Axle Grease

[Steve's 70-5]

Was camping this weekend, was pulling in the campground after being out. While driving to my campsite, there was a fifth-wheel camper in front of me. It was leaning to the right side real bad, I figured they had a tire problems. The spare tire was still under the camper, looking again I noticed he only had one tire on the right side. It just happened he was put in the campsite next to me.


Walking out later that evening, the guy was out by his camper. I asked him what the problem was. He was from Florida, heading to Michigan and Wisconsin. He was in a state park in Tennessee and was heading north. When close to the Ky, TN state line, he got a warning in his truck, that he had lost trailer brakes. He pulled in the E Lane on I 65 and investigated. He thought it was a plug problem, he was in a new truck. He said he was in a bad spot on the side of the interstate, so he got back on the road and stop at the Ky. welcome center on 65. When he went back to the trailer the hub/tire on the right side was smoking/wasted. He called a service center, they towed the trailer to a garage and started to investigate the problem.



The trailer owner said that he just had the bearings repacked at a RV dealer service center in Florida, where he lived.



From the conversation I had with the owner.


The mechanic that investigated the problem said that who ever repacked the bearings, used the wrong grease. It looked like they just took the bearings out and pushed more grease in them. The grease that was in the bearings and what was used was two different types. The mechanic said that if you do not use the exact same grease, you will have problems. The two different greases will mix together and break down, adding heat to the equation will make it worse. You will end up with a oil in the hubs. The spindle on the axle was gouged and should not be used, per the mechanic.



The camper owner said he will be calling the RV dealer Tuesday to see what they will do. The mechanic said will call the manufacture and see about getting a axle and there might be a road trip to North Indiana to pick it up.



I guess I learned a couple things. I did not know about mixing grease. I though a RV dealer would get it right.

[LewisB]

The Dexter Manual states:
27562
as found in:
27563

[sourdough]

You need to know what is put in those bearings and either remove the old completely or refill with the same. I keep 2 tubes on my shelf in the barn and they come from my tire/wheel guy that takes care of that.

[Kirk's Keystone Outback.]

Older thread, but still great information.
I'm planning on inspecting my bearings before next trip. I'm presently using Lucas Green Grease, but am switching to Lucas Red & Tacky grease. This post only confirms to thoroughly flush out the green first, which was the plan all along. Thanks

[ChuckS]

I only use Lucas Red & Tacky

Images are from my 2014 Alpine when I pulled off the hubs and repacked while replacing my tires.

The bearings are the original OEM Dexter axle 7K bearings and races. I have about 40K miles of towing on the Alpine.

As you can see from the first few pics this is what the grease looked like BEFORE I cleaned and repacked. It was a waste of time but since I was getting the tires replaced I killed some time

Also an image of one of the inner bearings after it was cleaned before I hand packed it again

I DO NOT USE the EZ Lube zerks on the axle ends

[Kirk's Keystone Outback.]

Thanks Chuck for this information. Very helpful.

[GoingPlaces]

I will be repacking my bearings soon. From the recommendations here I see Lucas Red and Tacky grease is a good product. My trailer is a 2021 product and still has factory grease. Looking at the Lippert Manual, Lucas is not an approved vendor. I use Lucas's lubricants on other things, and I would like to use their grease.

So, it seems that I would need to "flush" out the bearings before using the Red and Tacky. Not having done this task before, how is the flushing accomplished? With solvents or just pushing through copious amounts of new grease?

I am planning on using a Grease Packing tool.

I did check the data sheet for Red and Tacky. Lucas says it is a Lithium Complex grease.... would that imply that it is compatible with the existing factory grease?

[JRTJH]

Scott,

This is "just my opinion" but if you're going to do what you said, "repack the bearings" then you're only going to be doing about half the "best practice" of completely cleaning the bearings and hub/races, inspecting the bearings and races for any signs of damage or wear, then repacking with new grease and replacing the seal with a new "DOUBLE LIP" seal.

So, even using a "bearing grease packing tool", unless you clean all the old grease off the bearings and out of the hubs, you really can't do a "best practice maintenance task"....

So, doing the "whole job" you're going to be "starting with no grease in the hubs or on the bearings, so there won't be any "grease incompatability"...

[GoingPlaces]

Thanks this is good info and appreciated!

I totally get that is more to the story than just the actual repacking part and was planning on doing exactly what you described. What I don't know is, will just wiping off all of the old grease before repacking (which one should do anyway) would be sufficient to remove incompatibility issues. Or should I do more/extra to remove any old and potentially incompatible grease inside the bearings? A few folks here said the bearings needed to be "flushed" which to me sounded different and more involved than wiping away old grease.

[Kirk's Keystone Outback.]

If you don’t have a parts washer, brake clean can be used to force out the old grease, while using compressed air. Just don’t spin the bearing dry, that’s a big no no.

[Gary R.]

Yes you should clean the old grease from the bearings to give them a thorough inspection. I would go to your nearest auto parts store and grab a parts cleaning pan, a case of spray brake cleaner, and a parts cleaning brush. Some good rubber gloves will help keep your hands clean, and a few rolls of those blue shop towels will be handy.

As stated, do not spin the bearings with compressed air. The rollers could blow out of the cage and cause injury.

Good luck in your project, I'm doing bearing service on our Alpine in the next couple of weeks.