Lippert wheel bearings

[Joe11]

New triple axle trailer with Lippert axles. Intermittent towing with approximately 3,600 miles on unit. Small amount of grease showed on exterior of wheels. Pulled one wheel and grease had discharged into the brake drum. Did a search on Lippert wheel bearing problems. Seems they have had issues for at least a few years.

Anybody else experience this?

[snipe]

Seems like this is the issue where using a grease gun and pumping grease using the easy lube fitting the grease can be pushed thru the rear seal and into the brake drum and possibly onto the brake shoes. I had that happen to one of my brakes and now will only hand pack the bearings and not use the fitting. Some guys say it works fine and other will not, it's a choice you decide.

[Carvendive]

2017 Cougar Xlite 5th. Talked with dealership maintenance department tech and he recommended that I NOT use the grease fitting as they have had a lot of problems with grease getting into the breaks. He says THEY now only do repacks. Also, he recommended a 5000 mi interval. At almost $300 I'll do my own repack.

[monkey]

Originally Posted by Carvendive

2017 Cougar Xlite 5th. Talked with dealership maintenance department tech and he recommended that I NOT use the grease fitting as they have had a lot of problems with grease getting into the breaks. He says THEY now only do repacks. Also, he recommended a 5000 mi interval. At almost $300 I'll do my own repack.

Have a 2016 Cougar Xlite... Dexter axles. Just did our first inspection/repack. 12 months, maybe 5-6K miles Not hard,,, maybe $40 including grease and seals... My choice is I'd rather look at the bearings and races instead of pumping extra grease in the hubs. ... Monkey

[dwhit]

Yep...before a Colorado trip I decided to look at the brakes on my XLR 415 Thunderbolt. All the shoes were greased.

Purchased new seals, used four tall cans of brake cleaner and reassembled it all with new grease.

Whew!

[Joe11]

My fifth wheel has approx. 3,600 miles on it total since new 8 months ago. I'm sitting in a campground 1,200 miles from home getting new bearings and seals. So far, all three axles on the driver side of the trailer had grease inside the hubs. The what ever caused it happened at the factory.

[Bob_C]

I'm going out and buy a lottery ticket....In 7 years of use and 34,000 miles, never had grease anywhere it didn't belong.......this year switched to disc brakes, so now have 4 sets of China brgs as spares....look like new...and I've always greased using the EZ lube hubs.....

[Joe11]

Just pulled two hubs on side of trailer that did not show any grease and braking components were coated in HEAVY grease. No stopping power coming from those.

[Joe11]

Braking components

[egwilly]

I have not been able to understand why this system is deployed by travel trailer frame manufacturers. Lippert had to upgrade their assy line to include automatic greasing systems as the drum travels thru the line.
I had these grease gun fittings on a boat trailer.....makes sense since I was immersing them in the water at every launch and retrieve.
Maybe someone can enlighten me on this?

[Bob_C]

Beating buddies on a boat trailer aren't the same ......the E ZZ lube spindle is gun drilled...( Hole thru spindle), and cross drilled just in front of inner brg....next time in a auto parts store, look at the cone shaped brg Packers....works on same principle...,..other then the grease will travel back thru the hub to the outer brg, thru the brg, and exit around the rubber plug

[egwilly]

Originally Posted by bob caldwell

Beating buddies on a boat trailer aren't the same ......the E ZZ lube spindle is gun drilled...( Hole thru spindle), and cross drilled just in front of inner brg....next time in a auto parts store, look at the cone shaped brg Packers....works on same principle...,..other then the grease will travel back thru the hub to the outer brg, thru the brg, and exit around the rubber plug

Thank you for your response....however, it does not answer my main question/concern as to WHY are the trailer axels equipped with these lube fittings on travel trailers?
In order to do an effective and proper repack and inspection, you need to pull the drums and remove the bearings and seals, check the brake shoes and drum, eyeball the magnet and wiring, inspect and replace the seals and repack the bearings. Just shooting grease into the zerk fitting does not qualify as a proper repair or maintenance procedure, IMHO.
This is the way I have done it since owning trailers. If I was a repair shop, I would insist my mechanics follow the same procedure.

[Joe11]

This mess happened at Lippert during assembly on new equipment. I don't understand why NHTSA dosent do anything about these kind of recurring safety problems.

[Bob_C]

Not everybody has the knowledge to pack w/brgs.....that and along knowing how to adjust a wheel brg...