Wheel bearings

[N7SJN]

After 12 years and 10's of thousands of miles a tire tech advised me that I should have my brakes and wheel bearings checked. Bottom line breaks were still good and the wheel bearings also. I do not advise everyone to do this, however I have seen postings that say twice yearly checking is a good idea. Was I just lucky by not checking or is this the norm?

[MitchF150]

I think it's whatever you want to do or feel comfortable with doing for your own rig as far as the bearings go.. You either check/pack them or you don't..

Pretty simple... Why argue about it??

I do the bearings on my TT every other year, but I've only done them on my utility trailer that I've owned since 1998 once... Go figure.. 🙂

Mitch

[Community Alumni]

Lynnmor wrote:

Here is a cheap bearing, look after it all you want, it was made wrong. There is a ridge on the inner race that cut into the rollers.

There's no way to properly care for a defective bearing. Not all cheap bearings are defective.

[Community Alumni]

Aqua-Andy wrote:
jfkmk and proxim2020, sorry I don't know how to multi quote so this will have to do:h. I can assure you that there is no magic behind a "permanently sealed" bearing. They use the same type of single lip seal that our trailers use. And that "lifetime supply" of grease that was mentioned? There is no special reservoir that supplies grease for the life of the bearing, I bet that most well packed trailer hubs have more grease than in the permanently sealed version. Our trailer hubs can be sealed just as good as a permanently sealed hub, It just takes a properly installed seal and some anaerobic sealer around the bearing cap. Permanently sealed and greased for life are nothing but marketing BS covering up for the lack of grease fittings or to make something sound better. Serviceable is always better! Take U-joints and front end components for example. The only difference between the two versions is the grease fitting. The seals and everything else is the same except in the non greasable version you got screwed out of a grease fitting. There is a company out there that makes a product marketed toward boaters that is interesting, it is a clear cap that presses into the hub and sealed with a sealer. The cap has a drain/fill hole in it, what you do is clean or replace the bearings and clean out the hub then fill up to the line (about half full)with 80W90 gear lube.

The marketing force must be really strong. 202,000 miles. That's the most amount of miles that I've ever been able to get out of a set of sealed bearings with no failure. The sealed bearings were original to the car and were working just fine when I sold it. There was no dragging, growling, clicking, excess play, or any other signs of failure. I don't know of many trailers that would be able to go 15 years and 202,000 miles without being serviced once and not have the wheel snap off lol. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of miles I've driven on other vehicles with sealed bearings without signs of failure. There's only been two sealed bearings that I've ever had to replace, one on a previous RAM and one on my current. Neither bearing had failed completely, but were showing enough signs that the failure was imminent. The last thing I wanted was to have them fail completely while towing. Both first started showing signs a little after 120,000 miles. Most of your automakers started to switch to sealed bearing designs a couple of decades back. They seem to understand the advantages because bearing failures are becoming increasingly rare as years go on.

[Aqua-Andy]

proxim2020 wrote:

Aqua-Andy wrote:

Actually they do. If you disassembled that failed wheel bearing from your Avalanche you would find of all things, two tapered bearings filled with grease. The trick is they use quality parts and not Chinese ****. GM uses Timken bearings as OE. So replace your bearings with a quality product and use good grease, you should be good for years. Other posts claim there is a difference weather on a truck or trailer, there really is not.

The bearings are supplied with a lifetime of grease and are permanently sealed.

Sorry, I guess it just sounded like you were saying that there was more grease than is actually there. Please don't get me wrong, I am in favor of preventive maintenance. I just don't see the benefit of wasting time and money replacing perfectly good parts. I have worked as a tech in GM dealers for over twenty years and in that time I can count on one hand the amount of bad serviceable tapered wheel bearings I have seen. The majority of these bearings would run between 30K and 50K miles between services, the only reason they would be serviced is they would have to be removed to turn the rotors. I would bet that the majority of failed trailer bearings were due to improper service rather than a worn out or faulty part.

[jfkmk]

Aqua-Andy wrote:
jfkmk and proxim2020, sorry I don't know how to multi quote so this will have to do:h. I can assure you that there is no magic behind a "permanently sealed" bearing. They use the same type of single lip seal that our trailers use. And that "lifetime supply" of grease that was mentioned? There is no special reservoir that supplies grease for the life of the bearing, I bet that most well packed trailer hubs have more grease than in the permanently sealed version. Our trailer hubs can be sealed just as good as a permanently sealed hub, It just takes a properly installed seal and some anaerobic sealer around the bearing cap. Permanently sealed and greased for life are nothing but marketing BS covering up for the lack of grease fittings or to make something sound better. Serviceable is always better! Take U-joints and front end components for example. The only difference between the two versions is the grease fitting. The seals and everything else is the same except in the non greasable version you got screwed out of a grease fitting. There is a company out there that makes a product marketed toward boaters that is interesting, it is a clear cap that presses into the hub and sealed with a sealer. The cap has a drain/fill hole in it, what you do is clean or replace the bearings and clean out the hub then fill up to the line (about half full)with 80W90 gear lube.

Just hit the "quote" button. As for "magic", "lifetime supply" and "special reservoir", please read my post again. These words were never posted by me. I said they were permanently sealed and not serviceable, not "magic" or supplied by some "reservoir".

[Aqua-Andy]

jfkmk and proxim2020, sorry I don't know how to multi quote so this will have to do:h. I can assure you that there is no magic behind a "permanently sealed" bearing. They use the same type of single lip seal that our trailers use. And that "lifetime supply" of grease that was mentioned? There is no special reservoir that supplies grease for the life of the bearing, I bet that most well packed trailer hubs have more grease than in the permanently sealed version. Our trailer hubs can be sealed just as good as a permanently sealed hub, It just takes a properly installed seal and some anaerobic sealer around the bearing cap. Permanently sealed and greased for life are nothing but marketing BS covering up for the lack of grease fittings or to make something sound better. Serviceable is always better! Take U-joints and front end components for example. The only difference between the two versions is the grease fitting. The seals and everything else is the same except in the non greasable version you got screwed out of a grease fitting. There is a company out there that makes a product marketed toward boaters that is interesting, it is a clear cap that presses into the hub and sealed with a sealer. The cap has a drain/fill hole in it, what you do is clean or replace the bearings and clean out the hub then fill up to the line (about half full)with 80W90 gear lube.

[Lynnmor]

proxim2020 wrote:
Really you could get quite a bit of life out of the cheap bearings that come with these trailers if you look after them and keep them properly lubricated.

Here is a cheap bearing, look after it all you want, it was made wrong. There is a ridge on the inner race that cut into the rollers.

[Community Alumni]

Aqua-Andy wrote:

Actually they do. If you disassembled that failed wheel bearing from your Avalanche you would find of all things, two tapered bearings filled with grease. The trick is they use quality parts and not Chinese ****. GM uses Timken bearings as OE. So replace your bearings with a quality product and use good grease, you should be good for years. Other posts claim there is a difference weather on a truck or trailer, there really is not.

In function it's true that there's no difference between a bearing in a truck or trailer. Regardless if it's in a truck or a trailer a bearing allows two surfaces to slide past each other while reducing friction. However, the big difference it that the bearings on modern vehicles are sealed and are not serviceable. The bearings are supplied with a lifetime of grease and are permanently sealed. This helps keep dirt, moisture, and even water under pressure out of the bearing which dramatically extends the life of the bearing.

Trailer bearings on the other hand are designed to be serviceable. Seals are designed to be removable and are less absolute than ones in sealed units. Over time small amounts of grit, moisture, and air defeat the seal and push into the bearing cavity where it mixes with the grease reducing its effectiveness. This is why I'm a fan of completely removing the bearing, cleaning, and repacking it with clean grease over systems like EZ lube. Pumping in new grease doesn't get rid of all of the contaminates from the old grease or grease that has failed completely.

It's true that quality bearings are much better. They're manufactured with better metallurgy and tighter tolerances. They stand up to neglect much better than the cheaper ones. But they too will prematurely fail if they aren't looked after properly. Really you could get quite a bit of life out of the cheap bearings that come with these trailers if you look after them and keep them properly lubricated.

[rbpru]

For those who are old enough to remember the old 1950 and 60's Chevy, Ford and Chrysler rust buckets that needed a spring and fall tune-up, tires every year and a motor rebuild at 60,000 mile; you can relate to the TT industry today.

The old timers swore they would never pay $2,000 dollars for a pick-up. (About $15,000 today) But, quality and convenience costs and the TT indusrtry is not about to go down that road when the current models sell so well.

There are high dollar TTs out there for those who want to pay for them.

[Lynnmor]

Skidus1 wrote:
I must be unlucky. I purchased my Open Range new in 2014 and didn't check anything and had no issues the first year. Last spring I noticed a little grease splatter on a wheel so I decided to check and had a seal had failed allowing grease to pass, replace seal and repack and also did the other wheel same side, no issues on that one. One trip later I was parking it and noticed one hub warmer than the other 3, Temp check showed 141 deg and others were around 118 deg. Pulled it and another seal had failed, caught it in time, clean up replace. This season no trips yet, I knew I had to do one wheel from the factory, same thing, no grease splatter on the wheel but the seal had allowed grease to pass and coat shoes. No idea what caused all this or if it's normal. I have the zerk fitting but have never used or would I use it.

If the wheel bearings were adjusted way too loose, the seal can be compromised. Here in PA, we are required to get annual inspections and those folks often bang the seals into the spindle ends.

[Skidus1]

I must be unlucky. I purchased my Open Range new in 2014 and didn't check anything and had no issues the first year. Last spring I noticed a little grease splatter on a wheel so I decided to check and had a seal had failed allowing grease to pass, replace seal and repack and also did the other wheel same side, no issues on that one. One trip later I was parking it and noticed one hub warmer than the other 3, Temp check showed 141 deg and others were around 118 deg. Pulled it and another seal had failed, caught it in time, clean up replace. This season no trips yet, I knew I had to do one wheel from the factory, same thing, no grease splatter on the wheel but the seal had allowed grease to pass and coat shoes. No idea what caused all this or if it's normal. I have the zerk fitting but have never used or would I use it.

[JCR-1]

Before every trip I shoot the zerk with a couple shots of grease. Not hard , takes 30 seconds each side.. Soooo what is the big deal?These are caged roller bearings , not like what you see on a more sophisticated wheel bearing on a car or truck that needs no periodic maintenance.

[trail-explorer]

LarryJM wrote:
IMO you might be playing a dangerous game of Russian wheel bearing Roulette since more often than not the amount of grease from the factory is woefully lacking.

Ditto.

I've seen some very bad factory bearing pack situations.

[jfkmk]

Aqua-Andy wrote:

SoundGuy wrote:
Interesting to me is the fact we're all still dealing with this nonsense. :M I've owned so many vehicles over many decades I can't even remember them all, yet I don't recall ever having to replace or even service the wheel bearings ... until recently. For the first time in my life a wheel bearing on the front driver's side of our 11 yr old Chevy Avalanche went south and had to be replaced ... first time this has ever happened to me. Surely by now the RV industry could install bearings that don't need yearly repacking and under normal circumstances won't fail during the lifetime of the trailer. :S

Actually they do. If you disassembled that failed wheel bearing from your Avalanche you would find of all things, two tapered bearings filled with grease. The trick is they use quality parts and not Chinese ****. GM uses Timken bearings as OE. So replace your bearings with a quality product and use good grease, you should be good for years. Other posts claim there is a difference weather on a truck or trailer, there really is not.

There IS a difference. The Avalanche uses a sealed hub assembly. Yeah, there's bearings in there, but other than replacement, they are not serviceable. You cannot grease them. I've had gm hub assemblies fail on me at 40k and 60k on different vehicles.