grease wheel brg

[jmc]

How often do u repak wheel brgs? I have the brg buddies on my C30RE fifth wheel

[NorskeNY]

Most recommend inspecting the brakes and re-pack the bearings every year. I think spinning the wheel while applying the grease via the Lubricating the SuperLube Hubwould be important or else grease may blow out the rear seal and make a mess of the brakes.

From the Dexter manual:

Bearing grease should be replaced every 12,000 miles or 12 months,whichever comes first.</span>
</span>
Procedure for Lubricating the SuperLube Hub (similar to brg buddies I think)

1. Remove rubber plug from grease cap.
2. Place nozzle of standard grease gun onto the grease fitting found behind plug.Nozzle must completely engage grease fitting.</span>
3. Begin pumping new grease into fitting. The previously used grease will beginto seep from the cap at the nozzle of the grease gun.</span>
4. To evenly coat the bearings, spin the hub during grease application.
5. As the new grease begins to seep from the fitting, the grease gun can be removed.
Excess grease can then be cleaned up and the plug replaced in the grease cap.</span>

NOTE: If the SuperLube R hubs are separated from the axle assembly, seals
MUST be replaced PRIOR to lubrication. Failure to replace theseals before lubrication may result in contaminating the brake linings</span>with grease.</span>
NOTE: Bearing should be visually inspected every 12,000 miles or annually,whichever comes first. If water is present, grease appears old or</span>contaminated or if there is an insufficient amount of grease present, follow the</span>procedure above.</span>
</span>
Edited by: NorskeNY

[cwit]

I'm old school and say pack your bearings by hand. Do it when you frist get your rv new or used. After that if you travel a lot every 12 thousand miles. Adjust brakes every 2,000 miles.

[jmc]

Thanks for info

[geondebi]

I hand pack my bearings every year about this time of year. It could be over kill as the dealer said every two years but that is not me. It just give me a chance to find things before trouble arises. I also go through the trailer and change the water filter and give everything a good looking over ... roof too.

[John B]

Originally Posted by geondebi

I hand pack my bearings every year about this time of year. It could be over kill as the dealer said every two years but that is not me. It just give me a chance to find things before trouble arises. I also go through the trailer and change the water filter and give everything a good looking over ... roof too.

As a retired mechanic /repairman I used to do mine every year too. As time progressed I finally realized I was wasting time and seals and grease. Everytime I disassembled the units they were brand new. I now have taken to about every third year as the most I put on for mileage is about 5 thousand a year. We used to follow manufacturer recomendations on vehicles at about 25 thousand miles so why does a Rv need to be so often??? A fishing boat trailer that backs in the water yes. Also reading above post those are not bearing buddies on a Rv trailer,they are easy lube but I don't trust them so old fashioned packing is for sure ,,,JMHO jb

[jererp]

For what it is worth, and many of you may say I am lucky, but I have never repacked my bearings in over 25 years of owning camping trailers, one which I owned for over 15 years, and no bearing failures.

[John B]

Originally Posted by jererp

For what it is worth, and many of you may say I am lucky, but I have never repacked my bearings in over 25 years of owning camping trailers, one which I owned for over 15 years, and no bearing failures.

I am not sure what lucky star you live under but you might share of you aren,t afraid it may change your luck. It is called maintenance to make sure things are well with everything..

I do not hope to be broke down on the side of the road but your maintence could lead to downtime when you least expect or want it!! JMHO JB

When I start out on 1000 to 1500 mile trips one way I want to know!!!I don't just go to the lake or neighboring campgrounds we travel usually 350 miles one way minimum several times a year.

[jererp]

I just want to explain my thinking about not repacking the wheel bearings on my trailers. I'm a retired GM manufacturing engineer, and as part of my job I have been in several different bearing manufacturing plants. All bearings are manufactured on the same equipment, to the same tolerances, from the same material. The difference in maintenance is in the application. Since I won't take my trailer anywhere I don't take my truck, I don't see any reason to perform different maintenance schedules. I also don't pressure wash wheels, since water is the biggest culprit to bearing failure, and seals are not designed to withstand water under pressure.
I put anywhere from 1500-5000 miles a year on my trailers.....longest trip was last year at about 8000 miles.

[dhasenwinkle]

We have a CF235CKP 2011 model with less than 10,000 miles on it and bought it new about 2.5 years ago. We just went through a tire wear problem. The back left tire was wearing out on the inside of the tread pattern. In a sharp left turn, the rear left tire turned (out) into the arc of the circle, laied over towards the inside of the trailer and scrubbed the tread off the inside track. Sent pictures to Crossroads, and they responded that that was normal with a tandem axel trailer. Could not believe that the tires should wear like that so took it to a repair shop. They found that the left rear wheel bearings were worn out. All the chrome was gone on the inside bearing and on its race. They replaced all four wheel bearings both inside and outer bearings, races etc. We bought two new tires since the right rear tire showed abnormal wear also. I have just read the Crossroads owners manual, and it says to repack the bearings every 6000 miles. Have never seen a requirement like this, but what do I know. I am sure that repacking the bearings at 6000 miles would not have found the faulty bearings.
After a lot of thinking about this, I relised that most of the trailers weight is on the left side (or center left). The entertainment center, the kitchen the bathroom, most of the cabinets. It appears that we will have to re think how we pack the personal items in the trailer to try to better balance the load.
Not sure if any of you have had similar experiences or not, but thought I should post this to see what you think.
Dale

[hondavalk]

Might as well join the hits with jererp. The only time I repack my wheel bearings is when I'm replacing the brakes. Never had an issue with TT or horse trailer in 35 years.