I left out the details of my โadventureโ with wheel bearings to see if anyone had experienced this failure in a Class A motorhome without feeling compelled to respond to my tale. I will now complete my story. LET THIS STORY BE A WARNING TO THE UNINIATED.
In May of 2015, my wife, our grandson, and I were preparing to go on a three month road trip. We had been planning this for two years, and now Dillon was old enough (5) for a trip like this. Part of this preparation was taking the rig to a shop for some brake work as it had been pulling to the left on the last couple beach trips. The mechanic found out the right actuating shaft between the air brake cylinder and the wheel was partially frozen and would not rotate the 'S-Cam' to work the shoes. They fixed it, solving my brake problem. (More on this later.)
The first week in June, I brought the rig to the house to get it loaded. Three days later we were on our way, singing the travel song from the movie The Three Amigos. We managed to get 30 miles up the turnpike when suddenly, without any warning, we heard a loud crack like a pistol shot followed by an ear splitting squeal. I immediately pulled off the road and got out. The front right wheel was smoking and oil had spewed out of the hub all down the side of the coach. Our disappointment was almost overwhelming.
I had the coach towed back to the shop that had done the brake job. A day or so later the insurance rep assessed the damage. He concluded that since this wheel had a problem, the other front wheel was probably going to follow soon, and instructed the shop to repair them both. It took two months to complete because of parts availability. This ended our vacation plans for that year because we have custody of Dillon and he had to return to school.
We did get in a few trips to the beach over the next several months. On the last trip I noticed a bit of leakage on one of the leveling jacks and decided to get them all looked at by the Big Foot dealer in a nearby town. About 40 miles into the ride to the dealer's shop, a repeat of the events of the first bearing occurred. Only this time it was the Left Front wheel. Let me remind you that this wheel was repaired when the right front was done. Although nearly 10 months had passed since the first repair, just slightly over 300 miles had been put on the coach. This time the shop did the repair for free.
Fast forward to June 2017. I brought the coach to the house to load up for the trip we didn't get to take two years earlier. I'm not sure why, but it seems to take 3 days of thoughtful labor to get ready. Finally, we buttoned up the house, climbed aboard and headed out. This time we managed to get 200 miles before the Right Front bearing failed again. This time disappointment was augmented by anger.
It was clearly evident that there was a solid connection between the brake job and the first failure. It was also clear that the mechanic doing the repair had bungled the job on both wheels, the right one twice. Bearing failures are so rare that the vast majority of people never hear about it much less experience it.
Research and my long experience with auto mechanics confirmed my suspicions that the bearings had been severely preloaded causing the failures. The normal expansion that occurs when any moving piece of machinery heats up had no where to go. All the normally available expansion allowance had been taken up by over torqueing the bearing retainer nuts. The stresses built until only explosive destruction would relieve them.
If anyone experiences any wheel bearing failure, make certain the repair mechanic can describe to you the process followed to make the repair. You can learn this for yourself by watching a YouTube video on the subject, then you'll know the mech knows what he's talking about or not.
When I tried to get the shop to do it right on their dime, the regional manager told to either pay for the repairs or get my rig out of his shop or he would start charging me storage.
My court case will be heard soon.
