Wheel bearings again!

[byways]

A year ago I lost two bearings (nearly at the same time) after extended travel (about 6 hours straight) in hot weather. Both axles were replaced with 6,000 lb. axles (upgraded from 4,000 #).

Last week, while traveling in extended hot weather, I lost another bearing. Each time I stop, I always feel the hubs for any heat build up. Nothing, until now. I pulled in to fuel up and checked my bearings. Found one smoking. Pulled away from the fuel line and the hub immediately broke and the wheel nearly fell off. What am I doing wrong? I do tend to drive a little fast (around 65-67 MPH), but not excessive.

I KNOW the axles were properly lubricated on both occasions (prior to failure). This recent bearing/axle has less than 3,000 miles on it, and is less than 1 year old.

What causes this?

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Barney007 wrote:
I too have experianced wheel bearing failurs and fires within a 6 month period. First make a claim with the NTHSB. Second I had the repairs completed and the AXLES ALIGNED. A good truck/trailer frame shop can do this work. It will cosr around 100+ an axle. In my situation the rear axle was the culprit, camber was -1-5/8" and -1.0" on the other. The axles are now alighned and we will see about the other bearings. The trailer is only two years old and YES I too had the CHINA bearings from the factory.

Camber would not/ did not make your bearings fail.

[Barney007]

I too have experianced wheel bearing failurs and fires within a 6 month period. First make a claim with the NTHSB. Second I had the repairs completed and the AXLES ALIGNED. A good truck/trailer frame shop can do this work. It will cosr around 100+ an axle. In my situation the rear axle was the culprit, camber was -1-5/8" and -1.0" on the other. The axles are now alighned and we will see about the other bearings. The trailer is only two years old and YES I too had the CHINA bearings from the factory.

[Leaf-Peeper]

byways wrote:
... I KNOW the axles were properly lubricated on both occasions (prior to failure). This recent bearing/axle has less than 3,000 miles on it, and is less than 1 year old.

What causes this?

In a previous and somewhat unrewarding career, I used replace damaged axle housing spindles on over the road trucks, tractors and trailers. The bearing failures in these instances were so severe, the spindle would end up being heavily damaged. Sometimes they got so hot, they'd catch on fire.

Based on my experience, if the bearings were adequately lubricated, there's a high probability the failure could have been caused by the spindle nut being installed too tightly.

My guess is that in about 75% of the failures I saw, the truck or trailer had recently had the brakes serviced (which required the removal of bearings). I believe in most instances the bearings were probably adequately lubricated, but the failures likely occurred because spindle nut was installed too tight, which resulted in insufficient bearing clearance.

I recall an instance where a concrete pumping truck (tandem drive axles) had gotten just a few miles from the service shop after having it's brakes serviced, it had ruined a drive axle housing spindle, for which the road service guy chained-up so it could be driven back to the shop. Before the truck could make it back those few miles to the shop, the other spindle on the same side of the had also failed. Turns out there were two guys involved doing the brake service... one worked the right side of the truck, another on the left side of the truck. Inspection of the spindles on the opposite side of the truck showed no signs of wear or damage. One guy seemed to know what he was doing, the other guy apparently did not.

In a snapshot, here's how I tighten our trailer's spindle nuts (your results may vary):
I'll rotate the hub/drum when tightening the spindle nut to ensure the bearings are able to seat themselves (often done using a pair of channel-locks). After it's snug and without any rotation of the hub, I'll loosen the nut and then retighten it just finger tight. In most instances, the nut will have to be backed off a bit further to allow installation of the cotter pin. After assembly and the wheel/tire is back on, I do a simple lift test... momentarily lift up the bottom/outside area of the tire to be sure there is some radial play detectable.

[CKNSLS]

JJBIRISH wrote:
well I see our resident China built supporters have checked in and tried to infer Chinese made bearings are good to go…

they apparently haven’t bothered to read about all the damage caused by cheap Chinese bearings and the millions of counterfeit bearings being sold today… let alone the safety issuer of counterfeits in the automotive supply chain…

counterfeiters are as good at making a bad bearing look exactly like or even better the brand name bearing, even the packaging and coding are exact replicas…

the bearing business is big business, everything rides on them… the problem is widespread and crooks outside of Asia are entering the game… they buy cheap china made parts and bearings shipped to Italy where they were being re-branded and re-packaged to be sold at 3 to 4 time their worth…

confiscated products included fake SKF standard industrial bearings, wheel bearings, belt tensioning units, timing belt units and SKF boxes and bar code labels as well as fake products and packaging from other leading bearing manufacturers and original spare parts producers.
also laser marking equipment as well as unmarked no-name bearings from China yet to be re-branded… SKF spokesman said” Judging by the number of empty boxes, this was a rather large operation. It was actually the first time we found a ‘manufacturing’ operation outside of Asia.” At the raid in Turkey, the team discovered Chinese bearings marked with a fake SKF trademark as well as those of other manufacturers – some 10 tons of fake bearings in total…

The only way to know you are getting a good and quality bearing today is to buy it from a verified direct distributor of the bearing you want… you can’t tell by looking at the box or the bearing any more… generic china bearings will be low grade steel and have a mineral oil-based lithium grease…instead of a high-quality, polyurea-thickened, synthetic oil-based grease…

The advantages of polyurea-thickened, synthetic oils increase at higher temperatures. They can easily achieve grease lifetimes which are 20 times higher than standard greases… This means the user may be able to increase the safety margin for lubricant-related bearing damage and simultaneously increase re-lubrication intervals.

Bearings don’t fail from over lubrication, they fail from under lubrication… the claims of over lubrication causing overheating and failure are true if you use the wrong grease for the application… the churning of a low quality grease overheats and separates and losses the oil leaving only the carrier and the bearing without lubrication that fails…

Here is an absolutely absurd post. The factory bearings that come on trailers hold up fine given proper maintenance. Where are all the travel trailers sitting on the side of the Interstate with blown OEM (i.e. China) bearings? Where are they? There is NO REASON for a owner to switch out their wheel bearings after buying a trailer. Where are all the other vehicles with their axles falling off due to "bad bearings?" Chinese bearings are "good to go" because the tens of thousands of recreational vehicles on the road that use them!

Your synopsis on lubrication is good...your bashing of Chinese bearings is without basis.

We all know why bearings fail...and they all fail for the same reasons no matter where they are made.

[JJBIRISH]

well I see our resident China built supporters have checked in and tried to infer Chinese made bearings are good to go…

they apparently haven’t bothered to read about all the damage caused by cheap Chinese bearings and the millions of counterfeit bearings being sold today… let alone the safety issuer of counterfeits in the automotive supply chain…

counterfeiters are as good at making a bad bearing look exactly like or even better the brand name bearing, even the packaging and coding are exact replicas…

the bearing business is big business, everything rides on them… the problem is widespread and crooks outside of Asia are entering the game… they buy cheap china made parts and bearings shipped to Italy where they were being re-branded and re-packaged to be sold at 3 to 4 time their worth…

confiscated products included fake SKF standard industrial bearings, wheel bearings, belt tensioning units, timing belt units and SKF boxes and bar code labels as well as fake products and packaging from other leading bearing manufacturers and original spare parts producers.
also laser marking equipment as well as unmarked no-name bearings from China yet to be re-branded… SKF spokesman said” Judging by the number of empty boxes, this was a rather large operation. It was actually the first time we found a ‘manufacturing’ operation outside of Asia.” At the raid in Turkey, the team discovered Chinese bearings marked with a fake SKF trademark as well as those of other manufacturers – some 10 tons of fake bearings in total…

The only way to know you are getting a good and quality bearing today is to buy it from a verified direct distributor of the bearing you want… you can’t tell by looking at the box or the bearing any more… generic china bearings will be low grade steel and have a mineral oil-based lithium grease…instead of a high-quality, polyurea-thickened, synthetic oil-based grease…

The advantages of polyurea-thickened, synthetic oils increase at higher temperatures. They can easily achieve grease lifetimes which are 20 times higher than standard greases… This means the user may be able to increase the safety margin for lubricant-related bearing damage and simultaneously increase re-lubrication intervals.

Bearings don’t fail from over lubrication, they fail from under lubrication… the claims of over lubrication causing overheating and failure are true if you use the wrong grease for the application… the churning of a low quality grease overheats and separates and losses the oil leaving only the carrier and the bearing without lubrication that fails…

[Lynnmor]

Passin Thru wrote:
Buy Timken Bearings. Never lost one of them yet. Pulled trailers lots of miles. Tighten them down until the wheel wont turn and back off 1/4 turn.

Here is an example of incorrect adjustment. You might damage the bearings by tightening them that much. The 1/4 turn is not correct.

Elsewhere, someone mentioned SKF bearings. SKF manufactures many bearings in China.

The OP doesn't want to be involved with the maintainence of his wheel bearings. All I have to say is; good luck with that.

[beemerphile1]

Speed wasn't a factor. Only time I saw bearings fail like that was because the nut was to tight. Person thought you tightened the nut until you couldn't tighten any more, bearings went quick.

[JCR-1]

Did you look inside the wheel for extraneous grease spun all over the axle. The reason for smoking a bearing is basically lack of lubrication plain and simple. Not too many greases are wrong these days for wheel bearings.Most all comply and are acceptable. You are having a seal issue and lack of grease. Replace with correct size bearings with proper seals and if necessary a bearing buddy. Go from there

[westend]

I dunno, we're not talking about building a nuclear sub, here, it's only axle bearings. I can see where there would be failures due to the Mfg. using axle parts that are right up to the weight carrying maximum. A radical misalignment might cause a premature failure, also. Eliminate those two causes and the failure rate should drop to almost zero. Some have posted in this thread about having just such a history.

For those folks that are skittish, a well respected trailer shop would be my target for getting good service.

[kknowlton]

We have also lost 2 wheel hubs - one when the trailer was only a year old. Speed not a factor in our situation, since I drive between 55-62 mph when towing. Had that first one repaired at a truck repair shop - he was able to save the axle but replaced spindle & hub. Second one, the entire axle was replaced. The guys that replaced the axle told us that the (trailer) service shop had used too much grease of the wrong kind.

Sounds like one either gets lucky (which we did with our PUP and HTT) or one has to be mechanically inclined in order to own a TT. We are not. No way do we want to get involved with doing our own hub greasing, especially after the trouble we have had. I can totally relate to the OP's statement that he's skittish about towing - so am I.

And with all the "bad advice" out there - who do you trust? Maybe we should just give up on RVing...???? Or expect to replace axles (NOT cheap) every couple years..

[ScottG]

CKNSLS wrote:

Shadow Catcher wrote:
There are bearings and then there are bearings, they come in different grades and from different countries. The ones that came with my Dexter axle were from China and I replaced them with SKF. I also used Amsoil synthetic grease and checked the castle nut adjustment my self.

There are literally thousands of trailers using the standard (i.e. China) bearings from the factory and haven't had the issues the OP has had.

Yea, I'm one of them. I wanted to replace them with better parts but they have no markings at all.
They have ten years and about 45K on them.

I encourage anyone who wants to do their own grease packing to find a manual on-line for your particular axle make and go by the directions for preload exactly as written.
Their are some really bad suggestions from guys on the internet.

[Passin_Thru]

Buy Timken Bearings. Never lost one of them yet. Pulled trailers lots of miles. Tighten them down until the wheel wont turn and back off 1/4 turn.

[CKNSLS]

Shadow Catcher wrote:
There are bearings and then there are bearings, they come in different grades and from different countries. The ones that came with my Dexter axle were from China and I replaced them with SKF. I also used Amsoil synthetic grease and checked the castle nut adjustment my self.

There are literally thousands of trailers using the standard (i.e. China) bearings from the factory and haven't had the issues the OP has had.

[ScottG]

Bamarickandlisa wrote:
1. Always change the race with the bearing.
2. Use a good quality grease
3. Never mix different types of grease.
4. Do not over tighten the nut.

Good stuff but it's just as important to not get the nut too loose.

[Bamarickandlisa]

1. Always change the race with the bearing.
2. Use a good quality grease
3. Never mix different types of grease.
4. Do not over tighten the nut.