travel trailer axle maintenance

[ggilbert]

I have a pretty new 2018 264BH.
What if any maintenance is needs to be done to the Axles. and how often

The tires have green valve caps and the dealer said they are nitrogen filled and should keep constant air pressure. should i still check the pressure with a gauge or let it go until one looks low.

what can i do to protect the tires from dry rot

when this camper sits over the winter should i worry about the tires getting a flat spot on them?

Thank you,
Gary

[norty1]

I have my wheel bearings repacked and inspected every other season. While they do that they inspect the brake assemblies, the suspension parts that wear, Spring shackles, spring shackle inserts and springs for abnormal wear.

Some never do it but I like being pro active and have an aversion to sitting on the side of a interstate broke down.

IMO, Nitrogen is a sales gimmick to get the tire guy's kids thru college. If you are driving a race car at high speeds or landing it like a jet plane it's not worth the cost.or trouble involved. Others will say they don't have to add air as often.

Tires will deteriorate and IMO need to be replaced in 4-5 years, no matter how they look. They hardly ever wear out unless there is a problem but they do age and crack.. or come apart from thread separation.

There are lots of opinions out there about the best way to treat them in winter. I would think that keeping weight off them would help but in my case they are used year around.

[ggilbert]

About how much does the axel maintenance cost?

[norty1]

I pick mine up in the morning. I'll use your thread to outline what they did and what it cost if OK.

I already know they charge. $126 a hour. I used to do it myself but I passed 76 this week and the old body really does not like to much knee time unless it's praying!

[bankr63]

I always laugh at the whole Nitrogen thing. Air is 78% Nitrogen already (21% Oxygen). So most of what you are pumping in at home or the gas station is Nitrogen anyway. The thinking is that Nitrogen is a larger molecule, so it won't penetrate the tire wall as easily as the Oxygen component of air does and escape.

Interestingly, someone did a comparison and found that in real world conditions nitrogen filled tires did not hold their pressure as well as straight air filled tires and actually got warmer in normal usage. Of course it was only done on two vehicles with the same vehicle/tire combo - not enough to be really statistically significant, but enough to call into question the whole value of spending extra for it.

[ggilbert]

I Think the nitrogen comes from the factory, unless the dealer is deflating the tires and changing the valve caps when they get them. and that may be the case i'm not sure.

[DocBrown]

The advantage to pure nitrogen is that it doesn't have the dramatic pressure sways that regular air has. Those pressure sways are caused temperature changes. Note that you're tire pressure goes up on a hot day even if it's sitting. The same is true on cold days, the pressure drops. Not so much with nitrogen.

That's why nitrogen is used on airplane tires and race cars.

Now, is it worth it for your vehicles and trailer? That's a personal choice, but I'm certainly not going to spend the money. I have a compressor at home and lots of gas stations have free air.

[us71na]

Originally Posted by DocBrown

The advantage to pure nitrogen is that it doesn't have the dramatic pressure sways that regular air has. Those pressure sways are caused temperature changes. Note that you're tire pressure goes up on a hot day even if it's sitting. The same is true on cold days, the pressure drops. Not so much with nitrogen.

That's why nitrogen is used on airplane tires and race cars.

Actually the change in pressure due to temperature change between air and nitrogen are almost equal. The culprit is that air normally contains moisture and moisture will be an even greater issue when compressed air is being used to inflate tires. When water gets hot it expands dramatically which is what causes the pressure changes.

Bottled nitrogen contains almost no water and this is why nitrogen is used instead of compressed air for racing tires, aircraft tires, etc.

Unless you were to fill and purge a tire multiple times with pure nitrogen or mount the tire on the wheel and then place it in a vacuum chamber, some amount of air and also the water vapor is going to be present in your tire. All that volume inside the uninflated tire contains air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level

[jimovernon]

Use a good tire protectant and get some tire covers to protect them from the sun. Keep them inflated as recommended. I had the tires on my popup for 14 years with zero issues.

[GarlicDude]

In another post here I read where Goodyear recommends 10 lbs over the sidewall number for long term storage

[ggilbert]

is Armerall ok or is there something better.

[Marmot]

Never go on a trip without checking your air pressure. Just ignore the nitrogen nonsense. Fill the tires first thing in the morning, before the sun shines on them. Use the tire pressure requirements listed on the left side of the trailer, or printed on the sidewall.

[Marmot]

Always use white tire covers when parked. My 2015 Jayco sits for 7 months each year in central Texas. I’ve never had a tire flat spot.