Equa-Flex Suspension on Bighorn

I have a 2008 Bighorn 3055 RL. I have had trouble with being able to grease the zerts on the Equa-Flex suspension. I had them supposedly worked on about a year ago, but I didn't start using the trailer until I went FT about two months ago. When I tried to grease them yesterday, only one out of the 4 would accept he grease. The trailer now has 24,700 miles.

Is there a way to service them or do I have to replace them?

Roy, you will have to take weight off the suspension in order to get grease in there.
You will not have to replace the Zerks. Just jack your rig up by the frame using a good bottle jack.


Peace
Dave

Thanks Dave,

I failed to mention that I was rotating the tires at the time I tried to grease them. I had jacked up each axle on the door side in order to get the wheel off the ground. Is that what you mean or is there a different way to get the weight off? With both axles jacked up, I could not get either zerk to accept grease. I did get the forward axle on the off door side to accept grease, but I think at the time I only had one axle off the ground.

If you jacked the rig up on the axles you did not take the weight off of them.
Jack up using the frame so the axles are hanging, so to speak.

Peace
Dave

Hmm... I thought I read somewhere that trailers are not supposed to be jacked up by the axle because it may cause damage to it and the jack should always be under the frame.

But I do find it odd not to be able to grease the Equa-Flex under pressure. I've got two pairs that will be installed soon. I don't even have any documentation on them.

I use a trailer jack, they type you pull up on. Then I put an adapter right under the U-bolts to raise the other axle just enough to clear the ground. Safest way to work on the axles one at a time. In response to your ZERK question, there are several things to try. Many of the Zerk's are the drive in style so removing it and cleaning the hard packed grease right behind it may not be an option. Most NAPA or similar part stores carry a tool that is called a Zerk buster or grease buster of some other name. It is just a small steel cylinder with a plunger and a hose with a Zerk on the end. You remove the plunger and put in some PB Blaster, reinstall the plunger, attach it to the Zerk you are working to free, strike the end with a hammer. The blow will force the penetrating oil into the Zerk and equalizer softening the hardened grease and allow you to use the grease gun to force in new grease. Make sure you are using a quality grease gun that develops high pressure as well. They aren't the same.

One more note, IF the grease hardens in the wet bolts or equalizers it has been to long, time or miles, between the last grease application. Keep the intervals shorter and the grease will easily enter. I grease mine loaded just fine. That is I did before CP came along. Still grease all the wet bolts loaded.

Maybe I am missing something but on the first post I assumed that Roy was referring to the equalizer-and as everyone said take the weight off of it to grease it.
But the second post from Roy it sounds like he is trying to grease the wheel bearings using the EZ Lube.

Roy, rotating the tires while trying to grease the equalizer does nothing. If you are trying to grease the wheel bearings with the EZ Lube, then you are correct by rotating the tire. However, I dont trust the EZ Lube option. It is too easy to blow out the wheel seal and you still have no idea the condition of the bearings. Do yourself a favor and pull all your wheels and repack the bearings if it has not been done. If you have 24K miles on your trailer, you are over due.

If your Equa Flex only has two grease fittings which is what you indicated in your first post, then your center bolt which is carrying alot of weight is not greasable. There is a bushing that the bolt rides on. I bet by now that bushing is gone. If you dont have the facilities to do it, you probably should find a shop that can replace all your spring bolts and bushings. What they use from the factory does not last very long.

Certainly agree with Larry, If you really have 25K on your coach all your bushings and equalizer most likely need changed right away. If you get 12K out of the bushings you have done really well.

When you get the Frame jacked up and have to remove the bolts to replace the bushings make sure when you put the bolts back in so that the Hole in the bolt for the grease is at 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock position and then you should be able to grease them with weight on them.

Whoa, Thanks for all the info, but I'm a little confused.

For starters, I greased all of the wheel bearings - took them out and repacked each one by hand, at 15,189 miles. How do I know the mileage? I keep a daily log sheet with trailer miles towed for each day. On my log sheet I also keep a running total of my total miles towed. I know exactly how many miles my trailer has on it.

I may be wrong, but the info I have is that they should be repacked every 15,000 miles. So I still have a little ways to go before they get to 30,000.

I also read that the wheel bearing should have 2 shots of grease every 2,000 miles via the EZ lube Zerks in between the repackings. If this is not correct, let me know. So while I was rotating my tires, I also gave each EZ Lube Zerk 2 shots of grease.

In order to rotate my tires, I had to have two tires off the ground at any point in time. (I rotate all 5 tires.) I started with the two tires on the Door side. Since it is hard to get to the Equa-Flex Zerks with the wheels on, it seemed logical to try and grease them with the wheels off. That is where I ran into a problem and hence my original question.

Now if I understand what was written above, I need to raise the frame with a bottle jack and let the axles hang free. It still seems to me that it will be hard to grease the zerks with both wheels on. So maybe I just take off one wheel to gain better access to the Zerks. Am I missing something here?

Finally with regard to all of the bushings. I'm still confused. Is this something that I can do or is there some special equipment needed. Where do you buy the bolts/bushings, etc? I've always been a pretty good handyman. Worked on a lot of cars in my life time, but I'd hate to drop the axles, springs, etc and not be able to get them back up!

With respect to DW_Gray, I was told that a bottle jack placed on the axle could cause the axle housing to bend and possibly damage the axle. So I had two special adapters made from steel that are about 5" long and look like the letter U. At the bottom of the U, is a small piece of 1" steel pipe that is welded in place. I screw up about 3/4" of the screw in the bottle jack to fit inside the pipe so the jack can not slip off the adapter. I have used it for 3 years now with no problems.

With all that being said, now that we are full time, maintenance is even more important too me. So any suggestions regarding the above or anything else you think I should know about is more than welcome.

I love my Bighorn and I love Heartland. They're the best!

Roy Andes

Good Roy, I am glad you are not relying on the EZ Lube feature 100%.

You do not need any special tools to replace the bushings. Hook the truck up to the trailer, use 2 bottle jacks on the frame and one for the axle. make sure you have it blocked good or some good jackstands under the frame in case a jack fails. Once the tires are off, you can start pulling bolts. The bushings, or what is left of them, are easy to get out.

Lippert manual specifies a repack every 12 months or 12k miles. It also calls for a brake inspection at the same frequency - which means taking off the hubs. I see no reference to lubricating via the grease fittings - just regular bearing repacks. Unless there is another manual or instruction that I'm not aware of, I see little point inthe EZ lube feature.

Thanks for the add'l info you guys.

Larry, you didn't mention where to buy the bushings, Also, how do you know what size you need? I would imagine that different size trailers would use different size bushings. Are there any diagrams or online instructions on how to change out the bushings? Does Heartland offer any help in this area, such as diagrams or instructions?

Larry, I clicked on your "Location" and the map showed the Sumter, SC area, but there was no push pin. We are leaving for Clinton, SC on the 15th. My Wife's sister's daughter is getting married on Oct 2nd. I graduated from USC back in 1963.

You can call Heartland or Lippert to get the bushings. If you are a HL Owner's club member, you can get a discount from HL.
You can also buy the the bushings from stores like Tractor Supply or probably just about any place that sells trailer parts including the internet.
If you are looking for the brass bushings you might have to search a little harder or just order them from Lippert.
If you are going to go through all this, go ahead and spend the extra money and get a wet bolt kit. Cheap insurance.

As far as the instructions, it really is as simple as removing the old bushing and pushing in the new one. I know for axles between 6K and 8K the parts are all the same. Only difference will be the shackle or tie plate length if you order the wet bolt kit.

Clinton is not too far from us. Little over and hour. Is this your first trip back since graduating from USC?
My twins just started USC this year. My oldest son tried USC but it wasn't for him and my daughter graduated from Clemson. As you know there is a huge rivalry between USC and Clemson down here. Lots of jokes etc. I have to say I am a little partial to Clemson (sorry) only becuase they gave my daughter a free ride for Chemical Engineering.

Willym said:

Lippert manual specifies a repack every 12 months or 12k miles. It also calls for a brake inspection at the same frequency - which means taking off the hubs. I see no reference to lubricating via the grease fittings - just regular bearing repacks. Unless there is another manual or instruction that I'm not aware of, I see little point inthe EZ lube feature.

Click to expand...

Ditto, totally agree with Willym. It's a much better pratice to repack then use the EZ lube. Bearings only like so much grease and too much creates heat and degrades bearing life. If you remove, clean, inspect and repack them every 12K , trust me that's sufficient. Use a good high quality syn grease, such as Amsoil. No I'm not a dealer and don't use any Amsoil products other than there wheel bearing grease. Inspect the bearigs once there clean and replace any that seem suspect. If the bearing is discolored, or rough turning in your hand, cheap insurance, just replace it. Good idea to always carry a spare set. Never know.

SouthernNights said:

You can call Heartland or Lippert to get the bushings. If you are a HL Owner's club member, you can get a discount from HL.
You can also buy the the bushings from stores like Tractor Supply or probably just about any place that sells trailer parts including the internet.
If you are looking for the brass bushings you might have to search a little harder or just order them from Lippert.
If you are going to go through all this, go ahead and spend the extra money and get a wet bolt kit. Cheap insurance.

As far as the instructions, it really is as simple as removing the old bushing and pushing in the new one. I know for axles between 6K and 8K the parts are all the same. Only difference will be the shackle or tie plate length if you order the wet bolt kit.

Clinton is not too far from us. Little over and hour. Is this your first trip back since graduating from USC?
My twins just started USC this year. My oldest son tried USC but it wasn't for him and my daughter graduated from Clemson. As you know there is a huge rivalry between USC and Clemson down here. Lots of jokes etc. I have to say I am a little partial to Clemson (sorry) only becuase they gave my daughter a free ride for Chemical Engineering.

Click to expand...

Highly recommend the "Wet Bolt Kit" from MOR/Ryde. If interested Google and get the phone number. Call Gary Wheeler, his extension is 222. The kit fits perfect and includes everything you need, brass bushings, bolts, thicker shakle plates. Trust me you won't be sorry. You can also download an instruction booklet from MOR/Ryde's web site, and check it out for yourself..

We have an 09 3670 that we had not used much until we started on this trip. I removed one of the fittings and went to an auto parts store where they matched them up with a replacement and I had no problem greasing the fittings once they were installed. I found that the old ones were corroded and not worth the effort of cleaning them.

Another Question,

I Googled MORRyde and found the instructions for the Wet Bolt Kit Instructions. It appears that they have a kit for the Equa-Flex as well. I wish that I had known about this before I went full Time. I had a lot more tools available that would have helpped with this job.

OK, assuming I order the kit and get it installed. How often should I grease these bushings and will I have to replace the bushings again at a later date or does regular greasing make them last indefinitely?

randes said:

Another Question,

I Googled MORRyde and found the instructions for the Wet Bolt Kit Instructions. It appears that they have a kit for the Equa-Flex as well. I wish that I had known about this before I went full Time. I had a lot more tools available that would have helpped with this job.

OK, assuming I order the kit and get it installed. How often should I grease these bushings and will I have to replace the bushings again at a later date or does regular greasing make them last indefinitely?

Click to expand...

My experience has been about 12,000 miles. This really depends on how rough of roads you travel. Most of my miles are on county roads so they get quite a workout. In the past I greased them at 3,000 miles. (wet bolts) Still grease the wet bolts on the springs and CP at 3,000 as well. If you go much longer you run the risk of wearing out a bushing.