Wheel Bearing Maintenance

[grey ghost]

I've always repacked my wheel bearings about every 3,000 miles and always cked the brakes at the same time. Now we have a larger RV (35' Montana 3121) asking for advice as to how often these should be repacked, what is the best type or brand to use and can you use the certs or is it best to repack the old fashion by hand method?
I used to use GC-LB #2 Master Pro in my grease gun every 1,500 miles and then total repack at 3,000. I'm ready for any advise from the group.

[bobbecky]

Dexter recommends annual repack when you inspect the brakes, which is the important part of the process. It’s pointless to use the zerks if you can’t see the brakes plus all that grease you need to fill the hub cavity is wasted when you do pull the drums to inspect the brakes. So, by not pulling the drum/hub assembly, you have no idea what is going on with the brakes and you don’t know what condition the bearings are in.

[bsmith0404]

My Alpine is a little bigger than your 3121, same axles. I used to repack every other year and use the EZ Lube zerks on the off year when I only did 2-3k miles per year. Didn’t really pump a lot of grease into the EZ Lube, just about 5 pumps on the grease gun to get some new grease into the rear bearings. Many people on here will tell you not to use the EZ Lube, too many horror stories of people not doing it correctly, over filling, blowing out the rear seal and greasing the brakes. I’ve never had an issue with that doing it the way i did. I’ll admit i only did it because I didn’t feel like repacking every year for 3k miles of use, but wanted some new grease in the bearings (only the rear bearing, but it made me feel better). I guess it was my way to justify being too lazy to do a repack every year. Now that I’m retired and putting more miles on the RV each year, 5-10k, I repack every year. Dexter has specs on what is required for grease, there’s a lot of very good options out there. Many people in here have had good luck with red and tacky, I’ve used Amsoil and Mystik in the past, but now I use Sta Lube wheel bearing grease.

My Alpine is 10 years old now with around 50-60k miles, OE bearings still look new. Just finished my annual repack last week.

[ChuckS]

Don’t use the stupid zerks on the Dexter EZ lube..

If you use the Dexter,axle service manual as your guide you won’t go wrong with bearing and brake service interval

Every year or 12K miles is all that is normally needed

Hand pack the bearings using the old grease in your palm method or a bearing packer if you really want one..

Lucas Red & Tacky is all I have used on my current Alpine 7K axles for the last 9 years.. I also use it on suspension for the RV and all my autos

Images of my Dexter bearings OEM with 39K miles .. 9 years old now

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by grey ghost

I've always repacked my wheel bearings about every 3,000 miles and always cked the brakes at the same time. Now we have a larger RV (35' Montana 3121) asking for advice as to how often these should be repacked, what is the best type or brand to use and can you use the certs or is it best to repack the old fashion by hand method?
I used to use GC-LB #2 Master Pro in my grease gun every 1,500 miles and then total repack at 3,000. I'm ready for any advise from the group.

Sounds like total overkill to me. Good schedule for changing the oil in an engine but unnecessary for wheel bearing maint.