We have a 7-year old Cedar Creek 5th wheel with two Lippert 7K lb axles. After the first year of ownership, we had one of the stock Chinese G-rated tires separate and damage the side of the trailer. We swithched to 17.5 inch rims and H-rated Continental HTR tires. We now have 35K towing miles on the trailer, about 30K of those miles on the Continental tires. The upgraded tire and wheel set-up has been great. The tires look like they have about half of their tread left as compared to the spare which has never seen the pavement.
Don't anybody yell at me, but in seven years I have yet to pull the wheels myself of have a shop do the same for the purpose of checking the wheel bearings and brakes. I have been fortunate to have no problems up to this point and am now trying to decide if I should pull the wheels myself to check/service the bearings/brakes or if I should bring the trailer to a qualified shop. I am fairly handy with most things, but I have no experience with bearings. Given the number of horror stories I have read about improperly serviced wheel bearings, I am a bit hesitant to go the DIY route, but will consider it if somebody can direct me to a good YouTube tutorial or other visual resource. I also have some hesitancy about going to just any shop because I read stories about bearing repacks being done by the most inexperienced person in the shop and being done incorrectly.
We live in Fountain Hills, Az, which the northeast corner of the Phoenix metro area. Ideally, I would like to find a mobile tech or a good truck/trailer shop that can give our entire undercarriage a good once over to make sure we don't have any issues and to service the bearings and brakes.
A few questions:
Should I try to tackle the bearing repack myself or just find a professional given my lack of experience?
Anybody out there from the Phoenix area with a good recommendation for a mobile tech or service shop?
2003 F350 Super Cab SRW LB 2WD V10, Pullrite Superlite, Cedar Creek 37RDTS (owned from 2007-2015), Shopping for Next Fiver Right Now, Fountain Hills, AZ