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Old 05-31-2015, 08:45 AM   #1
Lawdogs
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Greased Hubs

I was able to get my trailer back from the dealer in late March. I was having an issue with my right front tire being towed in. I posted this information under "Unusual Tire Wear!". After having my claim denied several times, Keystone finally agreed to replace my front axle.
I have never thought the brakes on the trailer were working as well as they should. Had brakes, but thought they should be working better. The trailer is one year old. I have 4000 miles on the rear axles and 400 miles on the newer front axles. I was running my brake controller on a max of 10. Having a couple of days off, thought it was time to do a full investigation of all the brake components. I check the electrics from the truck to the trailer all the way to the brakes. Everything checked out fine. Next step, pull the hubs to inspect the shoes and drum. While I had the hub pulled, decided I would repack the bearings(my first). Below are pictures of what I found.
The first two pictures are the drums from the newer front axle. You should be able to see where the grease has worked pass the grease seal. NOTE: I have not added any grease through the grease fitting. Thanks to great advice found on this forum, I will never add grease through a fitting to any trailer that has brakes! The next two pictures are from the rear older drums. What a mess! I had wiped most of the grease from one of the rear drums before I decided to take pictures. The rear magnets were coated in grease. The shoes did not look bad. I know the grease could have impregnated some of the shoes, but did not appear so. I think the grease coated drum walls were preventing the magnet from getting a good enough hold to fully activate the brake.
I cleaned everything up the best I could with brakleen (not the shoes). Repacked the bearings and remount the gear. After adjusting the brakes, had DW do several pulls in the driveway and apply brakes. What a huge different!!! Will be headed out this weekend. Will adjust the brake controller and see how everything is working. I'm predicting it will be working way better. If not, next step will be replacing the brake assemble. Not hard to do, 5 bolts, 2 wires and adjust. I have read that the cost of a new brake assembles are about the same as buying and installing new shoes.
I can not say how the factory is assembling these hubs. Is it possible they are filling the hubs with a grease gun?!?!? I sure hope not.
I hope this post might help others with a similar issue.
Happy Camping
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Old 05-31-2015, 09:15 AM   #2
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Just FYI, you can use brakleen on the shoes, then wipe with a CLEAN rag. I do so I can inspect the shoes for any cracks.
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Old 05-31-2015, 09:28 AM   #3
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Wow.. great post.
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Old 05-31-2015, 09:32 AM   #4
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Lawdogs,

Thanks for the pictures and for posting your findings. As for what "the factory" does with axles, it's my understanding (from what I saw when at Keystone) that Keystone doesn't do any maintenance or prep with them. The axles come complete with hubs, springs and equalizers attached and packaged on pallets. All Keystone does is bolt them to the frame rails and turn the frame over onto the tires at the entry into the assembly line.

If you think about your "new axle" it never even was at the assembly line, it was likely shipped from Dexter to the dealership and never saw the "light of day" at Keystone. Even if it did ship from Keystone, it wasn't on the assembly line, rather it was taken off a pallet at the warehouse and shipped to you.

I'm thinking that if there's a problem (and with your new axle there clearly is) it's a Dexter issue in how they are assembling them at their plant.

Any thoughts?
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Old 05-31-2015, 09:46 AM   #5
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Not point fingers at Keystone. The axles are from Lippert. I was just wondering if the hubs were overfilled with a grease gun or am I having grease seal failures. Surely not on all 4 axles!!!!
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Old 05-31-2015, 09:48 AM   #6
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My experience is that the hubs are under greased from the factory. Can't tell you how many empty hubs I've found the first time I pull one apart.
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Old 05-31-2015, 09:49 AM   #7
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Thanks Chuckster57. Your information is always valued!!!
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Old 06-02-2015, 07:43 PM   #8
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If the dexter hubs are greased according to proper procedure with a hand grease gun (tire off ground, spinning slowly while grease is added until you can see it coming out the front bearing) there is absolutely nothing wrong with using this design.

Have several ERS trailers on the road everyday and they are greased in this manner. A couple have in excess of 300K km and are still on original bearings.

YMMV but we have used this procedure for years with never a bearing failure nor greased brakelinings.
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Old 06-03-2015, 03:11 AM   #9
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LittleJoe, I realize this horse is almost dead, but I'm going to hit it one more time. Can you tell me where the original grease goes that you are replacing thru the grease zerk under the hub? Remember now, you are adding grease to an axle that traveled maybe a thousand miles, maybe 2 thousand miles. Any reason Chevy doesn't put a zerk on the front wheel of their pickup? See where I'm going with this. This may have worked fine for you for many years,
but we need to know where the original grease went.....
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Old 06-03-2015, 03:35 AM   #10
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I find this grease zerk on the hub stupid. I have not found that grease goes anywhere in hubs. There is a seal on both ends just to keep the grease in there. So by grabbing a grease gun and just pumping more in there without removing the old grease is not good. The reason to grease the bearings is to clean the old grease out and replace the seals with new ones. There is no reason to add more grease to what goes on the bearings. There is a youtube video on how to repack a bearing. If you don't remove the hub to inspect the bearings and check the brakes something will fail on the road. To much grease is bad. Don't pack the hub full of grease. It's not going to do anything to help the bearings.
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Old 06-03-2015, 04:12 AM   #11
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The old grease is purged out the front bearing. You are not just adding more grease you are purging until you get new grease out the front. If you follow the directions and pump slowly while rotating the wheel there is nothing wrong with this method. The advantage to hand packing, is you can inspect the bearings at time of service. Hand packing and inspecting is good practice, but there is nothing wrong with using the grease fittings in between inspections.

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Old 06-03-2015, 04:56 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by notanlines View Post
LittleJoe, I realize this horse is almost dead, but I'm going to hit it one more time. Can you tell me where the original grease goes that you are replacing thru the grease zerk under the hub? ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by old timer View Post
I find this grease zerk on the hub stupid. I have not found that grease goes anywhere in hubs. There is a seal on both ends just to keep the grease in there. ... If you don't remove the hub to inspect the bearings and check the brakes something will fail on the road. ...
Yup, the "horse is having some problems breathing and is barely moving" but not completely dead yet......

As for "Can you tell me where the old grease goes" it "oozes" out around the zerk fitting. If you go to the Dexter site, there's some pretty interesting (for those who have never looked at the concept of the EZ Lube axle) diagrams that explain how it works. The EZ Lube section starts on page 57. http://www.dexteraxle.com/i/u/614960...d_Bearings.pdf

As for "if you don't remove the hub to inspect the bearings and check the brakes something will fail on the road".... There's no "GUARANTEE" that anything "WILL FAIL". Some people have never inspected or repacked their bearings and have not had a failure on the road. I don't think it's the inspection that prevents failure on the road, rather it's the "relubrication" of the bearings that prevents wear. How that "relubrication" occurs isn't really that important, as long as it "happens" somehow..... Granted, if something is defective, the inspection will identify that component for replacement, but anything mechanical is subject to failure on the road whether or not you "hand pack" your bearings or "use the zerk" to pack your bearings. Bottom line is: There's no guarantee that anything "WILL" fail at any specific place or time. Ignoring maintenance requirements "will" increase the potential, but that may (or may not) change "could fail" to "will fail".

I think this "concept" (EZ Lube vs Hand Packing) of how to maintain wheel bearings has entered the realm of questions that we can "argue about till the cows come home" and there's not any "stastically proven" data that will accurately reflect that one concept or the other is "the only way".... Honestly, I believe it's better to properly use the EZ Lube feature than to completely ignore doing anything to maintain the hubs, but even Dexter, in their Axle Manual notes that the EZ Lube system is not the "sole maintenance action". The section starts with this note: "NOTE: The convenient lubrication provisions of the EZ Lube and the oil lubrication must not replace periodic maintenance of the bearings." It's a "OPTIONAL" procedure available to simplify bearing maintenance (for those who want to use it) but does not replace hub removal and bearing/seal inspection and maintenance completely.

It's much like the "Which is better, GM, Ford or Ram?" There simply ain't no right or wrong answer. Maybe the concept should be moved to the "agree to disagree" category?????
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Old 06-06-2015, 09:42 AM   #13
Ken / Claudia
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Having a hand grease gun with me is a tool I carry like a bottle jack etc. So far, after about 40 years of pulling trailers of one type or another. Never blew out seals putting grease into the wheel bearings. I have repacked a few and replaced wheel bearings on Chev and Ford P/Us. If they had grease fittings they likely would not have failed, since I would have been checking them.
I just found a failed bearing buddy on my boat trailer. Grease was dripped out on wheel and tire. The buddy would not hold grease under pressure any longer. Marine dealer never seen one fail but, mine did. Because I check and look over my equipment often. I knew it had failed within about 20-30 miles. Lucky the bearing was fine. I still say that tires and wheels including brakes and bearings are some of the most important parts of any trailer and over looked by many. But, they sure can cause big problems when they fail.
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