Bob Vaughn
Well-known member
Did the 2011 Big Country come with "never lube" wheel bearings?? 
Never Lube wheel bearings
- Thread starter Bob Vaughn
- Start date
jmgratz
Original Owners Club Member
Did the 2011 Big Country come with "never lube" wheel bearings??
No it does not come that way new
Bob Vaughn
Well-known member
On the dexter web site it shows never lube bearing sets in 35mm, 42mm and 50mm sizes. How can I determine which size I need prior to removing the wheels and hubs?
B
BouseBill
Guest
Our 2011 came with Lippert Axles, not Dexter.
Bob not sure what you mean by "never lube" wheel bearings. I don't think I've ever heard of wheel bearings that don't need to be "re" greased now and then.
Again our Big Country has Lippert "E-Z" Lube bearings. If you can pry off a small cap from the center of your wheels you will find a grease zert inside. I would be very careful of using it though, good chance to blow out the bearing seals if you over grease the bearings.
Bob not sure what you mean by "never lube" wheel bearings. I don't think I've ever heard of wheel bearings that don't need to be "re" greased now and then.
Again our Big Country has Lippert "E-Z" Lube bearings. If you can pry off a small cap from the center of your wheels you will find a grease zert inside. I would be very careful of using it though, good chance to blow out the bearing seals if you over grease the bearings.
Tundra2084
Well-known member
We had the never lube axels on our other fiver and lost an axle after having the dealer service them before our trip to Florida. For our own piece of mind we would prefer to use an axel that uses grease and that can be checked when we have our breaks etc checked during routine service. It ended up costing us a lot of time money and aggravation because of something that couldn't be seen or serviced.
jnbhobe
Well-known member
EZ lube and NeverLube are two completely different things. Neverlube are two sealed bearings per side and close together. Easy Lube are conventional bearings with a zerk fitting to lube them with. ( they don't work too well and cause a lot of problems with grease getting on the brakes from over greasing and popping the seals)
I had NeverLube bearings on my previous two trailers. They are sealed bearings and do not require any grease but you need to check for play during inspections. The bearings are pressed in and out of the hub. Can not do it by hand. If you have a neverlube bearing replaced you will have to take the trailer to a shop that has a press. When I ordered my Bighorn I was told by the brand manager that Heartland did not use neverlube bearings.............Don
Jim.Allison
Well-known member
Grease oxidizes and needs to be purged. As far a lube type bearings pushing the seal out and polluting the brake linings, that is what happens when you pump to much grease into the bearings. A grease gun has incredible pressure capability, grease often, and purge a little bit each time you grease your axle and you won't blow the seals out the back of your hub. There is no such thing as a Never Lube bearing, there are only bearing that you can "never lube". The bearings in the never lube housing are the same bearings that you would have if you have a hub that you can lube, They just have their own housing and no grease zerk.
SeattleLion
Well-known member
Since you started this thread...
What is the correct interval for lube? What is the best way to do this? Remove bearings? Use the lube nipple?
What is the correct interval for lube? What is the best way to do this? Remove bearings? Use the lube nipple?
Jim.Allison
Well-known member
I'm no politician but I did stay in a Holiday Inn once. I have been around the block on the bearing thing, I used to sell industrial bearings, we had a line of pillow block bearings we used to sell to OEM's, they were cheap and had no grease zerks, there was always some crazy name like "no lube" or forever lubed or what ever the marketing department wanted to call them, the glossy advertising brochure made them look like every plant maintenance mans dream. They were great for the OEM because they could save 25 cents per bearing, no drill and tap and no zerk. LOL. I remember telling some farmer in a tractor supply store that "I had bearings that you never had to lube", he responded "Kid!! You don't really believe that !@#$ do you?......" From that day forward I only offered those bearing to OEM's. Live and learn. I also sold grease guns, and I have blown out my share of trailer bearing seals.
Jim, you sound just like a Washington politician.
Don
porthole
Retired
Last edited by a moderator:
Jim.Allison
Well-known member
I dont think I like this bearing arrangement very much. Seems to be a double roller bearing, as opposed to an inner and outer. Its hard to tell from the illustration but I don't think there is a larger bearing up on the spindle. As far as modern trucks using sealed bearings, it is sad indeed, for those that maintain their cars, but for years they have been leaving the grease zerks off of cars thus creating a neverlube circumstance, it was just a minor change to go to a bearing cartridge that you cannot lube. But there are only a small load on a typical Suburban, not 3 to 4 thousand per wheel.
If you believe in the magic of this bearing then you could clean up your bearings and races real nice, pack the bearing with a quality lube, take the zerk out and through it in the trash and install a zerk plug. because that is what you will have.
The Nev-R-Lube cannot be purged and dexter warns against submersion. For serious travelers this is not an adequate bearing, I cannot see it lasting the riggers of some of the back routes to Alaska. If I had these bearings I would carry extra drum assemblies with me.
Dexter does guarantee this bearing for 100,000 K, which is something.
Jim.Allison
Well-known member
My bad 100,000 miles, thanks.
porthole
Retired
My comment was not nasty or degrading, only questioning and should not have been edited out. It's an open forum as long as we keep politics, religion and personal attacks out of it.
And as it was, since the OP saw my original response anyway in the email notification, it just might have pushed a little to look into the never-lube bearings a bit more, which he apparently did and found out they are a cartridge type bearing, not the typical bearing and race that most of us have on the trailers.
Back to never-lubes - kind of like never-fails
With lighter weight trailer the never lubes probably work pretty good and do indeed cut down maintenance. But when you get into the heavy trailers maybe not.
Heavy as in candidates for suspension upgrades such as MOR/ryde IS.
When my IS was installed we had some interesting conversations with some real world experience. The bottom line was that heavy trailers were not really a candidate for the cartridge type bearing system and that a conventional bearing and race spread out across the hubs was a better option.
This was validated by way of a pallet crate 3/4's full of failed never lube bearing installations.
