Okay, so you guys/girls are going to give me some heat for this, but I’ll be truthful. We bought a 2008 Jayco Sport 199 brand new in October 2008. Long story short, I have never greased the bearings. And what’s more embarrassing, I have the E-Z Lube Axles. Anyway, I’m guessing that I have approximately 5,000 miles on the trailer. We were attending grad school at the time, so the trailer didn’t get a lot of miles on it. So here’s my question, should I just lube the bearings or should I get my bearings repacked?
2008 Jayco Jay Feather Sport 199
2006 Dodge Cummins
I repack my bearings every year needed or not. Wheel bearing can and will draw moisture so I like to get a visuel on what is going on inside the hub. Going to Arizona every year since 95 either pulling a horse trailer of 5ver, never had a problem but I have seen several sitting along side of the road with ruined bearings or spindals, just my 2 cents worth............
2012 Montana 3800RE/Level Up/Slide Toppers/MoRyde Hitch/VuCube 2000
1999 Freightliner Western Hauler CC/300 Cat/Chipped
2001 Ford F350 CC DRW/ 4x4/ 6 Speed/Chipped
For all my trailers (utility, boat, TT, etc.)..... In the spring, I always remove each wheel hub, perform brake inspections (replace needed items), re-pack wheel bearings with fresh grease (use boat wheel bearing grease - even on dry land trailers) and do indepth inspecitons on all wiring as well. I do inspections / grease re-fresh in in the spring (to remove natural rust from winter sitting months) or when needed (based on miles above drill down chart), as well.
Thanks for the replies. It appears that the general consensus is to go ahead and have the bearings repacked and perhaps have the brakes checked while I’m at it. Like mentioned above, I’d rather play it safe than being stranded on the side of the road calling AAA.
dieselenthusiast wrote: Thanks for the replies. It appears that the general consensus is to go ahead and have the bearings repacked and perhaps have the brakes checked while I’m at it. Like mentioned above, I’d rather play it safe than being stranded on the side of the road calling AAA.
Absolutely, and the repercussions from lack of maintenance may be more than just waiting for AAA. Think about what will happen when a bearing race welds itself to an axle spindle, in the Salt Flats, at night, on a holiday weekend. You may be spending many happy days waiting for an axle.
Another thing I've seen with the Easy-lube type spindles are that the grease channels tend to get clogged after time. If you're using a system that has drilled spindles, it would be wise to flush them out while servicing the axles.
* This post was
edited 01/15/13 04:00am by westend *
I have mine done every year at state inspection time...however, after 20,000+ miles of towing over six years, the bearings have never really NEEDED repacking. As I tend to be a little anal over these things I still have them checked and a little grease added annually.
In your case you need to see what the brakes look like so a total re-pack is appropriate, anyway. I'm not with the yearly crowd and inspect and re-pack every two years unless I've gone over 12k miles, which would be unusual.
2002 Keystone Cougar 286, 8,400lbs loaded, pulled with a 2004 F150 Supercrew, 5.4, 3.73 gears. Retired and enjoying life
Offline
Online
