greasing the wheels

mountain1

Active Member
I have searched for some thoughts/hints on greasing the wheels but did not find anything on the forum.
Any advice??
 

lwmcguir

Well-known member
Try the advanced search. There is some very good info. Rotate the wheels while greasing and watch for clean grease to come out. Be careful about pushing out the seals. Never grease with the wheel loaded and not turning.
 

mountain1

Active Member
Okay I have read the post from many forums on this site. I am now convinced this is something Don will screw up. Can most dealers be trusted to do this correctly and if my money is spent it will be done pretty well or is it better to go to a tire place?
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Okay I have read the post from many forums on this site. I am now convinced this is something Don will screw up. Can most dealers be trusted to do this correctly and if my money is spent it will be done pretty well or is it better to go to a tire place?

Probably depends on the dealer, but unless they're a real fly-by-night operation, they should be able to do it right. I have my dealer repack mine.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
When my unit was new someone, either the dealer or the manucfacturer did it wrong and all 4 wheels were badly greased and greased leaked in the drums. All the instructions local dealers have give to new owners (my Friends and me) is to pump a few shoots of grease in the hub at regular intervals.
Like said earlier there is a proper method that works well everytime and fool proof. By rotating the wheel with no load the grease will be pump through the bearings and deflected by the seal under no load and that will be felt at the grease gun. If pressure is felt just ease on the handle pressure and weight for the handle to go down softly. When its hard to push the grease has opstructions that may damage the seal. With a soft steady pressure the grease will start flowing again without damage to the seal. When the old grease has all flowed out you will have done proper greasing of your hub.

For trailning I would only attempt on hub and learn to do it properly before moving on to the next one. If you do it yourself you will be garrantied its done properly
 

Birchwood

Well-known member
Our Landmark has 10K miles on it and I just greased them.It does have the grease nipples at the end of the hubs
so I jacked the axle,removed the wheel,pryed off the cap and started pumping grease into the fitting(used red bearing
grease).It takes about half a cartriage before you start seeing the new red grease(have lots of towels to remove the old grease).
Keep pumping until you see red grease and when you do the job is over.If you do 10 pumps or so and see no grease coming out
your rear seal may be damaged and then you have remove the drum,clean up the mess and replace the seal.Did my 4 wheels with
no problems .There was no resistance at all when pumping the grease.Hope its always this easy!
 

slaytop

Well-known member
This subject is in a number of posts in the forum. It's a given not to trust the grease fitting to place the grease where it is supposed to go. Too often it goes past the rear seal and onto the braking surfaces in the drum. I can't imagine pumping a half cartridge of grease into the axle. There's no need to pack the axle full of grease. Also, simply adding grease shouldn't replace regular cleaning and repacking the bearings. I think most owners would like an easy and quick way to maintain the bearings and brakes. The only way I've seen to avoid cleaning and repacking bearings is to purchase the sealed never-lube system.
 

TeJay

Well-known member
Hi,
Bearing packing seems to be a popular topic. Here's my 2-cents worth. Car/trucks require bearing service about every 30-40K miles. Usually when the shoes were replaced. Why don't TT's require the same???? Maybe the bearings on a TT are put under a greater strain because of the weight issue. If that's the case then the bearings should be larger in diameter to take a greater load but their not so I'll assume the bearings are adequate for the load applied.

I am new to TT's but not new to mechanics. First of all I don't think the special hubs are much good. They will provide a way of getting some new grease into the bearings without removing the hubs. That is a plus but I am not convinced that the grease is actually getting into the bearing rollers and races. Secondly, packing a hub full of grease is not necessary and in fact the extra grease can inhibit the transfer of heat from the bearing and hub area. Think about this, the grease does not flow, move or shift from where it started. If properly packed it just stays there and does it's job. Putting more grease around what actually touches the bearings is not necessary. The consistency of the grease is what keeps it on the bearing surfaces.

Boats also use a similar packing method but they get immersed into water often and pushing some fresh grease (without water) is probably good. They also recommend repacking every year to get rid of any water that has accumulated. TT's don't fit into that catagory.

Here's the procedure I use and taught for 40 years. I hand pack the bearings by forcing grease into the rollers. I only use synthetic (Amzoil or Mobil One) grease. There's nothing better than synthetics and I want the best for lubing the wheel bearings. I do put a 1/8th to a 1/4" layer of grease inside the hub to reduce any moisture issues. When installing the nut I over tighten it with a ratchet while spinning the wheel. This assures that the seal is seated and also spreads the grease around. I then back the nut off and then finger tighten it until the bearing play just goes away. The specs are .001-.003. If you can feel some play that's OK. If you can adjust it so that all play is gone and the cotter pins fits that's even better. If the nut has to be moved to line up the cotter pin hole always loosen not tighten the nut. In that case loose is better than being to tight.

Here's what I am planning. I'll rotate tires every Spring to inspect tires and to even the wear. I'll probably re-pack bearings probably every 2-3 years.

I hope this information will help keep those TT's rolling a little more trouble free.

TeJay
 

lwmcguir

Well-known member
Personally I like the EZ lube hubs and get great service from them. Have them on all of our light trailers and have oil EZ lube on the heavy ones. The grease has to come through the rear bearing to get to the front bearing. The center of the hub isn't full of grease as some think unless there is a Chinese EZ lube out there. The spring loaded double lip seal will keep the grease from going out if you rotate while you grease. We have run these since they came out and have many miles on several trailers with no problems at all. A lot less failures with these than the hand packed on high usage trailers as they get forgotten. Most campers don't travel many miles like a daily construction trailer or any other routinely used trailer does.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
I personnaly don't like the never lube system and have heard of so many bearing failures due to them being used. On the front end of cars and trucks they are used to save time at assembly. Back home they are changed as often as the licence plates are renewed. They will dry up on lack of use and will get noisy and need replacement. I use to remove noisy bearing out of my cars and lay them sidways on a shelf for years and reinstall them on the opposite side with great success.

They are pressed in units that run much closer together and will never handle the side forces as well as the conventional units neither.
 

TeJay

Well-known member
I never had the lube system explained like that. It makes sense and sounds like the EZ- Lube hub design works well. There's nothing like fleet usage to prove a point and I accept that. Like I said I'm new to trailer towing so I've got a lot to learn. Do you know if the EZ lube hub is the same or similar design that is used by Heartland on the NT?? If that's the case I can see where that system would be an advantage. I still don't like the idea of filling the hub with grease but if it works then why not. I am still very partial to synthetic lube. I once had a guest speaker that was a retired master blender for Valvoline. He supported my thoughts on synthetics. They were doing truck 24 hour testing at the Indy track and were having trouble with differential temps getting to high. He was called and they switched to synthetics and solved the problem.

If I used the EZ lube hub I would still R&R the hubs every 2 or so years to inspect the bearings. I would feel better knowing that they were still in good condition.

TeJay
 

lwmcguir

Well-known member
Good quality grease is a must no matter what type bearing you are greasing/packing. I haven't pulled a hub off the Augusta yet. Just apply the grease with the hub turning. takes about 6-7 squirts with the gun to see new grease. The center of the hub doesn't have grease if it like all the rest of our hubs. Will probably find out next year when the Coach is 4 years old I Will pull one of the hubs just for the heck of it. Otherwise I check the bearing clearance, adjust if necessary, and grease per the Lippert/Dexter instructions which are exactly the same. It never should take 1/2 tube of grease unless you are talking about 4 or more hubs.
 

Birchwood

Well-known member
Yes the hub wouldn't take half a tube of grease but if you want to make sure all the old
grease is purged from the bearing and hub it takes a fair amount.I figure the more grease
pumped through the bearings the more contaminants that are removed and grease is
inexpensive.
 
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lwmcguir

Well-known member
I agree that the grease should appear to be free from any discoloration or obvious contaminants. That may take a bit more grease. Don't mix grease either. Best to stay with one of the recommended types.
 
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