Wheel bearings

[Opa]

When will I know it is time to repack wheel bearings. Is it based on time? Mileage?
I have a 30 ft TT that’s 5 years old.

[Badbart56]

Annually or every 5000 miles is what I have been told.

[bobbecky]

The Dexter Axle manual says every 10,000 miles or annually you should have the drums off to inspect the brakes and then repack the bearings.

[mcomeaux]

Annually for sure. Unable to say how many I've pulled apart and found wiring undone or worn through or brakes just so far out of adjustment and not being effective in stopping. 5 years is a long time without looking in and see how things are working.

[Opa]

Originally Posted by mcomeaux

Annually for sure. Unable to say how many I've pulled apart and found wiring undone or worn through or brakes just so far out of adjustment and not being effective in stopping. 5 years is a long time without looking in and see how things are working.

Mcomeaux Oh, man are you tellin' me. Its been too long. Life has hit me hard over the last 4 years, but now is the time the trailer gets the attention.
I'm taking it to a shop to get the work done, but it the future I want to be able to do it myself. I'm thinking about a fitting(?) that allows me to squeeze grease into the ball bearings, thus pushing out the old grease. Does this fitting work? Is there a better idea? I will look in and see how things are working annually. Thanks

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by Opa

Mcomeaux Oh, man are you tellin' me. Its been too long. Life has hit me hard over the last 4 years, but now is the time the trailer gets the attention.
I'm taking it to a shop to get the work done, but it the future I want to be able to do it myself. I'm thinking about a fitting(?) that allows me to squeeze grease into the ball bearings, thus pushing out the old grease. Does this fitting work? Is there a better idea? I will look in and see how things are working annually. Thanks

That's called EZ Lube hubs, Bearing Bubbies or some other cute names which if used with weak or cheap grease seals will also lube your brakes nicely as well as your bearings. In my opinion I recommend hand packing annually so everything gets inspected as well.

[chuckster57]

Bearings are rollers not ball bearings, and there is a “bearing packer” you can buy from auto parts stores or Harbor freight. We have a big one at work that sits on top of a 5 gallon bucket. Do I use it?
NOPE, old school habits die hard. Hand packed leaves NO DOUBT!

[mcomeaux]

Opa
The whole thing is about inspection and service. You can service yourself if you have the background. Includes cleaning bearings and inspect / replace seals / verify all connections IE magnets and wiring related. Check shoes for heat cracking. And I've done it both ways bearing packer and doing them by hand as well what ever is the easiest at the moment....
I've replaced a lot of axle's over the years in my shop due to lack of service. What could have been a $125 service turned into a much larger $epair bill..
Also good idea to record seal numbers and measure how wide your shoes and diameter of drums for future reference...Makes things a lot easier...

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by travelin texans

That's called EZ Lube hubs, Bearing Bubbies or some other cute names which if used with weak or cheap grease seals will also lube your brakes nicely as well as your bearings. In my opinion I recommend hand packing annually so everything gets inspected as well.

Sorry I thought you were talking about the zerks in the spindles for displacing the grease in the hubs. I've used one of the bearing packers, but like Chuck prefer doing by hand.