, and I don't think they do well in a submerged application.

I do wish I could service the bearings in my vehicles. I think the last serviceable bearings I had were on my 71 Challenger. I serviced the bearings every 30k or so, and never had a failure in more than 200k mikes, and that was 1971 technology.

Most of the vehicles I've had with the sealed bearings have failed at one point. Very expensive to have them replaced, and not too cheap even when I've done the work myself.

Truthfully, my annual repacking and maintenance is probably overkill. However for the ridiculously small amount of money and time I spend doing this, for me it is worth the assurance of not having an issue for the rest of the season.

While it seems silly to use a lower quality product because it's convenient, the boat axle application does make sense.

I've been driving for over 30yrs and I've never done the bearings on a vehicle and I've never had a failure. Likewise, I've not heard of any friends or family having issues...so no thanks to switching back.

Do you have a shop with a hoist and pnuematic tools? If I do it myself, the cost isn't much but it's a couple hours and a messy job. It's not the end of the world but it's a couple hours of a messy job that I would rather have back.

Absolutely no need for a hoist or pneumatic tools to repack bearings. Yeah, the job could take a couple of hours but really isn't too messy. Nitrile gloves keep me clean, and a bearing packing tool makes the job easy.

The only bearings I've ever had fail are the no maintenance hub assembly type. And I've had many fail.

One thing I don't understand are folks who nnot only don't maintain their vehicles, trailers, etc. but then try to convince others it is the right thing to do.

[TxGearhead]

UFP makes Vault no maintenance hubs. I have them on my tandem axle boat trailer. UFP was purchased by Lippert. UFP also makes them with disc brakes.
I would have paid a few extra bucks for that package. Lord only knows when or if that will ever be offered on travel trailers.
UFP.net

[cummins2014]

fj12ryder wrote:
Dexter says do it annually as a CYA because they do such a slipshod of assembling their product. They're hoping you catch their mistakes before they cause too much damage.

My take on this bearing packing. We ordered ,and purchased our Montana Fifth Wheel from a dealer in Indiana , drove from Utah, and picked it up. 1600 miles one way, no bearings overheated , no issues with the brakes on the way home. I packed them for the first time after 7 years of use, only to check the brakes. IMO the bearings still did not need to be repacked, but I did it anyway while it was apart, and put in new grease seals.

Did I get lucky on the initial packing, maybe. I always check them after several miles to see if they are starting to get too warm.

[fj12ryder]

Dexter says do it annually as a CYA because they do such a slipshod job of assembling their product. They're hoping you catch their mistakes before they cause too much damage.

[ckwizard777]

Dexter says to do it annually and that's what I do.
for the small amount of time and money required to do this it gives me a warm fuzzy.