Packing ez lube bearings

[Crabbypatty]

The ez lube is a large dust cap that covers a zerc fitting. The fitting allows grease to to be pumped into the rear bearing through a hole in the shaft that exits in the rear. This TT is new to me but when I bought it, the prior owners used it as a park model and took off the axles. So even though it was 7 years old the tires axles brakes were brand new. Reading about ez lube I pumped in axle grease each of the past three years. I routinely check the tire and rim axle temps whenever I stop and they have been always cool to the touch, a good indicator. Im heading out for a long trip shortly and wanted to examine and repack my bearings. In discussing with my auto parts guy, my question was how much grease do I pump in after I repack?. He said what is the difference between your old trailer without them and the new trailer with them when you repack? I said truly nothing the bearings will be serviced properly. He said exactly its not necessary to pump in more grease just buy regular dust caps and forget about those fittings. When I pulled the wheels apart, I found three of the 4 grease seals compromised from to much grease and on two of the wheels, the magnets and interior drum surface were coated. I doubt if I had much brake if any at all on that side. I cleaned it all up which took a while getting all that grease out of the middle of the drum repacked and re assembled. I did ad 5 pumps per axle. So from now on I will just do what I have always done. Every spring as part of my wake up ritual, Im just going to repack the bearings and forget about those zerc fittings. I don't trust it enough to lose my brakes. What do you think?

[trailrider]

I mean seriously who cuts a hole in the rubber plug? How do I get to that zerk under the plug? Pop it out? No, I will cut a hole in it...:S And now all the dust, water, etc will have a clear path to the bearings. Good thing the wheels had center caps that kept most of the grunge out.

[Lynnmor]

Thanks for the photos, now we have one believer in servicing the bearings.

[trailrider]

I finally got around to packing the bearings on this trailer I bought in November. All four hubs were adjusted WAY tight! Two of the small outer bearings were trashed because of it. The passenger side dust cap plugs had a hole cut out of the center. The brakes were way out of adjustment. One of the wires on one backing plate was rubbing on the seal because there was too much slack when the axle manufacturer assembled it. It had rubbed through the insulation and copper wire was showing.
The moral of this story is you need to take them apart and INSPECT everything because you don't know how many idiots have been in there before you.

P1010644 by trailrider383, on Flickr

P1010643 by trailrider383, on Flickr

IMG_20180602_124423164_HDR by trailrider383, on Flickr

IMG_20180602_124900495 (1) by trailrider383, on Flickr

[Crabbypatty]

The Two Pumps was not enough to do anything. I did not want the zerk and hidden supply tube to be empty. I will not pump until the reservoir is filled up which would probably take half a tube to make the grease come out the front. Repacking and inspecting the bearings, magnets, brakes and seals is a minor maintenance issue and provides big piece of mind each spring roll out. I did it every spring on my first TT, now this one with the EZ Lube, will have the same treatment. Im not sold on the EZ Lube being a cure all. In theory if you don't want to pay or DIY, it might makes sense for some people, but seals fail, as I saw, by pumping in to much grease to watch it come out the front until it was new grease. Its not a perfect system. So how do you know what you got unless you take a look?. You can only truly do that by taking it apart. It took longer to jack it up and take the wheel off than actually cleaning the bearings and replacing the seal. 4 wheels working slowly it was just over an hour. Small price to pay for piece of mind.

Glad this came up for discussion which was the point of it to raise awareness. If this helps someone some much the better.

[Lynnmor]

fj12ryder wrote:
Lynnmor, thanks for expanding on that article. It's no wonder so much misinformation of all kinds gets spread around when people who write such articles can't be bothered to do some actual research. Where do you suppose he got that piece of errata from?

I have no real issues with the EZ Lube system, and have made use of it for the first 7 years of ownership. I am now of the opinion that it is pretty much a marketing ploy. A well packed wheel will not need added grease until the next repacking, unless we're talking huge miles, unlikely with a normal RV trailer. However I definitely don't see the need for annual or biennial repacking. In my mind every 5 years of normal usage is fine. Obviously high mileage changes things a bit.

I think the guy just took a guess when he wrote the article.

I would agree with the idea that repacking could go for some time, but it is not so much about the grease as it is about inspecting cheap and possibly faulty parts. I have had my share of bad bearings and brake issues that I can't imagine going long distances without checking. I have been towing trailers with brakes for 43 years and could write a book on the junk. For me, the quality of the parts have been getting worse as time goes on.

[fj12ryder]

Lynnmor, thanks for expanding on that article. It's no wonder so much misinformation of all kinds gets spread around when people who write such articles can't be bothered to do some actual research. Where do you suppose he got that piece of errata from?

I have no real issues with the EZ Lube system, and have made use of it for the first 7 years of ownership. I am now of the opinion that it is pretty much a marketing ploy. A well packed wheel will not need added grease until the next repacking, unless we're talking huge miles, unlikely with a normal RV trailer. However I definitely don't see the need for annual or biennial repacking. In my mind every 5 years of normal usage is fine. Obviously high mileage changes things a bit.

[Lynnmor]

Howard, here is part of the exact quote from Trailer Life:

"When grease (usually far too much and too often, if our reader mail is an indication) is pumped into the Zerk fitting, that grease travels back through the center hole and exits in the middle of the spindle. That spot is near the center of the wheel hub, between the bearings. The new grease is added to the existing grease in the hub and displaces some of the old grease that exits from the outer surface of the inner and outer wheel bearings."

As you can see in Larry's photos the grease comes out between the seal and the inner bearing.


Larry, thanks for the photos. I know that you want to develop a responsible maintenance schedule for your spindles. From my experience, the quality of parts are all over the map and what might work for work or fail is only a wild guess. I have had bearings that were manufactured incorrectly and the failure process started on the first revolution. I still have the original wheel bearings in my 39 year old van and they were only serviced when brakes were replaced. Following are just a couple more issues that I have found with these cheap axles.

Now take a close look at your photo showing the grease coming out of the hole. Look at the shoulder where the bearing rests, that narrow lighter colored band on the seal diameter is the only contact area and that marginal has to take all the lateral thrust as the trailer rounds a curve. Look for a burr there because it can damage a new seal. As that shoulder gives way, bearing clearance increases. Of course others have already dismissed me when I called attention to this extremely poor design previously.

Another reason for pulling hubs is for brake inspection. In PA, one hub is pulled from each axle every year at a Pennsylvania inspection station. You need to check for broken of missing parts, brake lining wear, grease contamination, worn armature and magnet, and electrical issues. For example, look at your green wires and notice how close they come to moving parts.

I think there is no way to nail down an ideal schedule, if I would have used the recommended 12,000 miles, I would have been on the side of the highway multiple times. I am fighting back by using the best bearings and grease I can find and recognizing junk when I see it.

[Huntindog]

Larry are you referring to me?

I see a lot of agreement in your post.
Crabby already had seal failures and grease on his brakes... He then cleaned up that mess, installed new parts did a manual repack,,,, and THEN pumped more grease in. My point was that since he had already had failures, that doing the same thing over again would likely mean the same result... But if he was to disassemble it NOW before using it and discover the grease that it could be a simple easy fix.

If you disagree with that thinking then I suppose you can go help him clean up the next mess if it happens again.

[LarryJM]

While not in my original post below is a pic of the outer bearing with the amount of grease from the factory and these axles are LIPPERT 3500 axles with approximately 4,000 total miles since new.



Larry

[LarryJM]

fj12ryder wrote:

Crabbypatty wrote:
Its good to have a forum like this as after trying to get a proper answer from both Dexter and Lippert, it actually came from a discussion with my local auto parts store guy. So I thought after doing the service then a long ride, that I would share that information with everyone.

I hope others searching the forum will now have some factual simple guidance.

Happy Trails..

All I read on here are more opinions by people that like EZ Lube and people who hate them. Just depends on who you wish to listen to. Plus some of the opinions are by people who have never used EZ Lube, never been around them, and have no real knowledge of them. Just regurgitating forum lore.

And your speculative and FACTLESS post is a prime example of this what you call opinions and forum folk lore. I did what I considered a "FACT BASED" post back in 2009 which I tried to include a link to but somehow those links are not valid now??? Below is that post with updated links to the pics that were in the original post and are now no longer valid.

******EDIT***** I was able to link to that original post and it's in the CLICKY below for those interested (the pics are not there tho)

CLICKY


I'm in the process of doing my first full tear down/inspection on my Dexter E-Z Lube axles and took some pics.

This is a pic of the axle spindle upon removal of the drum and you can see that there was zero grease in the area around the axle spindle between the inner and outer bearing.



Here is where the grease exits which is on the inner face of where the grease seal fits and exits at only one small hole.



and a pic of the new grease coming out



Here is how much grease was on the inner bearing and grease seal and notice even the cavity in the grease seal wasn't full.







I've read several comments on this one or two pumps is all you need so I took and cleaned both the bearing and grease seal and reinstalled them dry and then applied two good pumps to the grease fitting on the end of the axle and below is how much grease got applied and I did not rotate the wheel either during or after pumping the new grease in.



Also be aware that until you fill the cavity in the hub/axle between the inner and outer bearings no grease will be applied to the outer bearing until you pump enough grease in to fill that cavity. I gave up after about 20 pumps and took the outer bearing out and squirted grease directly into the cavity and this was after I had filled the new grease seal up with grease in it's cavity also.

At least with the Dexter E-Z Lube axles there is absolutely no way to use the "number of pumps" to lubricate both bearings. You have to keep pumping while rotating the tire until the cavity if full and you seal grease being expelled from around the outer bearing and axle spindle nut.

While the E-Z Lube concept is good and does work after doing two wheels I'm somewhat concerned about just the amount of grease it takes to get it where it's working as designed. I'm estimating almost 1/3 or more of a standard tube of grease to fill things up on just one wheel. At $6/tube that might approach $9 in grease. I'm still formulating what I consider a reasonable maintenance schedule, but am starting to consider the following.

1. Doing a complete tear down for brake inspection, new grease seals that are required if the hub is removed every 5 years or 15K miles whichever comes first. I'm not recommending this, but having maintained and repacked TT wheels for over 25 years, IMHO this yearly requirement is overkill especially if you use the newer greases that also are more impervious to attracting moisture.

2. I think I might dump trying to fill the axle cavity after a complete tear down and inspection and lubricate both bearings via the grease fitting. I might just hand pack both bearings and not try and fill that hub/axle cavity with new grease and then each year or two pump in 10 pumps via the grease fitting while rotating the wheel to re-grease the inner bearing. Then I will buy one extra outer bearing that I will have prepacked and then w/o removing the hub and holding it in place, pry out the outer bearing and put the pre packed one back in and close things up. This will save me the cost of 4 new grease fittings (~$15 at current prices) and around $7 or so in un-needed grease sitting in that inner cavity.

Remember, I'm not recommending this type of maintenance schedule, but IMHO it seems a more reasonable approach and a good balance between using some of the E-Z Lube axle features and still lubricating both bearing every year or so and at least inspecting the outer bearing when lubing the wheel. I'm also not looking forward during my next complete tear down in digging all that grease out of the hub.


Larry

[Huntindog]

crabbypatty wrote:
I did ad 5 pumps per axle. So from now on I will just do what I have always done. Every spring as part of my wake up ritual, Im just going to repack the bearings and forget about those zerc fittings. I don't trust it enough to lose my brakes. What do you think?

I think you should pull the drums off now and check for grease where it doesn't belong.

By adding 5 pumps per wheel after a proper repack, it is very possible that you have fresh new grease in the brake area. Finding it now MAY be easier than finding it later.

[fj12ryder]

Lynnmor wrote:
I just got the May issue of Trailer Life and the dummy gave the wrong answer about the grease fitting nonsense. He said that the grease comes out the middle of the spindle between the bearings.

It is so amazing that a century old design for wheel bearings even needs to be discussed, but still many have no clue.

It's possible he meant "through the middle of the spindle" instead of "out the middle of the spindle". Possibly just a poor choice of words.

[MFL]

A certain amount of forum info is parroted, rather than actual knowledge, so misinformation can easily be passed from one thread to the next. Many folks, even on this forum, still don't know the difference between bearing buddies and EZ-lube.

Trailer Life will probably have corrected info in next issue.

Jerry

[Lynnmor]

I just got the May issue of Trailer Life and the dummy gave the wrong answer about the grease fitting nonsense. He said that the grease comes out the middle of the spindle between the bearings.

It is so amazing that a century old design for wheel bearings even needs to be discussed, but still many have no clue.