Wheel bearings

[Cajuncamper]

Fellow Jayco owners. A quick question about wheel bearing grease. My 2018 Pinnacle is 9 months old, and has been pulled locally camping for about 1500 miles. We are going to Branson in a couple days. Do you think I need to add grease, or leave it alone? Secondly, I understand it has Dexter axles , and that they use Lithium Complex grease . If I do add grease, can I use any good Lithiumcomplex grease rated for bearings? Your thoughts on this matter will certainly be appreciated.

[bdreinv]

I never add grease, if you do and the seals blow. The dealer,Lippert, and Jayco will blame it on you.We have 4 blown seals on our 2016 Eagle guess what! They are replaced under warranty. I would guess Lippert over packed then from the factory! Recently sold a 1999 Camary 228000 miles never added drop of grease. I realize there are many who would disagree to each his own!Thanks

[ALJO]

Myself I would leave it alone, but if you and have the EZ-lube system be sure to turn the wheel when pumping grease. I do mine every three years. On the semi-trailers they have a mileage chart. It seems RV axle manufactures try to cover their liability, by setting a date or mileage limit.

[Jagiven]

If dexter packed them correctly, your fine. I probably had 15+K miles before I repacked them.

The key is make sure to use the same type of grease, if you pump it in. Personally I like to repack by hamd. This way you can inspect everything.

[Cajuncamper]

Thanks guys. I was leaning to leave it alone and repack them after this camping season , using Dexter grease. That way they can’t say we used the wrong grease. After your responses, that’s the way I will proceed. Thanks again for your input.

[2edgesword]

On my prior TT the schedule was 12 months or 12,000 miles. I can understand the 12,000 miles but the 12 months never made sense to me. I had the TT for six years and put 7,800 miles on it and never repacked the bearings.

[rsday75]

To me, the year/month thing doesn't matter.
I repack after the first year, just to make sure they were done right at the factory. Most times they were not....
Lucas Red N' Tacky is your friend....
Never use that "EZ Lube" fitting unless you want blown seals, and a mess.
Pull, Inspect, Repack, Replace seals.
Then every 12-15,000 miles, do it again.

[jasonmiddlebrooks]

I am not a fan of mixing grease types in wheel bearings especially. If you don't know what is in there wait and break them down and repack. I like the idea of repacking, inspecting, and cleaning every 10,000-15,000 miles. It is not a hard job to do and is one less thing to worry about while traveling.

I am in the middle of doing mine now. Unit has 10,000 miles on it and is 1.5 years old. They have not been done since the factory. From the looks of the grease it was time. The grease was not holding its shape good, what I call getting a little "runny", and some was weeping out of the dust caps. The hubs already had the double lip seals on them so I had no grease contamination on the breaks. Good thing I went through them because on my rear left, the back shoe was warn down to nothing, but all the others were worn evenly. Got the replacement breaks (for the rear left and right) in today so the back two wheels will go back on so I can hit the road this weekend.

My axles call for Lithium NLGI #2 so I am using Lucas X-TRA Heavy Duty Grease: https://lucasoil.com/products/grease...vy-duty-grease

Attached are some pictures of the worn break shoe.

[Magnolia Tom]

Jason

Looks like you caught that just in time!

[Cajuncamper]

Jason,

Thanks for the info. I’ve decided to do just that. Make the trip as is, and disassemble and repack this fall. I too am nervous about adding grease , and possibly damaging the seal. I also like the idea of being able to look at everything. Thanks for your input.

[bstannard]

Have 2018 Eagle 321RSTS with about 5k miles. Recently pulled wheels. Brakes looked good, inner bearings had plenty of grease but outer were pretty sparse on two wheels. Added lube and put back together. May do complete clean, repack, reseal after summer travel and before winter run south.

[ttavasc]

Originally Posted by Cajuncamper

Thanks guys. I was leaning to leave it alone and repack them after this camping season , using Dexter grease. That way they can’t say we used the wrong grease. After your responses, that’s the way I will proceed. Thanks again for your input.

If you haven't been doing so yet I'd start checking the hub temps regularly when traveling. You can identify potential issues before they become a much bigger problem just by keeping tabs on the hub temps. You can pick up an inexpensive IR temperature gun at Home Depot or Lowes - maybe $15-25. Then check the hubs when stopping for fuel or rest breaks.

I've found my hubs generally run 20-25 degrees above ambient temps and usually within a couple of degrees of each other unless one side has been in direct sunlight for extended periods of time. One time I caught a brake shoe dragging as that hub was consistently 10-15 degrees higher than the other side. A simple adjustment fixed that issue before it became a much bigger problem.

[Rock]

U said a simple adjustment took care of one brake running hot. So u must have non self adjusting ones. After my summer trip my self adjusting are going in the garbage and being replaced with Manuel adjust ones.
Rock

[norty1]

If you are concerned at only 1500 miles, I would have them inspected.

I would never just pump grease into the fitting without knowing if it was needed.

[basque]

When you do repack the bearings, here is a grease that I use that is good.
Valvoline Cerulean.

[basque]

I have the EZ-lube system on my 355W Toyhauler. Last year I carefully added grease through the fitting very slowly until all of the old grease came out. Took awhile to complete this procedure. I thought everything was okay and amazingly never felt any braking issues last year. I do use the diesel exhaust brake a lot so maybe that is why I never noticed any braking deficiency. This spring I decided to disassemble the hubs and repack the bearings. Wow, did I get a surprise!! Two of the four were full of grease splatter on the brake backing plate, shoes and drum. What a mess. Thus I will never use the EZ-lube system again. I do think that the Lippert requirement to repack every year is totally ridiculous, unless you have driven the unit around 12,000 miles. Then again, repacking every year is better than sitting off the edge of a busy highway with a burned off axle.

[nylyon]

Same here, got a new TV and while testing brakes wasn't stopping for nothing. Pulled off one of the hubs and it was a nasty mess. Bought 4 new brakes and 4 axle seals.

I think that I will hand pack the bearings from now on.

[FrankD]

FWIW

I recently had to service a jayco 5th that I bought used in Richmond Ky so it could be transported to CWL in Tn, so I relied on my 5 decades of automotive experience, .

I bought a new set of 8 ply load range D tires from Amazon (stock was 6 ply) and had a Walmart service center mount and balance them, 1 tire at a time because the spare was a 5 lug wheel not 6 that the camper has.

While doing this I removed each wheel inspected the brakes, armatures, springs, and tested the actuators electrically. Two wheels had broken springs. I also thoroughly cleaned, inspected and repacked the wheel bearings. I used the high temp grease sold by Walmart as it is a non fibrous grease that looks like Kendall lube. I inspected each axle by using a mirror to see the bottom and using my hand to check for bearing wear patterns on the axles.

It is very important to clean the bearings thoroughly, visually inspect them, and pre-load them using your hands and rotate to test for small damage areas on each roller as I have seen a bearing look good, but have one or two rollers that have pits from water or other contaminants getting in, and then fail. So take your time doing this pre-load testing before repacking.

As I have always done I cleaned all the lube out of the hubs and from the axles. Upon reassembly. lightly coat the axle and add about a tablespoon of grease into the hub as a reservoir.

When adjusting the lock nut after repacking, it is advisable to tighten the nut securely, but not over tight, then rotate the hub about 10 revolutions. When this is done tighten the nut a little more if necessary, then back off only enough to get a cotter pin through the closest hole. Remember to cut the excess pieces of the cotter pin off to eliminate possible static electric charges being built up.

Hope This Helps!

[basque]

" After my summer trip my self adjusting are going in the garbage and being replaced with Manuel adjust ones" I am thinking of doing the opposite and get self adjusting type. Let me know why you are not keeping the self-adjusting ones so I don't make a mistake in my change-over. Thanks

[basque]

FrankD, thanks for you input, very good instructions. I have never heard of this though, "Remember to cut the excess pieces of the cotter pin off to eliminate possible static electric charges being built up." ???