Big Country - Wheel Bearing Grease

[donandrebecca]

We purchased a 2015 Big Country 3450 new. Until now we have just used it on short trips and I have had the brakes and bearings checked annually by the dealer. This year we are in the middle of a 10,000 mi. trip and I was wondering how often I should grease the bearings and how much grease I should pump into each hub nipple. I have purchased some Napa Wheel bearing grease. Is this an acceptable grease to use?

Thanks & Regards
Don Westmoreland

 

[jimtoo]

Re: ATF: Big Country - Wheel Bearing Grease

Hi donandrebecca,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and to the family. We have a great bunch of folks here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.

You will get lots of opinions on this subject. I think Heartland recommends once a year or 10K miles. Most folks do not use the process of greasing the bearings with the grease gun through the axle like you have. A lot of the time grease will exit through the seal and ruin the brake shoes. Others will jump in soon I am sure.

Be sure and check out our Heartland Owners Club. Join us at a rally when you can and meet lots of the great folks here and make friends for a lifetime.

Enjoy the forum and your new unit.

Jim M
Thread moved to better area.

 

[Apropdoc]

The way the ez-lube axles are meant to work, as stated in the Dexter Maintenance Manual is that by using a non-powered grease gun (pump action type) you inject grease into the zerk until you see fresh grease coming out from around the outer bearing. The most important thing on this is to use compatible grease. Do not mix grease types as some are prone to break down or separate because of incompatibility. Dexter used Lithium complex grease (NLGI 2 Red) on their axles. The manual has a chart showing compatible greases. I just repacked my bearings this weekend and there had been an incompatible grease shot into the hub by an unknown individual. I use the Mobil 1 synthetic.

 

[mlpeloquin]

You should be good for your trip and have them cleaned, inspected, and repacked at the end of your trip. If you want to keep an eye on them, purchase an thermal monitor. Just point the laser at a point next to the hub each time you stop. https://www.harborfreight.com/catal...ured+Weight,f,Sale+Rank,f&q=laser+temperature

 

[donandrebecca]

Many thanks to all that replied to my question regarding wheel bearing grease.

Don & Rebecca
2015 Heartland Big Country 3450
2014 Dodge Ram 3500 Cummins Turbo Diesel
HOC #3699

 

[dave10a]

You should be good for your trip and have them cleaned, inspected, and repacked at the end of your trip. If you want to keep an eye on them, purchase an thermal monitor. Just point the laser at a point next to the hub each time you stop. https://www.harborfreight.com/catal...ured+Weight,f,Sale+Rank,f&q=laser+temperature

The thermal monitor is good. Unfortunately no one explains what to check for. All bearings should be near the same temperature. All bearings will be warm to the touch and you should be able to wrap you hand around the hub and the temperature should be low enough to hold on for a long time without burning your hand. Properly pre-loaded and greased bearing will be warm and not hot to the touch. After the bearing have cooled down to ambient temperature, there most likely will be a little play (1/32-1/16IN) in the wheel if you aggressively wiggle the tire. When the bearing are warm the may not be any play in the wheel-- which is normal. Timken and other reputable bearing mfg.'s spec .001 to .005 play for bearing pre-load which assure for bearing expansion at operating temperature which allows to proper lubrication.
Use grease recommended by Dexter and don't mix them. Also my experience has taught me to not use the easy lube because it may blow a grease seal and it most likely will allow contaminated grease from the large bearing because of seal seep with brake dust to enter the small bearing. Easy-lube is a marketing hype for the RV industry and was originally intended for boat trailers because it keeps the hub full of grease an inhibit water to enter. The best thing is to forget the easy lube and properly maintain and inspect the bearings annually.

 

[gasman]

At one of the Heartland rallies, a Dexter rep did a seminar and said that the EZ Lube was the biggest mistake Dexter had ever made. He was adamant about cleaning, inspecting, and packing bearings the old school way.

 

[dave10a]

At one of the Heartland rallies, a Dexter rep did a seminar and said that the EZ Lube was the biggest mistake Dexter had ever made. He was adamant about cleaning, inspecting, and packing bearings the old school way.

Easy Lube was intended as an alternative to bearing buddies in boat trailers. The RV industry uses it as marketing gimmick. I don't know why the RV industry keeps pushing them on the public with so much bad experience under their belt.

 

[BigGuy82]

We purchased a 2015 Big Country 3450 new. Until now we have just used it on short trips and I have had the brakes and bearings checked annually by the dealer. This year we are in the middle of a 10,000 mi. trip and I was wondering how often I should grease the bearings and how much grease I should pump into each hub nipple. I have purchased some Napa Wheel bearing grease. Is this an acceptable grease to use?

Thanks & Regards
Don Westmoreland

My procedure:

• Grease every 10K (sooner won't hurt - longer is bad)
• Use Redline CV-2 grease (any high pressure, high temp wheel bearing grease will do the job)
• Don't ever mix grease - no matter how you read the specs, there's a good chance it's not compatible
• Don't use EZ-Lube

ALSO - as long as we're talking about grease - you should grease the suspension zerks at least every 5K, 3K is better. If you don't have suspension zerk fittings, get a wet bolt kit installed.

 

[Gary521]

Redline CV2 grease is about the best you can buy or at least as good as any other "bests". I use this stuff in a car that gets road raced and the bearings get pretty warm just from being close to the disk brakes ( which get red hot ). I, however, believe that the greasing interval on trailers can be extended a bit. The comparison is how often do wheel bearings get greased on cars or your tow vehicle. I realize that most cars now have sealed bearings but there was a time when they were not. Regular maintenance is a good thing but if you slip a little bit on this -its OK. Just don't slip a lot.

 

[mlpeloquin]

Easy Lube was intended as an alternative to bearing buddies in boat trailers. The RV industry uses it as marketing gimmick. I don't know why the RV industry keeps pushing them on the public with so much bad experience under their belt.

Easy Lube is great for my neighbor's boat. His is light and no breaks. He pushes all the grease out every time he gets home having his sun spin the wheel as he pumps. He can tell when he has replaced the old grease when the grease coming out looks like grease. The old grease, when has water in it, has a grayish color to it. Great for him, but not for RV's.

 

[gasman]

An interesting note on bearing pack intervals. Ron Russell (Titan Disc Brake rep) owns a Redwood with the disc brakes. They did a test on it. He around 26,000 miles without packing the bearings. When they pulled the wheels to inspect them, they found that they were still well greased. The finding was that because the disc brakes create so much less heat on the bearings the grease didn't drop out. He, in no way, was suggesting that anyone go that long between maintenance, just that the difference was astounding. If any of you are coming to Goshen, ask him or his installers about that experience.

 

[BigGuy82]

An interesting note on bearing pack intervals. Ron Russell (Titan Disc Brake rep) owns a Redwood with the disc brakes. They did a test on it. He around 26,000 miles without packing the bearings. When they pulled the wheels to inspect them, they found that they were still well greased. The finding was that because the disc brakes create so much less heat on the bearings the grease didn't drop out. He, in no way, was suggesting that anyone go that long between maintenance, just that the difference was astounding. If any of you are coming to Goshen, ask him or his installers about that experience.

Ron should know. However, 26K is WAY too long for me. When you consider the weight of the rig, that's asking for a lot from the grease.

 

[jnbhobe]

I repacked mine every three to four years and that's close to 25k I never repacked my car front wheel bearing only when I put brakes on

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[BigGuy82]

I repacked mine every three to four years and that's close to 25k I never repacked my car front wheel bearing only when I put brakes on

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Whatever floats your boat. Me? I'm retired and have all the time in the world, so working on the camper is just another hobby.

Well, that, and the owners manual says to service the wheel bearings and seals every six months. I do agree that it should be a function of mileage and not time, but I also don't think they anticipate owners doing 25k every six months. We've all got our preferences and mine is to repack every 10K on a vehicle of this weight - no need to push the envelope.

 

[Gary521]

Gasman, If disk brakes work better than drum brakes, they are gonna generate more heat during the braking process. However, the beauty of disk brakes is that they cool much faster than drum brakes - so maybe there is some validity to what they are saying.

 

[jakoenig1]

The way the ez-lube axles are meant to work, as stated in the Dexter Maintenance Manual is that by using a non-powered grease gun (pump action type) you inject grease into the zerk until you see fresh grease coming out from around the outer bearing. The most important thing on this is to use compatible grease. Do not mix grease types as some are prone to break down or separate because of incompatibility. Dexter used Lithium complex grease (NLGI 2 Red) on their axles. The manual has a chart showing compatible greases. I just repacked my bearings this weekend and there had been an incompatible grease shot into the hub by an unknown individual. I use the Mobil 1 synthetic.

I did use the EZ lube method on my 2014 Big Country 3650RL. You forgot to mention that you are supposed to rotate the wheel while you slowly pump grease into the axle. I did it per Dexter's recommendation and 400 miles later, I had no brakes. Three of the seals leaked grease into the brakes. Here is what my brakes looked like when I got home





Never use the EZ lube.

Dexter sent me new brake assemblies but I spent a day cleaning the drums and installing the new assemblies.

I know this will stir up a hornets nest but I have been removing the outer bearing only for the last two years and repacking it. Every bearing I have failed in the last 35 years ( only two) has been an outer bearing. They are much smaller than the inner. The job only takes about an hour. I have only been doing this for two years. Only time will tell if I am being foolish. I plan to repack the inner every 12,000 miles, about two years for me.

 

[BigGuy82]

I did use the EZ lube method on my 2014 Big Country 3650RL. You forgot to mention that you are supposed to rotate the wheel while you slowly pump grease into the axle. I did it per Dexter's recommendation and 400 miles later, I had no brakes. Three of the seals leaked grease into the brakes. Here is what my brakes looked like when I got home


View attachment 52270


Never use the EZ lube.

Dexter sent me new brake assemblies but I spent a day cleaning the drums and installing the new assemblies.

I know this will stir up a hornets nest but I have been removing the outer bearing only for the last two years and repacking it. Every bearing I have failed in the last 35 years ( only two) has been an outer bearing. They are much smaller than the inner. The job only takes about an hour. I have only been doing this for two years. Only time will tell if I am being foolish. I plan to repack the inner every 12,000 miles, about two years for me.

EZ-Lube = EZ Axle/Bearing/Brake Failure.

Interestingly, when you call Dexter, they'll tell you it works just dandy.

 

[rxbristol]

My procedure:

• Use Redline CV-2 grease (any high pressure, high temp wheel bearing grease will do the job)
• Don't ever mix grease - no matter how you read the specs, there's a good chance it's not compatible
• Don't use EZ-Lube

Love that Redline CV-2. I don't think most RVers use it, but it's the best.

 

[BigGuy82]

Love that Redline CV-2. I don't think most RVers use it, but it's the best.

It's like everything else ... everyone has a favorite. I like it's high temperature and high pressure characteristics, I've used it for quite a while and there are a lot of professional gearheads who swear by it. All that gets my vote for #1.