Bearings ? Again!

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Raspy

That is not enough info to make an informed decision. What is your reasoning? Whats wrong with synthetic, etc?

That's because it was informed advice, not a seminar...
Heck, I'm not trying to be the blue canary in the outlet by the light switch here, please ignore it if you find it lacking!

Not to put too fine a point on it but there is plenty of contradictory and incorrect information thoroughly blended with fact and offered here for your elucidation.

[J.W.]

Originally Posted by floyd

Not to put too fine a point on it but there is plenty of contradictory and incorrect information thoroughly blended with fact and offered here for your elucidation.

Thank you Floyd.

That is exactly why I don't chime in on these, even though I was factory trained and certified by Timken (among many others) back in the horse and buggy days... long before this here interwebz thingie turned into how people got their "correct" info

[emoji79]

[redbarron55]

Either grease is adequate for the use on our trailers, but a couple of dollars more for the better grease is OK for me.
Personally I think once a year is fine for me and probably for anyone here.
For trailers not used much the Synthetic may be better since it does handle moisture better and corrosion, even unsubmerged, is less

[floyd]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

Floyd , Just a guestion . The grease I use for my trailer bearings is a lithium based grease that is listed / recommended on the Dexter website as an approved lubricant ( Mystik JT 6 #2 High Temp or Lucas #2 Red N tacky. ) I clean and repack the bearings annually .
Would I gain anything by going to synthetic grease ?
I don't object to paying for a better grease but so far the lithium grease has done the job plus I have a tub of lithium grease on hand.
I am wondering is this similar to using synthetic motor oil in your vehicle yet still changing the oil every 2500 to 3000 miles.

IMO, you would gain nothing by going to synthetic grease.
It is really not analogous to using synthetic motor oil.

I use a good parasynthetic motor oil with a rating SN / GF-5.

With direct injected gasoline engines (like ecoboost) the oil change intervals are especially important whether a pure synthetic is used or not.

[redbarron55]

As a reliability "expert" for many years I can tell you that any action or lack of action carries a risk component.
If you do nothing there is risk and if you go whole hog there is risk as well.
Personally I am a low risk kind of guy who sometimes engages in risky activities, but lower the risk as much as possible.
Whatever grease you might use is probably adequate.
If you use the EZ Lube feature that is probably adequate as is the tear down and manually grease each bearing.
For me the low risk is to once a year do the EZ lube thing.
Sometimes benign neglect is the way to go.
The drive a ways and get out and check everything and touch the tires and hubs would probably cover everybody pretty well.

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by floyd

That's because it was informed advice, not a seminar...
Heck, I'm not trying to be the blue canary in the outlet by the light switch here, please ignore it if you find it lacking!

Not to put too fine a point on it but there is plenty of contradictory and incorrect information thoroughly blended with fact and offered here for your elucidation.

I don't know of anyone who is looking for a seminar. But if you decide something is important enough to mention, it's only reasonable to to go a bit further and give a bit more information. Obviously it was worth your time to make your statement, so why not expand a bit? What criteria are you basing that statement on? Cost? Availability? Compatibility? Film strength? Phases of the moon? All of those could be "informed advice".

I may have been wrong for many years selecting synthetic grease for my applications. If so, It would be interesting to get a clue as to why. If you are not willing to give some data, why bother posting? Seems to me those with some real information should share it to help clear up the "contradictory and incorrect information". I'm all ears.

[Borrego Dave]

Interesting 4 pages of posts. Some like repacking yearly and using a specific grease, others by mileage, some by years and because there are really only a few members responding it leads me to believe that most members have their local mechanics do it as I do using whatever type grease. Like I said, interesting comments but, at least to me, there seems to be more folks posting on this than people that have actually had a bearing fail. Maybe everyone's been lucky or possibly been doing fine with their own maintenance schedule for their traveling and home location. Now, back to the original subject...............

[Glenn Baglo]

More importantly, how many of you have replaced the batteries in your smoke, CO and propane gas detectors recently?
Not just the trailer, but your home?

[Borrego Dave]

Just last month Glenn

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by Borrego Dave

Interesting 4 pages of posts. Some like repacking yearly and using a specific grease, others by mileage, ....

My Scamp has a Lippert Axle and Lippert specifies the type of grease as well as the frequency of repacking. They list five approved sources for the grease. I go by what the manufacturer says.

http://www.lci1.com/assets/content/s...intenance2.pdf

[WDavidG]

Originally Posted by gordon2

My Scamp has a Lippert Axle and Lippert specifies the type of grease as well as the frequency of repacking. They list five approved sources for the grease. I go by what the manufacturer says.

http://www.lci1.com/assets/content/s...intenance2.pdf

Here is the equivalent from Dexter. Click on "Hubs, Drums, and Bearings" for the pdf. https://www.dexteraxle.com/resources.../Torflex-axles

[mary and bob]

Originally Posted by Borrego Dave

Interesting 4 pages of posts. Some like repacking yearly and using a specific grease, others by mileage, some by years and because there are really only a few members responding it leads me to believe that most members have their local mechanics do it as I do using whatever type grease. Like I said, interesting comments but, at least to me, there seems to be more folks posting on this than people that have actually had a bearing fail. Maybe everyone's been lucky or possibly been doing fine with their own maintenance schedule for their traveling and home location. Now, back to the original subject...............

I like reading bearing discussions for the entertainment value, as they usually turn into an argumentative debate. As a retired truck mechanic I do my own, mainly based on when I want to inspect both bearings and brakes. I use a name brand grease that is available locally. Never had a bearing failure but did see some poor soul in a rest area in PA trying to get the remains of the inner bearing off of the axle of his pop-up camper. Apparently his maintenance procedure didn't work. When I was working we were required to adjust bearings by measuring the free play with a dial indicator. Anybody here do that on their campers?

[Vtec]

Originally Posted by mary and bob

I like reading bearing discussions for the entertainment value, as they usually turn into an argumentative debate. As a retired truck mechanic I do my own, mainly based on when I want to inspect both bearings and brakes. I use a name brand grease that is available locally. Never had a bearing failure but did see some poor soul in a rest area in PA trying to get the remains of the inner bearing off of the axle of his pop-up camper. Apparently his maintenance procedure didn't work. When I was working we were required to adjust bearings by measuring the free play with a dial indicator. Anybody here do that on their campers?

Yes I have on trailers but mostly on cars. Most of the time I do the pull test to see obvious free play, and have seen a lot of that on trailers over the years. I also use a set of bearing race drivers to seat them in properly.

[steelypip]

Just a small reality break:

I just did the hubs on my '92 Casita for the first time after buying the trailer (about 2 years and 6000 miles on the trailer since purchase). It has the dreaded E-Z Lube option. Now I know why it's dreaded.

It took a lot of wiping up cheap, nasty old grease with cheap paper towels to get down to the spindle and bearings. When I finally did, the bearings and seal looked fine (I did end up replacing the seals just so that I could inspect the inner bearing and race).

I did the same repack I've done on every tapered roller bearing hub I've done since about 1978. I expect it'll be fine for another 2-3 years.

My rule of thumb is that if the bearings look and sound fine, clean them off, pack them with fresh grease, and put them back in. I don't like grease in the void between inner and outer bearing - that's useful expansion space, if nothing else. I've never had a wheel bearing fail (or even run hot) over decades and millions of miles, so I must be doing something right.

There are two differences between trailer hubs and 2wd front hubs on vehicles. 1: trailer tires are usually smaller than car/truck tires, so more revs/mile (about 1000 on the trailer versus about 700 on my TV). 2: you can't hear a trailer bearing going bad from the TV. Accordingly, more frequent inspection and maintenance are a good idea. That said, the sooner of 30K miles or 5 years seems reasonable as long as they're kept dry and not overheated.