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?

[fj12ryder]

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.

[Crabbypatty]

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..

[Huntindog]

SCClockDr wrote:
The misinformation in this thread is astounding. Where did the first batch of new grease come from. There is but one grease galley once you see clean grease the old has been moved out. There may still be some old, I concur and if the same grease is used it should not present an issue.
With drum brakes Easy Lube spindles are a waste as the drum needs removal to inspect the magnet and linings. Disc brakes benefit from this feature because the pads and spindle seal can be inspected assembled.
Pump or pack = personal preference for disc brakes IMHO.

I can tell you haven't packed any bearings.
If you had, you would have noticed that the grease changes color only in the bearings and races. Any grease in the hub cavity stays new looking. Part of the reason is that there will always be some outside infiltration of contaiminents thru the grease seal, and cap areas. the rest is from use and some slight wear of the bearings/races.

The grease in the middle is basically unused.

There ARE some variables. On the initial grease gun use at the first scheduled servicing.... How much grease was installed at the factory???
Reports vary on this. So will the users first servicing. If basically no grease was in the cavity to start with, then at the first servicing, all of the dirty grease will exit at once. This is because the new grease pushes the old inner bearing grease out thru the empty cavity until it hits the outer bearing old grease and then it all exits at once. After that, there will be two bands of dirty grease that need to be purged.

In either case, using this feature will take several tubes at every servicing. 3.5 tubes have been reported here for a tandem axle servicing

There is yet another likely scenario:
At some point, the entire cavity is filled with new grease. Then the owner does a servicing by pumping some grease into the zerk...
Lets say it is done perfectly, and a band of dirty grease emerges followed by clean grease, just as in the Dexter video. Maybe the owner gives it a few extra pumps for good measure, then calls it good and grabs a beer.... Unaware that the dirty grease from the inner bearing is still in the hub cavity. At the next servicing the same thing happens and the dirty grease from the previous servicing is pushed further along towards the outer bearing by this servicings dirty grease. The owner sees clean grease emerging, calls it good and grabs a beer.
Unaware of the Tsunami of dirty grease that is approaching the outer bearings. At some servicing point, it will enter the outer bearing. The owner may not be aware of it, as he may just see the clean grease exiting the outer bearing, call it good and grab a beer.
A bearing failure will be a risk from the old grease... But that may never happen, as the whole mess will likely be taken apart first to fix the brakes that are coated with grease.
Keep in mind that there are other variables as well. Perhaps the owners grease pumping/tire rotating is not perfect, and some dirty grease is not purged from the inner bearing, or it advances in the hub cavity unevenly... Lots of variables, and no way to know for certain just what is happening in there

[SCClockDr]

The misinformation in this thread is astounding. Where did the first batch of new grease come from. There is but one grease galley once you see clean grease the old has been moved out. There may still be some old, I concur and if the same grease is used it should not present an issue.
With drum brakes Easy Lube spindles are a waste as the drum needs removal to inspect the magnet and linings. Disc brakes benefit from this feature because the pads and spindle seal can be inspected assembled.
Pump or pack = personal preference for disc brakes IMHO.

[Huntindog]

Here is the facts on how this works.

The zerk feeds a hole that will attempt to grease the inner bearing. How well this will work depends on the condition of the seal/hub interface, and the skill of the person doing it.
He needs to slowly turn the wheel while steadyling pumping the grease... It is working blind as you cannot see what is really going on in there. Is the fresh grease getting evenly distributed in the bearing? Or are spots being missed/skipped? Is the seal really in good shape? or is grease seeping past it onto the brakes?
One simply cannot be sure. All seals age and leak at some point. Sometimes a brand new seal is nicked during installation... Without superman vision, one cannot know.

But the potential problems don't stop there. In order to grease the outer bearing, the grease must travel thru the inner bearing, and the hub cavity to the inside of the outer bearing. This takes a considerable amount of grease... Several tubes each time for a dual axle TT... That's right EACH TIME... The video on Dexters (Both the Dexter and Lippert systems work the same) site is misleading. The dirty grease that they show exiting the hub is only from the outer bearing. The dirty grease from the larger inner bearing is still in there some where.... Some of it may have even made it to the inside of the outer bearing!!
Without xray vision, one cannot know exactly where it is... So one must keep pumping and pumping and pumping,, until a second section of dirty grease emerges. Even then one cannot know if all the dirty grease is purged. It is a long trip for the grease, and it probably will not travel evenly around the hub..
With all of the pumping that must be done, a compromised seal will likely fail greasing the brakes... But hey, I hear that well greased brakes never wear out.:B

So you see it is not as simple as the marketing makes it out to be.

Now knowing all of the facts, if one still wants to use this "feature" I wish them well.

[LarryJM]

Crabbypatty wrote:
Larry JM, Not at all, as the bearings were properly packed so there is no need to pump any grease in. The zerk fitting could just be taken off. Properly packed bearings do not need to be fiddled with. The ez lube system designed for water submersion not over the road, I think is a problem. Depending on my over the dunes use, ill simply repack them. Its easy enough and now easier as I purchased the trailer aid jack from CW. I spent half the time jacking and un-jacking. Now its a simple drive on.

Happy Trails

My comment was in response to your's concerning using that zerk for those "two pumps" somehow helping in that post of yours I quoted. It had nothing to do with a normal repack of a wheel bearing.

Larry

[Crabbypatty]

Larry JM, Not at all, as the bearings were properly packed so there is no need to pump any grease in. The zerk fitting could just be taken off. Properly packed bearings do not need to be fiddled with. The ez lube system designed for water submersion not over the road, I think is a problem. Depending on my over the dunes use, ill simply repack them. Its easy enough and now easier as I purchased the trailer aid jack from CW. I spent half the time jacking and un-jacking. Now its a simple drive on.

Happy Trails

[LarryJM]

Crabbypatty wrote:
Factually, and just completing a 1600 mile road trip, after repacking my bearings and just 2 pumps into the zerc fitting, my hubs were cool the entire time. So pumping the hubs full of grease, in my opinion is just asking for failure of the rear grease seal. I stopped in at CW and purchased the trailer aid, to make it go faster next time.

Happy Trails

Just understand only pumping a couple of pumps into that zerk is doing little if any for the inside bearing and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the outer bearing and all you're doing is wasting your time. IMO you are risking causing an issue w/o accomplishing anything worthwhile.

Larry

[Crabbypatty]

Factually, and just completing a 1600 mile road trip, after repacking my bearings and just 2 pumps into the zerc fitting, my hubs were cool the entire time. So pumping the hubs full of grease, in my opinion is just asking for failure of the rear grease seal. I stopped in at CW and purchased the trailer aid, to make it go faster next time.

Happy Trails

[Crabbypatty]

Th reason I repack every year is that I outer beach camp. Which means I air down the tires to 20 psi and pull the camper over the dunes onto the beach at our local park and camp oceanfront. I worry about some sand getting in there but honestly I drive so many less miles than I used to with it. I doubt if i put a thousand miles on it last year. Probably 5-600. Perhaps overly cautious but its not a really hard thing to do once your all set up.

Thanks for all the replies
Happy Trails 2018!

[time2roll]

Crabbypatty wrote:
.... interior surface were coated with grease.

....I always feel the tries and rims to see if anything is getting hot. Which it never has. So what to do? To pump or not to pump? That is the question...

Grease on the shoes will keep them running cool with minimal friction.

I recommend: Do Not Pump

[SpeakEasy]

One thing I would add to this discussion has to do with the type of grease used. The Dexter manual is very clear that mixing two different types of grease can cause problems. In light of this, unless I knew what type of grease was already in the bearings, I would be very hesitant to just go pumping a bunch of grease into the zerk fitting. I'd want to be sure I was putting in the same type that is already in there.

-Speak

[fj12ryder]

MFL wrote:
If you did a good job repacking the bearings, you do not need to add any to the hubs. You should be good for several years, or more, depending on use. I'd not pump any in, at least not for a couple years.

Jerry

Exactly. And repacking bearings ever year is a total waste of time and resources. Who repacks the wheel bearing in their motor vehicle every year?

[Lynnmor]

Crabbypatty wrote:
So what to do? To pump or not to pump? That is the question...

Put the grease gun out when you have the next yard sale.

[MFL]

If you did a good job repacking the bearings, you do not need to add any to the hubs. You should be good for several years, or more, depending on use. I'd not pump any in, at least not for a couple years.

Jerry