ATF: North Country - E-Z Lube style axle question

[Bri]

I have a 2011 North Country 22RBQ. The specs from the dealer state the trailer has E-Z Lube axles. However upon inspection I found there are cotter pins through the castle nuts instead of a Tang Washer or Nut Retainer as described in the instructions available on the Dexter website (Dexter is the manufacturer of the E-Z Lube axle). I can't find any documentation online stating there are any E-Z Lube axles made with a cotter pin. There is a zerk fitting present so they are an E-Z lube style. I do not believe they are bearing buddies there is no spring in the hub cap area.
My question is what brand of axle do I have on this trailer and can I get maintenance instructions and specs from the manufacturer?
Thanks for any help.

 

[Invizatu]

I have Lippert axles on my North Trail, they have E-Z lube spindles with the cotter pin.
Try the tool tab on the top of the page and find the manual for your axle.
Sorry, I can't help you with your I.D., but you can call Heartland with your vin number and they will tell you.

 

[Bri]

Invizatu - thanks for the quick and informative reply!

Brian

 

[jnbhobe]

Just be careful pumping grease into the hubs the wheel should be turning and too much will blow out the seal. Grease and brakes don't go well together. I prefer to hand pack the bearings

 

[caissiel]

When pumping grease while turning the wheel it should go easy. If the pumping feels harder you need to ease on the handle. I found that it gets easy and will never push the seal.
Meaning that while the wheel rotates the grease is actualy pumped by the rotation of the bearings.
Remember that it is recomended to replace the seal every time the hub is removed and just adding grease to the cap does nothing to flushing the bearing.


Sent from my GT-S5660M using Tapatalk 2

 

[westxsrt10]

BUMP....If your craw under the trailer there should be a sticker on the axle stating what brand it is. I have 2 trailers with 5200# E-Z lubes axles, one Lippert one Dexter and both have cotter pin nuts. (i'm guessing your have Lippert's so called EZ lube 3500# axle.) If you rotate the wheel while greasing all should be well for the inter bearing.

 

[Bri]

We just bought this trailer in July of last year (2011) and have put about 300 miles on it. We're taking a 600 mile round trip in a few weeks. I read the E-Z lube instructions to service after the first 50 miles and I'm past that already. I've also read some complaints where owners found very little grease in their bearings upon first inspection of a new trailer which made me a little nervous so I wanted to inspect the bearings.
So far I've done the following to just one wheel:
1) I put a few pumps of grease from a manual grease gun into the zerk, slowly, while rotating the wheel. No grease came back out but I did not want to blow the seal out so stopped adding grease. There was a good amount of grease under the end cap which was encouraging.
2) I checked the seal by removing the hub to be sure no grease oozed passed the seal onto the brakes. The seal looks good, no leakage, and there is a good amount of grease on the bearings.
3) So I cleaned up the outer bearing and repacked, but reassembled without removing/replacing the seal or repacking the inner bearing.
4) After it was reassembled I gave it a few more pumps of grease, slowly while rotating the wheel, since I lost some grease when taking apart, and replaced the rubber plug.
- I would prefer to not mix greases but I used Mystik JT-6 which is listed as approved on the E-Z Lube instructions so I am assuming (boy I hate using that word!) I'm ok there.
-I'm debating whether to pull all the hubs, replace all the seals and repack all the bearings OR give the other three wheels a few pumps of grease and repack all the bearings later in the summer. What do you think?
Thanks

 

[cookie]

I think you are on the right track. What you are doing should be fine till the end of summer.
While you have it jacked up, give some though to checking the brake adjustments.

Peace
Dave

 

[jnbhobe]

Also while your under there check the torque on the U-bolts, they should be 65 ft lbs.

 

[Bri]

Great advice guys, thanks.

 

[maldam]

I'd throw any E-Z Lube axles as far away as I could. Those thin weak tang washers failed and caused my left hand (driver's side) wheel bearing to come loose three times on long trips. After three near wheel coming off episodes, I took off the whole axle and took it to a machine shop where they drilled holes through the axle suitable for cotter pins. No problems since !! Sometimes the old methods are better than the new !! My 2 cents.