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Old 07-05-2016, 03:08 AM   #1
texhater42
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Bearing repack time??

Ok, numbers seem to be all over the place here...from 12K miles to 10K miles, or annually...which ever comes first...personally I only put a little over 1K miles on my camper since I bought it new last year. So, that being said, is it necessary for bearing servicing already? "Safe than sorry" and all that, but that's a big disparity...only wondering thasks all!
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Old 07-05-2016, 04:16 AM   #2
bsmith0404
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The wheel bearings on an RV do not require repacks that often, they are not abused like a boat trailer. Their use is similar to front wheel bearings on older cars. Trying to keep up on how many miles or how many years is pretty much a waste of time to me. With that said, you still don't want an issue on the side of a road. My routine is to repack every other year. The off years I pump a little new grease through the zerk. Many people don't agree with pumping through the zerk because some have blown the rear seal and ended up greasing the brakes, but I've never had an issue. I do it on a warm day so the grease is soft, use a hand pump grease gun, pump VERY slowly while spinning the wheel. My RV gets around 5-6k miles per year. You can set a routine based on your use. With only 1k miles per year, I might do a repack every 3 years with grease through the zerk on the off years. It's nice to do a repack every other year or so so you can inspect everything for peace of mind.
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Old 07-05-2016, 07:31 AM   #3
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Dexter says 12 months or 12,000 miles. IMO, a bit too conservative on the time but the miles are probably good. If you are - ahem - old enough to recall the cars of years ago, that was their recommendation for front wheel bearings too. I do ours at 12,000 miles or two years. With that said, so far with our '14 fiver, that's been twice.

New trailers, if ours was any indicator, need to be done almost immediately or at least looked at as a couple of the outer (rough Chinese 'junk') bearings had shown signs of overheating and with very little grease so all were replaced by US made Timkens. I also don't use the Zerks, depending on my hand packing with a Dexter recommended grease. If done right, E-Z Lube bearings are just fine as long as you use a hand pump gun and rotate the wheels.

You also get a chance to inspect the brakes, magnets and drums and adjust the the brakes as long as you are down on the ground, greasy and dirty

A set of wheel seals will be needed as well and they are very inexpensive from Etrailer vs Dexter or even NAPA. If you have 5200/6000 pound axles, the part number at Etrailer is 10-36 and they are $4.18/pair: https://www.etrailer.com/Seals-for-T.../RG06-070.html
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Old 07-07-2016, 12:56 PM   #4
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Dexter says 12 months or 12,000 miles. IMO, a bit too conservative on the time but the miles are probably good. If you are - ahem - old enough to recall the cars of years ago, that was their recommendation for front wheel bearings too. I do ours at 12,000 miles or two years. With that said, so far with our '14 fiver, that's been twice.



New trailers, if ours was any indicator, need to be done almost immediately or at least looked at as a couple of the outer (rough Chinese 'junk') bearings had shown signs of overheating and with very little grease so all were replaced by US made Timkens. I also don't use the Zerks, depending on my hand packing with a Dexter recommended grease. If done right, E-Z Lube bearings are just fine as long as you use a hand pump gun and rotate the wheels.



You also get a chance to inspect the brakes, magnets and drums and adjust the the brakes as long as you are down on the ground, greasy and dirty



A set of wheel seals will be needed as well and they are very inexpensive from Etrailer vs Dexter or even NAPA. If you have 5200/6000 pound axles, the part number at Etrailer is 10-36 and they are $4.18/pair: https://www.etrailer.com/Seals-for-T.../RG06-070.html


Lots of good advice here.

PROPERLY packed wheel bearings (forget about that grease zerk business -- old-school hand packed the way they should be) can go a long time.


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Old 07-15-2016, 07:07 AM   #5
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I second the comment on the poor quality bearings especially the outers. I have just done the 4th repack and have found at least 1 of the outers in the beginning stage of failure i.e., rollers pitting. My plan for the future is to just replace the outers on each service. It will save a lot of time and fuel having to go and pick up bearings. The inner bearings have not been an issue.
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Old 07-15-2016, 09:28 AM   #6
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.................. I have just done the 4th repack and have found at least 1 of the outers in the beginning stage of failure i.e., rollers pitting....................
You may want to review your preloading procedure and lubricant. Page 12 gives more details: http://www.timken.com/en-us/products...ence-Guide.pdf

Here is the preload procedure I now use: http://www.timken.com/en-in/solution...nt_English.pdf
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Old 07-17-2016, 07:21 AM   #7
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That is the method I have used for years in fact I take it a step further and recheck the end play after about 200 km. I have used just about every quality grease out there, my problem is the weight of the trailer and the 5200 lb
axles combined with the annual trek down the I5 from British Columbia to Southern California. The outer bearings don't show signs of overheating or cup failure the failure is always very minor pitting of one or two of the rollers.
Last year I tried using the Dexter method of bearing adjustment but the result was the same so I will stay with my plan of replacing the outers when I do the repack.
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Old 07-17-2016, 07:34 AM   #8
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It is good that you are being proactive, but it is too bad it is necessary.


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Old 07-18-2016, 11:11 AM   #9
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That is the method I have used for years in fact I take it a step further and recheck the end play after about 200 km. I have used just about every quality grease out there, my problem is the weight of the trailer and the 5200 lb

axles combined with the annual trek down the I5 from British Columbia to Southern California. The outer bearings don't show signs of overheating or cup failure the failure is always very minor pitting of one or two of the rollers.

Last year I tried using the Dexter method of bearing adjustment but the result was the same so I will stay with my plan of replacing the outers when I do the repack.


I thought I read somewhere that the only difference between the 5,200 lb axles and the 6,000 lb axles were the outer bearing size and the hub to fit that bigger bearing. If I understand that properly, one could upgrade fairly easily to the bigger bearing if you were open to buying new hubs.

I am thinking about that upgrade myself.


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Old 07-18-2016, 09:09 PM   #10
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If you are going to go to that much trouble, might as well upgrade to disk brakes. You will still need the occasional repack, but you will gain better brakes.
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Old 07-19-2016, 07:08 AM   #11
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Its not the hub/drum assembly that's different its the axle stub which makes things more complicated. In my case the only extra expense during servicing is the cost of the bearings. I can buy a lot of bearings for the cost of replacing the axles.
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Old 07-19-2016, 03:44 PM   #12
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Its not the hub/drum assembly that's different its the axle stub which makes things more complicated. In my case the only extra expense during servicing is the cost of the bearings. I can buy a lot of bearings for the cost of replacing the axles.


Not sure if you are responding to me or not. But if you were, I'm pretty sure the Dexter 5,200 and 6,000 stubs are the same. Just bigger outer bearings, which would be the hub being different.

I'll have to verify...


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Old 07-19-2016, 05:23 PM   #13
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I thought I read somewhere that the only difference between the 5,200 lb axles and the 6,000 lb axles were the outer bearing size and the hub to fit that bigger bearing. If I understand that properly, one could upgrade fairly easily to the bigger bearing if you were open to buying new hubs.
.......

This is where you may have read it: bobby stuff.com (disc brake install)



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Old 07-21-2016, 02:19 PM   #14
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This is where you may have read it: bobby stuff.com (disc brake install)



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Wow, great find! That write-up implies even the hub (drum) is the same for 6k axles.

The hydraulic brakes intrigue me... but I'm definitely upgrading to 6k.


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Old 07-22-2016, 04:23 AM   #15
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Wow, great find! That write-up implies even the hub (drum) is the same for 6k axles.

The hydraulic brakes intrigue me... but I'm definitely upgrading to 6k.


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The best way start your 'research' is to get the bearing part number - they should all conform to an international system - then see what the inside diameter of each measures. Next would be the spindle dimensions and the difference, if any, between the bearing machined surfaces. If everything is the same, 5200 and 6000 pounds, you at least have a place to start. One item concerns me and only Dexter, or finding a damaged axle to cut up, will confirm is if the tubing has the same wall thickness. Someone on another forum wall said that Dexter used a different thickness but in a manufacturing/financial sense doesn't make a lot of sense. 3" OD tubing is a heckuva lot less expensive to buy and process if you can interchange it between very similar products. That of course, begs the question - why even have a 5200 pound capacity axle when you need two different hubs. Or are they in actual fact, since Kodiak disc kits fit 5200/6000 axles!!
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Old 07-22-2016, 07:22 AM   #16
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From what I am told but I haven't confirmed myself is that the cone on a 6k has a bigger ID than the 5200 and is wider, the cup is the same OD and again is wider
which all made sense. the only restriction to upgrading really is the ID difference. As for the tube wall thickness I don't know.
The bottom line is that what I have is what I have and I need to take extra care of the outer bearings.
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