greasing wheel bearings

[mmHoney]

previous owner of Scamps and UHaul 13 ft campers. I luv em all. I recently purchased a 13 ft Burro in NY. I plan on hauling her to Florida. Are the wheel bearings the same. Any other ideas of what prep I should do before travel other than tires grease bearings she has sat for two or more years thank you for your support..

[Raz]

Originally Posted by beaulacmichaelj

previous owner of Scamps and UHaul 13 ft campers. I luv em all. I recently purchased a 13 ft Burro in NY. I plan on hauling her to Florida. Are the wheel bearings the same. Any other ideas of what prep I should do before travel other than tires grease bearings she has sat for two or more years thank you for your support..

I'd check the coupler, especially if it's adjustable and the brakes if it has them. Enjoy you new trailer (Uhaul? or Burro?) Raz

[mary and bob]

Uhaul has sealed bearings that can't be greased, Burro has conventional bearings that can be serviced. If I was going from NY to Florida I would want to at least check them before making that trip.

[mary and bob]

Actually I am going from NY to Florida, and I replaced the bearings and brakes a couple weeks ago on our Casita

[Willy]

I add bearing buddies to my Cloud, can keep new grease in between the manual maint.

[DuaneQ]

I replaced the wheel bearings on my recent purchase of a 78 Burro. When I took off the cup and looked inside the hub I saw a lot of nice fresh red grease. The outside wheel bearing looked good as did the race but I thought I had better take the hub apart and look at the inside wheel bearing and race too. After I removed the seal and took it all apart I found both inside bearings to have quite a bit of play in them and the grease was light brown and seemed thin.

I took the part #'s off of the bearings and found that they are real common for my 3500 lb axle and fairly cheap too. I got a good deal on some Chinese bearings (actually looked of fair quality!). The kit came with the whole setup. I didn't have to use the races that came with them. I think both kits were about 25 dollar to the door off of ebay. (check sellers feedback rating!)

I had read another post here at FRV and someone said they pull the seals every few years or so and clean and repack everything. That way the only thing that you have to buy if everything seems to be ok is two new seals. I found that to be good advice and I may do that after a couple of thousand miles just to see how these Chinese bearings are holding up.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by DuaneQ

I replaced the wheel bearings on my recent purchase of a 78 Burro. When I took off the cup and looked inside the hub I saw a lot of nice fresh red grease. The outside wheel bearing looked good as did the race but I thought I had better take the hub apart and look at the inside wheel bearing and race too. After I removed the seal and took it all apart I found both inside bearings to have quite a bit of play in them and the grease was light brown and seemed thin.

I took the part #'s off of the bearings and found that they are real common for my 3500 lb axle and fairly cheap too. I got a good deal on some Chinese bearings (actually looked of fair quality!). The kit came with the whole setup. I didn't have to use the races that came with them. I think both kits were about 25 dollar to the door off of ebay. (check sellers feedback rating!)

I had read another post here at FRV and someone said they pull the seals every few years or so and clean and repack everything. That way the only thing that you have to buy if everything seems to be ok is two new seals. I found that to be good advice and I may do that after a couple of thousand miles just to see how these Chinese bearings are holding up.

I see no problem with inspecting and reusing good seals. I have done so for 50years.
It is best however to replace races with new bearings... generally,if the bearing is worn to the point of replacement, then so is the race.
Its all a judgement call

[FRED SMAILES]

I agree with Floyd and I wouldn't reuse a race when replacing a bearing.
Fred

[mary and bob]

Originally Posted by FRED SMAILES

I agree with Floyd and I wouldn't reuse a race when replacing a bearing.
Fred

Neither would I. I'm waiting for a comment on Willy's bearing buddies.

[mmHoney]

thank you all your responses. My Burro and I greatly appreciate your help..look forward to talking with you soon.

[Barb and Alan]

I too am interested on hearing more on bearing buddy use. They were on our Bigfoot 17.5 when we purchased it a year ago. The PO thought it to be a feature, and having them on our boat trailer I felt the same way. Since, however, I've heard some dissenting opinions. Anyone care to comment or should this be a whole new thread?

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Deadhead517

I too am interested on hearing more on bearing buddy use. They were on our Bigfoot 17.5 when we purchased it a year ago. The PO thought it to be a feature, and having them on our boat trailer I felt the same way. Since, however, I've heard some dissenting opinions. Anyone care to comment or should this be a whole new thread?

Bearing Buddies are for boat trailers to prevent water infiltration when the axle is submerged when launching a boat.
Unless you are going to submerge your camper axle on a regular basis, you have no use for bearing buddies.

Bearing Buddies are a totally different technology from EZ-Lube which is used on most modern trailer axles and would not serve as a viable substitute.

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;...1&type=sbc_dsl

[vicjen]

I think everyone worries to much about there trailer bearings. I have had many trailers and not one bearing failed. My cars have wheel bearings that went years and many miles with no problem. Also there are a lot of trailers on the road and most people don’t service the bearings at all. How many have you seen on the side of the road broke down with burned out wheel bearing ?
If you but a used trailer I would check and repack them. Then just keep an eye on them At rest stops put your hand on the hub it should be a little warm. If it is hot to the touch you will have a problem. Maybe when you buy new tires then service the bearings again. Don’t worry so much.

[Paul O.]

On my last big trip out west a huge 5th wheel stopped next to me in a rest area. The owner and I got talking and the gentleman told me he was doing a trial run before he would head to Florida for the winter. He had the bearings and brakes checked and adjusted, and both axles on the left were warm, but those on the right were hot to the point of turning the chrome on the hub caps blue. He seemed pretty calm about it, but planned to have the shop look at it. I would be very upset about it.

Some people here use non-contact temperature sensors to check the hubs so they don't burn their fingers. If they are too hot to touch, something might be very wrong. Either the brakes have been used excessively (downshifting on long descents is good), or adjusted too hard, or the bearings have been torqued too much during reassembly. I agree with Vic's notion that the bearings should last a long time without repacking. I try to maintain the habit of walking around during every refueling stop and touching the hubs and tires.

[Jon in AZ]

I do check my hubs at every stop, but if they're hot, isn't it still kinda late? I mean, of course it's far better than having them freeze up going down the highway, but you're still pretty much stuck wherever you discover the hot hubs, right? Maybe a mile or two at low speed to a repair shop at most? Unless you carry a spare set and can do it yourself, that is...

Am I missing something?

[Paul O.]

Of course the ideal way to check these tapered roller bearings is to raise the axle, turn the wheel by hand slowly and feel and listen for any grinding and noise. Nobody is going to do it every time they fill up on gas. The time to do this test is when the trailer is put up for winter - another reason to put it up on blocks for the season.

Feeling the hubs for temperature rise is second best, the more probable source of heat there may be the brakes. Feeling the tires is important to catch a slow leak, the flexing of sidewalls is the heat source there.

Tapered roller bearings will only get hot when they were overloaded by the installer and remain so in operation. They always must have some small amount of play. Also they will not seize the way journal bearings might, until they are way, way gone.

[MyronL]

This subject has been on my mind. Got 19K miles on my trailer. Thinking it's time to get my wheel bearings serviced before my upcoming next big trip. Do I have nothing to worry about?

[Bruce H]

My concern about bearing buddys and ez lubes is it would be real easy to over grease them and force grease out around the inside seal and have it inside the brake drum area. When that happens your problems are just as bad or worse than a failed bearing.