Trailer Wheel Bearings

[surfbeetle]

My Fifth Wheel is a 2004 Sprinter 297 bhs that got about 4 years ago. I just did new tires on it and was thinking about the wheel bearings. They have not been serviced/repacked. So I was thinking of installing bearing buddies on them and just putting new grease in there. Is this as good as repacking? On our boats we used to just have bearing buddies and after every trip, we would just grease each one and never had issue, would the same apply to a travel trailer?

Also, an afterthought, is there a way to check the brake shoe wear without removing the drums?

 

[jhenderson]

One of the best reasons to repack bearings is to get a good look at the brakes, magnets, drums, and overall bearing condition. Dexter does offer easy- lube axles as an option. These axles have a special channel for the grease to feed the inner bearing, but most people over grease them, blow out the seal and end up greasing their brakes.

 

[Hoefler]

Buddy Bearings have no place for the grease to go to except out the seal and onto your brakes. Look inside a trailer wheel and you will see why. The Dexter easy lube has a channel drilled to the space between the seal and the inside bearing. When you pump grease in, it will go through the inside bearing into the center cavity, then through the outer bearing into the cap and out the access hole. Buddy Bearings will have continuous pressure on the seal, that is how the keep the water out of you bearings when you dunk a hot hub in a cool lake. With Dexter's, when you stop pumping grease, there is no pressure on the seals. Buddy Bearings are the worse thing to install on any wheel with brakes!

 

[GAmes]

Long ago, in the '70s, bearing buddies were the thing for boat trailers. They only were good on axles without brakes. If you looked at the inside of the wheels you would always see grease back there. When the new grease was pumped in the old grease had to go somewhere, so it went past the inner seals. In the '80s I bought a new Ranger bass boat and the trailer axles had something new, E-Z lube hubs. There was a zerk fitting under a rubber plug in the center cap. You just pumped grease into the zerk, the axles were drilled to channel the grease to a pair of holes just inside the inner seal and the new grease pushed the old grease out the front of the hub. That is the same E-Z lube system that is installed on RVs today, 25 years later. The problem is that seals wear out, so when a person pumps new grease in, it takes the path of least resistance and goes into the brake drum, not out the front of the hub. I'm with jhenderson, skip the BBs and handpack your bearings. I now have 2 trailers with E-Z lube hubs, but I don't pump grease into them.

 

[Simplysmn]

good place to get supplies for the trailer is REDNECK TRAILER Supply

 

[BIGNASTY]

One of the best reasons to repack bearings is to get a good look at the brakes, magnets, drums, and overall bearing condition. Dexter does offer easy- lube axles as an option. These axles have a special channel for the grease to feed the inner bearing, but most people over grease them, blow out the seal and end up greasing their brakes.

This is how I feel about it also. A day spent working on your rig and you KNOW that it's ready to go. I dont know about the easy lube axles if you dont already have them. I have them and well their OK I guess it's not like you can skip the repack and just use them. But it is nice to be able to add a few squirts of grease on the road I DO. I repack mine 1 time a year and dont really worry about them untill next Jan. 1st

 

[surfbeetle]

Thank you all for your comments. Looks like I'm going to be getting some more grease and repacking. I don't know if I have easy lube or not since the hubs have plastic covers over them and I can't remember what's under there even though I changed the tires last month.