Wheel Bearings - changed my maintenance schedule

[DougS]

I have never not been an advocate for re-packing wheel bearings every year, but instead by miles. Since my first RV, it has always been 14,000-24,000 miles, but not anymore. I upgraded my axle from 7K to 8K in 2011 while in Indiana by Lippert. Since then, I have gone approximately 6,500 miles so I decided to repack the wheel bearing, thank God. The first wheel I took off the outer bearing was bad an pictured below, the second bearing was just starting. I took the hub to a local machine shop that specializes in bearings, and they have no idea. I asked for US bearings, and they said there were none. So I replaced both bearings just in case there was any metal filings. Second wheel I just replaced the outer bearing since there were no filings. Tomorrow I should get two more outer bearings since I seemed to wipe the town out. The bearings I am getting are from NAPA and are made in Japan instead of China.

I should mention that I had RV weighed at time of axle replacement and I am at least 150 lbs. per wheel under specs. Also the bearing cavity was full of grease and bearings tighten properly. Still not sure what is causing the wheel bearings to go, unless it's because bearings are made in China.

So I am changing my maintenance schedule on wheel bearing to 6,000 miles which seems to me to be annually. What I would do on a long trip like to Alaska, I don't know. I will also note how the bearings from Japan far to the bearings from China.

I have thought of replacing one axle hubs with new hubs from Dexter if it's possible, but not till next year. One mechanic mentioned it might be bad hubs, how that is possible, I don't know.

Any thoughts, I'm out of ideas.

I am open for suggestions.

 

[aatauses]

Glad you caught everything in time. Did you check your seals when you had the bearings out--also type of grease---if you had high temp grease in there and then added regular grease, it could be possible to mess up your bearings. I have also heard that never try to mix two different types of grease.
I usually have my bearing packed each year---and ask that they be hand packed. This means I get about 6-8M miles on a packing (we are full timers).
Wish I could be more helpful and perhaps someone will have some other ideas.
al
currently in Kenai, AK

 

[ultrafarmer]

sounds like bad bearing's to me. I think you should put in all new one's.

 

[MTPockets]

Bearings were my career for nearly 40 years. I know about bearings, seals, and lubrication. Just about every bearing failure and base cause is due to contamination, or improper lubricant. Other things can happen, but are rare, but usually leads to the base cause. I use Lubriplate 1200-2, Available form Motion Industries (look 'em up in most every state - they probably will have to order, bearings ask for Timken-no sub) - I carry a full set of bearings & seals with me "just in case". Bearings are manufactured by Timken (Also available from Motion Industries) .. Timken does make bearings all over the world, but if it says Timken, you'll be OK... If you were told yours were only avail from China in some off brand, your supplier is mis-informed. The bearing in the pic looks like it was very hot and cooked the lubricant out. Bad seal? Improper grease? Not enough grease? Too much grease? - Yes, too much can cause the bearing rollers to skid and then premature wear. Too much grease could also blow out the seal allowing contaminants to get in and the rest of the grease to get out - then overheating the bearings - then failure. If you want to have many miles of care free travel, make sure the bearings are in good condition, proper lube is used in the right amount (Lippert has a good maintenance guide - follow that and you'll be OK)

 

[DougS]

MTPockets, I have read the Lippert guide, but since these axles and bearings came direct from the Lippert factory, I would hope they would have read it too. The bearings should have lasted more then 6,500 miles especially since they where covered and embedded with grease. I don't mind re-packing the bearings, but why the bearings lasted less the 7,000 miles is the question? I don't want to buy bearings every few thousand miles and not trust them on the road. I had to go with the bearings I could buy locally since I am leaving next week on a trip. I do agree with you about Timken, and now that I have the bearing and seal numbers, I'll have them on hand.

 

[gebills]

Hi DougS:

I would agree with the general concensus; the bearings appear to be a contamination issue or possibly a shortage of lube. Before we pulled out away from the dealer when RV was new, I made them pull the wheels so I could see the condition of the bearings prior to putting on around 5,000 heading back to Seattle (through Arizone) from Michigan. Not that I felt that the factory would have turned loose of a new RV with a shortage of grease.......... ah..... ok, yes I did.....

I'm in an industry where we see many bearings on our factory equipment contaminated with salt water and associated grime which poses an added challange. My eyes aren't quite as young as they used to be, but blowing up your bearings as best I can on the laptop, it doesn't appear to be water as much as it appears to be shortage of lube (grease). Just another opinion.

Referencing Motion Industries, I've put in at least 4 orders in the last two and a half to three weeks for bearings at Motion Industries in Seattle, and they have to bring them in from locations in other states, generally having our ordered bearings within 2 to 4 days from date of request. If you have 5 to 7 days before your departure, they should be able to get them in for you in a similar timeframe. Good luck on your trip.

 

[hoefler]

By the looks of the bearing in the picture, and your description, you have an outer bearing failure, and in more than one wheel, in my experience, you had a tight bearing set. The outer is going to be the one that fails first, it is the smaller of the 2 and will heat up the fastest, then lubrication failure.

 

[driver311]

change them to oilers no more repacking

 

[TeJay]

Typically the inner bearing is larger because it is expected to bear a greater load. Filling the hub with grease makes no sense to me. I do put a thin, 1/4" layer in the hub to help control moisture but packing it only prevents heat from being dissipated which is not good. Also the extra grease packed in the hub does not move, flow, or avail itself of any bearing rollers. It really serves no purpose so why put it there???? No mention of using a good synthetic bearing lub??? It's 10X's better than standard grease and for about 40$ you've got enough to do several packs and have the extra protection. Why is new technology so slow to be accepted by older techs???? If it's new and better why not use it. Wheel bearing clearance should be .001 to .003. After over tightening the hub nut to assure everything is seated back it off then hand tighten the nut until all movement goes away then back off until you can just barely feel the wiggle. That's probably very close to correct. I got that from an Indy 500 mechanic back in the 70's. Good enough for an Indy car it's good enough for my vehicles.

JMTCW
TeJay

 

[DougS]

Driver311, not really sure what you mean by oilers. The unit has a grease fitting at the end of the axle. The thing is, if I had not taken the bearing off to re-pack it, I would not have seen the bad bearings. Got my replacement bearings this morning to finish replacing all of the out bearings.

 

[Chainsaw]

I to got the upgrade and last year lost a hub and had nice forced vacation in Scobey MT. LIppert came to my rescue in what I thought was record time with a new axel and hub. If I could have found my bearing it probably would have looked like yours, my hub was shot. When I got to the national rally I had all wheels checked and found all hubs had to be re-ground.

I too now have a every spring bearing packing policy.

 

[TeJay]

Oilers are something used by the heavy truck industry. They are literally an oil bath set up. It's been mentioned before. I have never investigated it but if I had a real heavy unit I'd probably go to oilers. The thing with wheel bearings and packing them the grease just stays there. It does not circulated like oil. Even brake fluid is not circulated.

TeJay

 

[Willym]

Good info from Tejay on setting up bearings. I too do not use the EZlube feature as it will over grease, and does tempt you to not check bearing and brake condition. I also did the 8K upgrade 2 years ago, and did a bearing inspection after 12 months use. Everything was copacetic. However I am now getting uneven tyre wear now and will be going to the truck alignment shop in due course to get this corrected. Hopefully they will be able to re-bend the axles to effect this. I didn't expect this to happen with supposedly beefier axles, unless of course they were never aligned from the start.

 

[driver311]

the trucking industry changed from grease to oilers 40 years ago. so to my thinking why would u want to keep putting grease in the bearings when oil is so much easier. change the seal and the cap wash out the grease and add oil . and never grease again.

 

[MTPockets]

Oil would be great but the trick is to keep it there by having proper seal. Trucks use different seals designed to keep and hold in the oil. I would be surprised if seal was made for this application.

 

[driver311]

dexter makes oiler hub replacement . so the parts can be had. check to see if u can buy seals and caps to fit your axles. it would be the best up grade u could get, no more grease and a lot less worry. might also check on disc brakes, night and day difference. money very well spent.

 

[porthole]

My disc brakes from MOR?ryde came with the oil hubs. And when I check the bearings this year I will be giving the oil try.

 

[lwmcguir]

the trucking industry changed from grease to oilers 40 years ago. so to my thinking why would u want to keep putting grease in the bearings when oil is so much easier. change the seal and the cap wash out the grease and add oil . and never grease again.

All of our 10K trailer axles are oil as was our last Camper. There is only a couple of drawbacks, keeping the trailer level when stored and long term storage. Grease stays in contact with all the metal parts of the bearings where oil drains off over time. We had had trailers we didn't use for several years that had pitting on some of the rollers out of the oil.

 

[porthole]

What oil do you use. A google search only turns up kits.

 

[driver311]

synthetic rear end oil.