My friend has had a problem with one of his brakes on his 5th wheel.....he had it in to CW for them to repack the wheel bearings last year. This year he noticed that every time he made a left turn he would get a funny noise from one of his wheels.....He had a mobile rv tech recommended by his trailer mfg. come and repack the wheel bearings. When he pulled the wheel hub off he found that there were no nuts on the bolts holding the brake assembly together. That was what was making the noise. Now his question is how did it get out of the frame factory like that plus why did CW not see this when they supposedly pulled the wheels to repack the bearings.....and no there no loose nuts inside the wheel hub.....

Shouldn't be too hard to track down the incompetency. Did he take photos?

No but he did contact Forest River and they offered to pay for the nuts........Duh.....

Could CW have disassembled the brake mechanism for some reason and not put everything back together?

Don't know why CW would have removed any bolts to repack the bearings, not necessary and it doesn't make sense to do so.Normally, there are 4 bolts that hold the brake's backing plate onto the axle. No need to remove unless you're replacing the brake assembly. Has nothing to do with the bearings.The bigger question is why CW did not notice the bolts missing and notify you.

What bolts and nuts are there inside a wheel? Only nut is a castle nut and if that was off you'd quickly know it. And if it's disc brakes there are no nuts, just caliper bolts, and you would surely know those are missing also. What am I missing?

Brake not completely assembled | Good Sam Community

Bird_Freak
Explorer II
Dec 09, 2014
Bob Vaughn wrote:
nickthehunter wrote:
Bird Freak wrote:
nickthehunter wrote:
What bolts and nuts are there inside a wheel? Only nut is a castle nut and if that was off you'd quickly know it. And if it's disc brakes there are no nuts, just caliper bolts, and you would surely know those are missing also. What am I missing?
You are missing the bolts used to hold the brake backing plate to the axle.
There is no way to tell when they came off or who is to blame on this.
I guess it could be, but he said the "nuts" were missing not "bolts". I guess I thought he knew the difference. But if the backing plate nuts were missing, you wouldn't make it past one braking event before you tore the whole thing off. This whole post doesn't make any sense.

Apparently it did to Forest River because they are taking care of it.....
Most bolts use nuts on them.
Bob_Vaughn
Explorer
Dec 09, 2014
nickthehunter wrote:
Bird Freak wrote:
nickthehunter wrote:
What bolts and nuts are there inside a wheel? Only nut is a castle nut and if that was off you'd quickly know it. And if it's disc brakes there are no nuts, just caliper bolts, and you would surely know those are missing also. What am I missing?
You are missing the bolts used to hold the brake backing plate to the axle.
There is no way to tell when they came off or who is to blame on this.
I guess it could be, but he said the "nuts" were missing not "bolts". I guess I thought he knew the difference. But if the backing plate nuts were missing, you wouldn't make it past one braking event before you tore the whole thing off. This whole post doesn't make any sense.

Apparently it did to Forest River because they are taking care of it.....
nickthehunter
Nomad II
Dec 09, 2014
Bird Freak wrote:
nickthehunter wrote:
What bolts and nuts are there inside a wheel? Only nut is a castle nut and if that was off you'd quickly know it. And if it's disc brakes there are no nuts, just caliper bolts, and you would surely know those are missing also. What am I missing?
You are missing the bolts used to hold the brake backing plate to the axle.
There is no way to tell when they came off or who is to blame on this.
I guess it could be, but he said the "nuts" were missing not "bolts". I guess I thought he knew the difference. But if the backing plate nuts were missing, you wouldn't make it past one braking event before you tore the whole thing off. This whole post doesn't make any sense.
Slownsy
Explorer
Dec 09, 2014
He wrote the nutch are missing not the bolts, how did they disappear ?
Frank
Bird_Freak
Explorer II
Dec 08, 2014
nickthehunter wrote:
What bolts and nuts are there inside a wheel? Only nut is a castle nut and if that was off you'd quickly know it. And if it's disc brakes there are no nuts, just caliper bolts, and you would surely know those are missing also. What am I missing?
You are missing the bolts used to hold the brake backing plate to the axle.
There is no way to tell when they came off or who is to blame on this.
rightlaneonly
Explorer
Dec 08, 2014
SH wrote:
Ron3rd wrote:
The bigger question is why CW did not notice the bolts missing and notify you.

If I read correctly, the OP said the bearings were done last year and this issue occurred this year. Perhaps there was nothing for CW to notice and the brake assembly was secure when they repacked the bearings. The owner could have towed the rig back and forth to Alaska since the repack for all we know. Guess I would just like to have a little more information before I find fault.

That's what I thought. A lot can happen in a year. Seems really easy to blame CW for anything and everything. I'm not a customer of CW so have no vested interest in this. Just think after a year it could be caused by who knows what.
SH
Explorer
Dec 08, 2014
Ron3rd wrote:
The bigger question is why CW did not notice the bolts missing and notify you.

If I read correctly, the OP said the bearings were done last year and this issue occurred this year. Perhaps there was nothing for CW to notice and the brake assembly was secure when they repacked the bearings. The owner could have towed the rig back and forth to Alaska since the repack for all we know. Guess I would just like to have a little more information before I find fault.
fj12ryder
Explorer III
Dec 08, 2014
Ron3rd wrote:
Don't know why CW would have removed any bolts to repack the bearings, not necessary and it doesn't make sense to do so.

Normally, there are 4 bolts that hold the brake's backing plate onto the axle. No need to remove unless you're replacing the brake assembly. Has nothing to do with the bearings.

The bigger question is why CW did not notice the bolts missing and notify you.
That's what I thought too, but if someone made a mistake and started to remove the brake parts but then remembered they didn't have to do that to repack the bearings, maybe they forgot to replace the nuts, since it wasn't something normally done when packing bearings.

Yeah, a bit of a stretch. :) Grasping at straws doncha know.
nickthehunter
Nomad II
Dec 08, 2014
What bolts and nuts are there inside a wheel? Only nut is a castle nut and if that was off you'd quickly know it. And if it's disc brakes there are no nuts, just caliper bolts, and you would surely know those are missing also. What am I missing?
Ron3rd
Explorer III
Dec 08, 2014
Don't know why CW would have removed any bolts to repack the bearings, not necessary and it doesn't make sense to do so.

Normally, there are 4 bolts that hold the brake's backing plate onto the axle. No need to remove unless you're replacing the brake assembly. Has nothing to do with the bearings.

The bigger question is why CW did not notice the bolts missing and notify you.

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