Bearing grease

[longnecker]

Can anyone tell me how often the wheel bearings shoud be greased? How much grease should be pumped in to them?

[JohnB]

Dexter has a standing recommendation of every 12,000 miles or annually. They have to give some type of recommendation. They also recommend if you do not have self adjusting brakes, many do not, that every 3,000 miles you should adjust them.

Unless you are doing a lot of cross country or full timing, us weekend warriors have a hard time putting on 12K a year on a TT. I wish we could…. So from a lubrication standpoint light use is not going to wear out the grease. However I would not say to go beyond 2 years without pulling a brake drum even if you only have 5,000 miles on. The brakes need to be looked at and while the drum is off, change the grease.

It sounds like you might have the EX lube with the grease fitting in the end of the axle. If so jack the wheel up off the ground and spinning the wheel helps moving the grease thru with less pressure against the inside grease seal. The main thing is pump slow. If the inboard seal has a tear or crack into, grease can go right up in the brakes. Pumping fast or worse with a high volume greaser can really make a mess.

See here for how it works, but there is a brake drum and brakes on the inside.



A blown grease seal looks like this inside. And this is off my camper when I got it used and it is a manual grease setup. The seal was nicked, grease warms up and flies out as the wheel spins.


If you know you had a good bearing repack with grease where they did not go stingy on the grease pack, once a year is OK unless you are up in that 8,000 to 10,000 mile range on a long haul then you can add some along the way. Again I would not recommend going beyond 2 years between a drum pull as things happen to these brakes some times.

Actually the first time out with a brand new camper can be the worst. They put so little grease in there it is unbelievable. On a new camper, for sure it needs grease within the 1st year. Like after the first few months of camping.

Hope this helps

John

[jpspaz]

What type of grease do you recommend? I've been using marine grade waterproof grease on both of my trailers so I don't have to buy two different kinds of grease. I haven't had any issues with it. One thing though, on two of my wheels the grease cap leaks slightly. I have replaced them but it did not help. They're just low quality I guess.

[Steve Collins]

Originally Posted by jpspaz

What type of grease do you recommend? I've been using marine grade waterproof grease on both of my trailers so I don't have to buy two different kinds of grease. I haven't had any issues with it. One thing though, on two of my wheels the grease cap leaks slightly. I have replaced them but it did not help. They're just low quality I guess.

The Dexter Maintenance Manual recommends:

[jpspaz]

My trailer has AL-KO axles but I'm sure any of those would do. Thanks.

[Steve Collins]

Originally Posted by jpspaz

My trailer has AL-KO axles but I'm sure any of those would do. Thanks.

From the Al-Ko owners manual ( http://www.al-kousa.com/pdf/alkobrochure.pdf ):

Grease
Use a high temperature, automotive type wheel bearing grease
produced by a reputable manufacturer. The soap type should be lithium
complex or equivalent. Use NLGI Grade 2 product
with a minimum dropping point of 440o F.

Which is nearly identical to the Dexter spec with only a slight variation in the dropping point. I suspect if you check the label of any of the greases in the Dexter list, they'll match the Al-Ko spec as well.