Found the wheel bearings loose!

[Lexman1968]

Well our 5th wheel has about 6000 miles on it now that we have taken a year off from work to travel the USA with our two kids. We bought the trailer in my signature May 2010 and parked it for exactly 1 year prior to our trip. We left May 1 2011 and have traveled from Atlanta, Georgia to as far northeast as Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and back into the states via Maine. I started noticing inner tire edge wear after about 4000 miles and started doing research on why this could be happening. After weighing the truck and trailer we verified we are below our weight limit and each axle weight is below the 7000 pound limit but what I did find is all 4 wheel bearings were loose. With the tire jacked up off the ground there was close to 1/8 inch movement in each tire! I called lippert and talked them about the proper adjustment and lube process and completed it in about 2 hours! I'm hopeful this will help correct some of our tire woes. I just thought I would share with you my findings. After being a professional auto mechanic for over 10 years I can tell you that even one wheel bearing being loose on an alignment rack can throw the alignment way out! Shame on me for not checking the bearing before we left on this trip! Live and learn.

 

[hoefler]

An 1/8" movement on the outer edge of the tire is more than acceptable on your wheel bearings. If you did not have a little play, you will seize a bearing from being to tight when the assembly heats up and expands. When setting your bearings after dis assembly, tighten the nut to 15 ft-lbs while rotating the hub. This is best done with a dial type torque wrench. With out moving the hub, back the nut off and finger tighten. Install locking device, cotter key or keyed washer. If unable to install locking device, back off the nut until you are able to install the device. After run it, you will get wheel movement on the spindle, this is perfectly normal. Your tire wear is most likely an alignment issue.

 

[lwmcguir]

An 1/8" movement on the outer edge of the tire is more than acceptable on your wheel bearings. If you did not have a little play, you will seize a bearing from being to tight when the assembly heats up and expands. When setting your bearings after dis assembly, tighten the nut to 15 ft-lbs while rotating the hub. This is best done with a dial type torque wrench. With out moving the hub, back the nut off and finger tighten. Install locking device, cotter key or keyed washer. If unable to install locking device, back off the nut until you are able to install the device. After run it, you will get wheel movement on the spindle, this is perfectly normal. Your tire wear is most likely an alignment issue.

Well Stated

 

[caissiel]

If there is a heavy load on the bearing the wheel will tend to run ligned with the axle so a loose bearing should not realy affect the alignment unless the tire is pulled sideways by an alignment problem then the loose bearing will possibly allow the pull. When I had misalignment of the rear axle on the previous trailer I was able to save wear on my tires by not having the bearings realy tight so as to allow the tires to pull inligne, not sure if it was doing it but it seam to help wear. Again this was on 5k axles.

 

[traveler44]

I torque my spindle nuts to 40# and then back them off 1/4 turn just like in the brochure they gave us at the rally. This seems to set the bearings in place and you get a pretty smooth feel when you roll the wheel. The first trip with the first trailer we had I noticed the tires wearing on the inside after towing a couple of hundred miles so I took some weight out of the trailer and carried it in the bed of the truck. Tires started wearing evenly as soon as I did this. I think I was flattening the arc out of the axles. Try dumping as much liquid weight as you can thats 8# per gallon and see if that helps. Tom M.