Greasing/repacking bearings

Aspen

Could somebody remind me how often the wheel bearings on the T@G should be regressed or repacked? I've put about 2,000 miles on my new 2018 T@G XL this summer and have about 2,000 more miles planned before season's end.... but I'd like to make sure I stay on top of any important maintenance before winterizing it. Thanks in advance!

TomD

The following link has some very good information relative to your question.
http://teardrop-trailers.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/1336#Comment_1336

Aspen

@TomD Thank you for the link... definitely good info there!

WilliamA

For my own peace of mind, I like to do wheel bearings and seals at least twice a year. I do lots of miles with my trailer and many of those are in "arduous" conditions involving offroad, mud, rocks and off-camber driving. For those who stick to the slabs, it's a good idea IN MY HUMBLE OPINION to do the maintenance a couple of times a year. I have a thread going elsewhere here (can't find it right now) that shows this:
Grease looks good! Right? It's only a few months old...

Get in there a little closer though, and it starts to get less attractive...

In the closeup you can see all of the suspended metal in the grease. Now, wheel bearings have been traveling for since they were invented with this stuff floating around inside the hubs and very few things happen that are bad as a result. That being said, it's not a difficult job to do or have done, and while you or someone else is in there, it's an easy thing to have a peek at things like brake shoes, seals and other components to spot potential problems. For those slabbers out there, keep in mind that the main source of wheel bearing failure isn't dirty grease, it's water in the grease. Water gets into the hubs from condensation whether you are moving the trailer or not. It's more likely that the less you use your trailer, the more condensation will collect inside because the temperature of the hubs is always the same (which is to say, there's no warming cycle from the hubs running down the road) and cold/hot weather cycles will pull in humidity to places it can't get out. A teaspoon of water will quickly break down a hub full of grease to the point it can't do its job.

For me, it's just part of the package of owning a trailer. As we used to say in the Army;
"Them things does good what the boss checks."
If you stand close to your trailer and look around a bit, you'll undoubtedly discover that the boss
is you....
WilliamA

Aspen

@WilliamA , great info and pics... thank you! I will definitely be sure to keep this in mind and have it done preventatively !

Aspen

My 2018 T@G has about 4-5K miles on it so I decided to add some grease and then have the bearings repacked professionally either at the end of this camping season or next spring. So I purchased and used about 3/4 of a tube of the Valvoline synthetic grease that @mgreen2 had mentioned in another previous thread ....but I noticed there was no old grease coming out... only the new grease. I spun the wheels in both directions for quite some time and cleaned out the excess new grease, but still concerned there was no sign of any of the original factory grease. Is it possible there was none or very little to begin with? ... or maybe it was the same consistency and shade of black that I had pumped in? I'm mostly concerned because I have a 1,500 mile road trip coming up soon. Any thoughts from those with more experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

tagurit

How soon did you see grease coming out? I use a similar type but different color to be sure I am swapping out the old grease. The old grease starts extruding almost immediately.

Aspen

@tagurit , the grease started coming out relatively quickly .... after about 1/4 of the new tube went in. I did see a small dab of what I assumed was leftover factory red grease near the seal before I started, but no red grease ever came out. I'll have to remember to use a different color next time so it's not all black.

mgreen2

Are you sure you had the grease gun on the fitting? If it was empty of grease it would take a long while before anything came out because it would have to fill up with grease first.. If you have it correct the old grease starts out after a couple seconds. You will clearly notice the difference between the old/new when the new grease makes its was thru the bearings and back out.

LuckyJ

Well, if company used red grease and you used black, this could be your answer, cause grease get dirty when it is use. In the case, the red grease probably turn black from dort, greem and heat.

willbingham1

Last season prior to trip out west in August on a left over 2017 I decided to check wheel bearings and add grease. Found my passenger side bearing had very little grease but driver's side OK. Everyone should check this out and not assume unless you directly ask your RV dealer to check before you drive out with new trailer the bearing grease status. New grease is red and old is black. Pump in high temp grease (red) until it's red on your bearing/wipe of excess. Also found it is much easier to remove wheel to get chrome bearing hub cover off and then loosely attach wheel to grease now exposed grease fitting still allowing one to spin wheel as you pump grease in and wipe off excess. Of course jack up trailer and put jack stands under for safety. Bill

LuckyJ

@willbingham1 said:
Last season prior to trip out west in August on a left over 2017 I decided to check wheel bearings and add grease. Found my passenger side bearing had very little grease but driver's side OK. Everyone should check this out and not assume unless you directly ask your RV dealer to check before you drive out with new trailer the bearing grease status. New grease is red and old is black. Pump in high temp grease (red) until it's red on your bearing/wipe of excess. Also found it is much easier to remove wheel to get chrome bearing hub cover off and then loosely attach wheel to grease now exposed grease fitting still allowing one to spin wheel as you pump grease in and wipe off excess. Of course jack up trailer and put jack stands under for safety. Bill

Do not know if this is related to outback/boondock models, but those have the rubber plug on the chrome cap. Just using a flat screw driver to pop the plug make the nipple easily accessible w/o removing the wheel at all.

mgreen2

If you have Dexter E Z Lube it is simple to take the chrome cap off the wheel and access the grease fitting.

**Photo size reduced. Moderator
**

willbingham1

Yes, you can just pop off chrome cap and access rubber boots over grease fitting. But try to keep grease as it squirts out off of inside of chrome hub cover and then off of wheels as it eventually slings of. That is why I suggested to remove chrome hub from wheel center so as to better clean off excess grease. Your preference, though. Bill

Jeeptag

So I was going to repack my bearings today thinking I had ez lube. This is what my hub looks like. I am unable to get the cap off the end. I guess I’m one of the unlucky ones with a 2019 that didn’t get the easy lube setup.

ontheroad

@Jeeptag ...you have the ez lube...the cap can be very stubborn...according to my hubby

Jeeptag

I guess I will get my rubber mallet and whack it a bit more. Thanks for the input. I can’t believe how stuck it is honestly.

albutzer

The group has motivated me to repack my bearings - have not done this for about a year - I will now do this more often - see the transition from the old black thin grease to the new red grease - yikes! At least no metal shavings of any kind.

Gerald98053

I just took apart my 2017 Little Guy wheel bearings. I don’t think they’ve ever been repacked or even lubed. One side had grease that looked like it was brand new, still red. The other side had black, foul smelling, disgusting slime like some monster from a 50s horror movie had been there. The stench was quite bad, really. Ick. I think the bearings are OK but obviously a seal had failed and there was water intrusion. Now I need to figure out exactly which seals to get. There are a zillion bearing kits, all of which sound almost correct.

LuckyJ

@Jeeptag said:
So I was going to repack my bearings today thinking I had ez lube. This is what my hub looks like. I am unable to get the cap off the end. I guess I’m one of the unlucky ones with a 2019 that didn’t get the easy lube setup.

Gently tap near the head of the cap around tge side with a hammer while turning the hub (what I call the head is cover, not near the hub). You will see the cap slowly come off. Tgen, take the cap and take it to a part store or trailer shop to get ease lub cap with the right size.

csonni

With the EZ Lube system, at what point does one remove the bearings and manually grease? I would think at some point in time. All the metal shavings might not come out as one pumps in new grease. also, with the larger wheels on the Boondock, I would think that bearings maintenance is required less than the standard 13 inch wheels on the non-Boondocks?

DaveB

@csonni if you use your Boondock as I do (paved road highway Princess) then the bearings should require slightly less maintenance than the standard t@g, but if you take it trail blazing and offroad often it might actually require more frequent maintenance due to the harsh conditions. I'm not physics smart enough to know these answers for real, just what makes sense to me in my little world.

Sharon_is_SAM

This comes up on the TaB forum. Many owners annually do a full, traditional bearing inspect, clean and lube. Those who tow with limited miles I think tend to use the EZ lube and maybe do an every other year traditional bearing maintenance. The Dexter instructions say to pack the bearings annually or every 12,000 miles, and they refer to the EZ lube system, so it is a little confusing.

csonni

I was just talking to. buddy who has used the EZ Lube system. He says he never pulls the bearings due to the risk of one piece of sand (we've got 600 ft of sand here under us) being left behind in the job and destroying the bearing. He says the EZ Lube system should be sufficient to do the job.

HikinMike

https://teardrop-trailers.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/508/greasing-the-wheels#latest

Watch the videos in this string.

LuckyJ

@csonni said:
I was just talking to. buddy who has used the EZ Lube system. He says he never pulls the bearings due to the risk of one piece of sand (we've got 600 ft of sand here under us) being left behind in the job and destroying the bearing. He says the EZ Lube system should be sufficient to do the job.

Perso, if tge back seal is good I am very confortable with the Ezlub system, making sure that you purge the bad grease.

Use my trailers in many hard condition and put a lot or milage with them.

csonni

Was going to pump through new Lucas Red & Tacky grease through today before our long trip on Friday but, after popping the caps, there was fresh looking red grease packed in there so I figured I'll save the new grease for when I return after about 9000 miles.

JamesDow

By popping tbe caps, do you mean the plastic T@G caps on the wheels. Any grease you would see there would be excess grease that has been pushed out of the wheel bearings.

LuckyJ

Yep, I wouod also give it a few pumps and see what come out. And yes, from that rubber cover.

csonni

@JamesDow said:
By popping tbe caps, do you mean the plastic T@G caps on the wheels. Any grease you would see there would be excess grease that has been pushed out of the wheel bearings.

The grease I was referring to was behind the rubber seal. Been on our journey across Newfoundland for 2 weeks now and loving every minute.

Shelly

Hello all....new here. We recently bought a used 2015 T@G. Best we can tell from looking at the hubs and also the user manual...these are permanently sealed? Doesn't appear to be a way to open them up for maintenance? Appreciate any insight folks might have on this.