Community Forums

jenandjon · 08-30-2013, 05:29 AM

Im shure this has been covered a few times already but im going to say it again. Use the correct grease if you pack your own wheel bearings!

I just bought my 5-th wheel at a farm auction. Got it dirt cheap. People were there to buy tractors not campers.
I got it home and had a hot hub. So I jacked it up and took it apart. I knocked the bearing buddies off and the grease just kind of dripped out like pudding.
They used corn head grease. Corn head grease is a very thin grease used in the gearboxes on the corn head attachment on John Deere combines. Its made to turn into oil when it warms up. It is essentally a very very thick oil that comes in a grease gun tube.
So I just went and got all new bearing, seals, and threw away the bearing buddies and put on shiny new dust caps.
Oh and i found the reason for the hot hub. the bearing buddy pushed that thin grease through the seal and coated the brake shoes with oil and made it hang up.

**JohnRR** · 08-30-2013, 08:24 AM

Good that you found it before it turned into a problem.

wa8yxm · 08-30-2013, 09:53 AM

The bearing buddies are a very good idea, if you use the correct grease (And do not forget to use the correct rear seals as well they keep the bearing well packed.

The problem you had was not the grease, not the bearing buddies, it was the rear seals, wrong kind (NOT BB seals) subject to blow out (BB seals do not blow out, well at least not easily)

Airstreamer6 · 09-04-2013, 04:18 AM

Two points:

When bearings are changed, the races should be changed too. The reason is that the races from previous bearings have grooves in them that match the old bearings and sometime cause problems when new bearings are installed.

When brake shoes are coated with grease, it is extremely difficult to remove it. Normally, new brake shoes are recommended. Otherwise, problems related to the grease can arise.

Of course, you sometimes can get by without doing these things without problems.