Questin on bearing hub temps

[mdcamping]

Just got my TT back from the RV service 2 towns away. Work that was done was having the bearings repacked with grease and seals replaced. They also did..." adjust electric brakes and check for proper operation"

On my way home I noticed my breaks didn't seem to be where they were before so I increase the gain on the Prodigy from 6.8 to 10.0 which seemed to do the trick. (max gain is 13.0)

Right after backing in the trailer I did the hand test and checked all 4 hubs to see if I had a uniform temperature. 3 of the hubs were warm/equal and the 4th (back drivers side hub) was hot. Though not to the point where I had to remove my hand.

So is this a case of the breaks being imbalanced? or maybe not a problem/ just a break in period?

Should I be calling back the Rv service tomorrow. (Saturday we leaving for Watkins Glen)


Thanks for your replies,
Mike

[darsben]

NOW POST A Review of the facility on
rvservicereviews.com

[fj12ryder]

Glad to hear that you got it all lined out and they stepped up and did the right thing.

[myredracer]

I hope it does work okay for you. But what do you really know about the place that did the work??

I took our TT to the dealer after one season through the 2 year warranty. Because I've read about many bearing issues on TTs and since it was already there I asked to remove the drums, inspect the brakes and bearings and do a repack. They phoned and said the seals had blown and it all needed a rebuild (and they wanted to charge $1K!). I phoned Alko and they said it should be covered under warranty and I told the dealer that. Well, at the end of the following season I found one drum/hub/bearing was running hotter than the others. Not wanting to end up with a failure on a trip somewhere, I pulled all 4 apart. First thing I found was over-tightened axle nuts. Then I found that they had not replaced the seals and there was 2 colors of grease in there and what looked like grease stains on the shoes. All they had done is slap it back together. It appears that the dealer was trying to milk us. I ended up redoing it all myself using USA-made Timken bearings. It now feels like I don't need as much brake pedal pressure too.

You have to be careful who you trust.

[mdcamping]

Thanks everyone for your replies

Took the TT back to the RV service, They re-adjusted the brakes, I now have much more uniform temps on all 4 hubs and I was able to adjust the gain back to 6.8. where the trailer was breaking before.

Mike

[Rover_Bill]

Wheel bearing don’t generate heat until they start failing. Brakes work by creating friction which generates heat. If three wheels are cool and one hot, to me, that says that the hot one is the only one braking. (The OP stated that he had to increase the boost on his controller.) This could be a dangerous condition if you have to make a panic stop on a slippery road.

If it was my trailer, I would return it back to the shop and have them check the brake shoes for contamination. It could be that the service tech got some grease on the brake shoes of the cool wheels.

[4X4Dodger]

If you can touch the wheel near the hub without discomfort that is NOT a hot drum/axle.

It sounds to me as you have no problem worse than one brake adjusted a little tighter than the others.

[Sport45]

In my experience the hub would have been HOT if the bearing was bad. Sounds like brake drag to me.

[NanciL]

I think the first thing I would do is jack that wheel off the ground and then spin it.
Se if it is dragging, and then go from there

Jack L

[path1]

Don't know if you can do this where you live but I also had one drum running hotter than others, by about 15 degrees hotter using a temp gun. Rest area near me is just a little bit up hill when exiting. Took RV out for 1 hour drive and then coasted into rest area as nobody was behind me(again up hill) and then applied parking brake on tow vehicle to make final stop. Sort of idled to a stop. Took the temps and drum was not running hotter than others. My conclusion was most likely the drum was being heated up by the brakes not adjusted right and not the bearing. Backed off adjustment about 3 clicks and solved my problems. But there are other reason why temps might be up. IMO out of adjustment brakes and your bearings are most common reason for heat. Doing the above might help you isolate the problem if your service places jerks you around.

[fj12ryder]

csamayfield55 wrote:
It could be a brake issue or it could be a bearing that was more heavily packed with grease. It may take a bit to kinda sling the extra free.

If you had to adjust the gain up that much I would guess t he brakes are not adjusted properly. I would call them back and ask them to check the adjustment. Tell them whatyou had to do to get the brakes to work

Chris

"Sling the extra free"? Where is it going to sling it? These should be a sealed system, the only place it can go is into the brake pad area, not a good idea to have grease oozing in, around, and amongst the brakes.

Any shop can make a mistake, so you can call them up and tell them your concerns. I'm sure they are going to say that it's normal and nothing to worry about and the next time you take it out it will be fine. Whether you choose to put all your faith in that is up to you. But I would take it back out on the road and drive it about the same distance and check the brakes/hubs again. Still hot? Back to the shop it would go.

It sounds like you don't do your own work on brakes so you're reliant on the shop to do a good job, and they're reliant on you to make sure they do a good job. 🙂

[mdcamping]

Thanks for your replies everyone, I have a feeling this is a break issue.

I will be calling them first thing tomorrow morning.

Mike

[Lynnmor]

The good news is that you caught it in time. The bad news is that you have to fix it yourself or find someone that has a clue. Get you money back, you didn't get anything in exchange for it.

[csamayfield55x]

It could be a brake issue or it could be a bearing that was more heavily packed with grease. It may take a bit to kinda sling the extra free.

If you had to adjust the gain up that much I would guess t he brakes are not adjusted properly. I would call them back and ask them to check the adjustment. Tell them whatyou had to do to get the brakes to work

Chris

[darsben]

Should not be a "break in period " on the bearing work. I would suspect a hanging brake