Spare bearing question..

[falconbrother]

Just because I like to be prepared.. How do you determine the bearing size for your axles so as to keep a spare set on board? I suppose I could take the hub off and measure with a caliper but, there's got to be an easier way.

[Lynnmor]

time2roll wrote:
Last year I swapped my drums for disks and in the process replaced the bearings with the same low cost "junk" from China. Previous service was TEN years ago and probably 40,000 miles on the same bearings.
The point is if you carry a spare they will never fail 😉

In the last TEN years, maybe even cheaper junk has made its way into trailer parts. I know that my cheap junk Chinese bearings had manufacturing defects that caused failure, and you read it here before. Do whatever makes you happy, but you are aware that others had problems and you discount whatever they report.

[time2roll]

Last year I swapped my drums for disks and in the process replaced the bearings with the same low cost "junk" from China. Previous service was TEN years ago and probably 40,000 miles on the same bearings.
The point is if you carry a spare they will never fail 😉

[falconbrother]

Huntindog wrote:

SoundGuy wrote:
Just an observation BUT ... surely by now the RV industry could be using bearings that don't need any servicing at all, just as the automotive industry does. Sure, any car / truck bearing could fail but it's pretty rare, I've had but one bearing fail on all the vehicles I've ever owned for the last 50 years, and when it did fail it wasn't a matter of life or death, replace it now or else. It just got noisy so the service manager said to just bring the truck in at my convenience, in the meantime I could continue to drive it, no biggie ... so why are we still dealing with this nonsense with our trailers? Good grief, is it not time we can have tires that don't blow up at a moment's notice for no apparent reason and bearings that don't fail during the lifetime of the trailer?! :M

Lippert had them, my TT came with them. Dexter (last I looked) still makes them. They were considered a premium upgrade.

Around 2014 I lost a wheel when the sealed bearings failed. I wrote about it here at that time. I called Lippert and was told that they no longer made those axles or any parts for them. They offered me a buy one get one free deal on replacement axles. After looking around (The Dexter sealed bearings are very close to the same) I could not beat the deal they offered me. I really did not want the remaining axle since it was an orphan. So I ended up replacing my 5200# axles with 7000# axles at a very good price.
I always like to upgrade whenever I have a failure.

I never want sealed bearings when I can avoid them. I had a buddy that had sealed bearings on his 5er and had a wheel fail on the way to the beach. I'd rather have a bearing that I can service/lube. I have had two old Harleys that had tapered roller bearings. I lubed (re-packed) them with every tire change and after 100,000 miles they looked brand new. Heck, the old 1988 FLHTC had nearly 200,000 miles on those bearings and they were still in great shape.

[CharlesinGA]

While I have never had a hub/bearing unit fail, I really don't trust them either. I have never had a bearing failure on a conventional opposed tapered roller bearing setup on a car or truck either, and they didn't get repacked all that often, every 30K to 50K mi if they were lucky.

I'll stick with what the axle people are building now. Why replace a hub when it only needs bearings?

Charles

[SailingOn]

You want to be able to change a failed bearing on the road.
Sure way to know you can is to change one at home.
And, of course, in the process you could look at the numbers and measure, too.

[Huntindog]

SoundGuy wrote:
Just an observation BUT ... surely by now the RV industry could be using bearings that don't need any servicing at all, just as the automotive industry does. Sure, any car / truck bearing could fail but it's pretty rare, I've had but one bearing fail on all the vehicles I've ever owned for the last 50 years, and when it did fail it wasn't a matter of life or death, replace it now or else. It just got noisy so the service manager said to just bring the truck in at my convenience, in the meantime I could continue to drive it, no biggie ... so why are we still dealing with this nonsense with our trailers? Good grief, is it not time we can have tires that don't blow up at a moment's notice for no apparent reason and bearings that don't fail during the lifetime of the trailer?! :M

Lippert had them, my TT came with them. Dexter (last I looked) still makes them. They were considered a premium upgrade.

Around 2014 I lost a wheel when the sealed bearings failed. I wrote about it here at that time. I called Lippert and was told that they no longer made those axles or any parts for them. They offered me a buy one get one free deal on replacement axles. After looking around (The Dexter sealed bearings are very close to the same) I could not beat the deal they offered me. I really did not want the remaining axle since it was an orphan. So I ended up replacing my 5200# axles with 7000# axles at a very good price.
I always like to upgrade whenever I have a failure.

[BarabooBob]

I just bought a new Viking 17RD and the first thing I do to it will be installing Timkin bearings. It is worth it for my piece of minds. Pretty cheap insurance.

[Lynnmor]

I had no problem getting USA Timken from Summit Racing. I would guess that some sizes will be made in other countries, but a good brand probably has some semblance of quality control, unlike the cheap, self-destruct Chinese bearings that came with my Dexter drums from eTrailer.

[myredracer]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

deltabravo wrote:
TIMKEN.

Go to a bearing house and buy genuine made in USA Timken bearings/

Skip the made in China bearings.

Pretty hard to do now days.

I had no problem getting US-made ones here in Canada. I just told the industrial supply house that's what I wanted and they told me that's all they get and they arrived in under 2 days.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

deltabravo wrote:
TIMKEN.

Go to a bearing house and buy genuine made in USA Timken bearings/

Skip the made in China bearings.

Pretty hard to do now days.

[deltabravo]

TIMKEN.

Go to a bearing house and buy genuine made in USA Timken bearings/

Skip the made in China bearings.

[mosseater]

Get the numbers off the bearings. Only way to be sure.

[myredracer]

ScottG wrote:

myredracer wrote:
Best way to be 100% certain is to get the numbers off the bearings. Our axles are allegedly 4400 lbs and I had trouble finding the right bearings. Turns out the bearings are 5200 lbs (or maybe 6000 lbs, can't recall).

.

Pretty sure those are all those axles are the same size bearings!

That's what I was led to believe but not in my case. Been to long to remember the details tho. I ended up taking the old bearings to an industrial bearing supplier and they ordered the right ones. The local RV bearing supplier that the dealers here use was of no help.

[bartlettj]

I would just pull one and check the numbers. I screwed myself over last month by preordering brake shoes for a 3500lb Dexter axle. Thought they were the standard 10x2.25, nope they are 10x1.5.