Servicing your Dexter Axle brakes or bearings

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by padlin

Not to be a jerk, but I'd suggest you not use the EZ-Lube and have the bearing checked and repacked every 12k or 2 years.

I used the EZ-Lube once and had pin art on my tires for the rest of the summer. Even though it comes on campers, it's really for boat trailers that get dunked in the water.

*** Not everyone agrees with this***

Don't you mean to say...not to be a zerk....

[Rossue]

Ditto that; wish I hadn't wasted money on that option which is now standard. EZ lube should be called LAZY lube. A bearing service on a trailer with brakes also means inspection of the brake components and seal replacement.

[Viajante]

Originally Posted by padlin

Not to be a jerk, but

I’m not racist, but...
It’s not about the money, but...
It’s not what she did, but...

You can always quit right there.

I don’t have the dexter zerk so I can’t help.

[Iowa Dave]

Maybe you could check on the availability of an extra long zerk and use a deep-well quarter inch socket to remove yours and insert one that protrudes further. In about 1964 the geniuses at Ford began sending cars out without zerks, instead there were plug type caps on the threaded fitting hole. You had a couple of valid choices. Either remove the plugs and screw in standard zerks and never look back or buy one zerk and pull the cap, insert zerk, grease, pull zerk reinsert cap. Third alternative and I know it sounds nuts but some folks who didn’t know better claimed that greasing was unnecessary since Ford’s campaign was a lightbulb claiming they had a better idea. In a couple years the zerks were back. Yup, I’ve been greasing wheel bearings and ball joints, tie rod ends, spring shackles.
clutch linkage and whatever else, for a long time. Alemite fittings were the standard back in the day.
Iowa “gun grease” Dave

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by padlin

Not to be a jerk, but I'd suggest you not use the EZ-Lube and have the bearing checked and repacked every 12k or 2 years.

I used the EZ-Lube once and had pin art on my tires for the rest of the summer. Even though it comes on campers, it's really for boat trailers that get dunked in the water.

*** Not everyone agrees with this***

My axle guy has seen too many Dexter axles with contaminated brakes. I have him inspect and repack the bearings every 10,000 miles. I see no need to add grease and haven't ever had bearing failure. I see those EZ Lube axles as a problem waiting to happen.

As always in something like this, YMMV.

Enjoy,

Perry

[PGDriver]

Extra long zerks are always handy, everyone should have a bunch [emoji6].

[hcf]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Maybe you could check on the availability of an extra long zerk and use a deep-well quarter inch socket to remove yours and insert one that protrudes further. In about 1964 the geniuses at Ford began sending cars out without zerks, instead there were plug type caps on the threaded fitting hole. You had a couple of valid choices. Either remove the plugs and screw in standard zerks and never look back or buy one zerk and pull the cap, insert zerk, grease, pull zerk reinsert cap. Third alternative and I know it sounds nuts but some folks who didn’t know better claimed that greasing was unnecessary since Ford’s campaign was a lightbulb claiming they had a better idea. In a couple years the zerks were back. Yup, I’ve been greasing wheel bearings and ball joints, tie rod ends, spring shackles.
clutch linkage and whatever else, for a long time. Alemite fittings were the standard back in the day.
Iowa “gun grease” Dave

Coincidentally, an Alemite coupler has an 0.557" OD, and is only ~$9 on Amazon. This isn't much smaller than 0.625" - but at $9 I'm going to try it out anyway.

Good idea on the extended fittings, didn't occur to me. It would be handier to be able to use a modern coupler, like a lock'n'lube. I'll look into that if the Alemite doesn't fit.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by PGDriver

Extra long zerks are always handy, everyone should have a bunch [emoji6].
Attachment 42897

I know I have some, but the scourge of the hoarder is “where did I put them” or “I can’t get to them right now” I have easy lube zerks on the 21 but I’ve yet to use them. My routine is disassembly in March, inspect brakes for wear level, service bearings and install new seals, reassemble. Adjust brakes and set tire inflation. I torque the lug nuts at 95 lbs. My first trip is about 100 miles one way. Once there, I re-torque the lug nuts and check before the next trip. I towed about 15,000 miles this year and that’s about my average when I go to Osoyoos, if not it’s 4,500 miles less. The grease is always in good shape. I’m using Lucas red and Tacky.
Iowa Dave

[Chotch]

Originally Posted by padlin

Not to be a jerk, but I'd suggest you not use the EZ-Lube and have the bearing checked and repacked every 12k or 2 years.

I used the EZ-Lube once and had pin art on my tires for the rest of the summer. Even though it comes on campers, it's really for boat trailers that get dunked in the water.

*** Not everyone agrees with this***

🤔 I totally agree! Unless you are deep water fording they are a waste of time. In 10 years as an auto mechanic ( in a former life) I never once pulled a wheel to just repack a bearing. It got done usually between 30 & 50k miles when the brakes got done. Escape trailers have tires as big as many smaller cars carrying no more weigh so it’s not like they spin any faster or are working any harder, just don’t see the bearing paranoia. Especially since many vehicles today come with sealed bearings you never repack. Recently replaced a hub on a Subaru that failed, at close to 100k.

[padlin]

I always figured the yearly/12k miles repack schedule from Dexter was a holdover from the days when camping trailers had the little 12" or 13" wheels that ate bearings.

[blue_bullet]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Maybe you could check on the availability of an extra long zerk and use a deep-well quarter inch socket to remove yours and insert one that protrudes further. In about 1964 the geniuses at Ford began sending cars out without zerks, instead there were plug type caps on the threaded fitting hole. You had a couple of valid choices. Either remove the plugs and screw in standard zerks and never look back or buy one zerk and pull the cap, insert zerk, grease, pull zerk reinsert cap. Third alternative and I know it sounds nuts but some folks who didn’t know better claimed that greasing was unnecessary since Ford’s campaign was a lightbulb claiming they had a better idea. In a couple years the zerks were back. Yup, I’ve been greasing wheel bearings and ball joints, tie rod ends, spring shackles.
clutch linkage and whatever else, for a long time. Alemite fittings were the standard back in the day.
Iowa “gun grease” Dave

My first car, a 1964 AMC Rambler Classic, purchased used for $600 in 1969 came with plugs instead of grease fittings. AMC must have saved a bunch on that like $.20 per fitting for 10 or so fittings. I purchased 10 zerks and greased it religiously. That car cost me another $1000 that year for an engine rebuild (long stroke 6 cyl) and a std trans rebuild. It did come with a radio and a heater.
Worst car I ever owned.

[hcf]

Alemite part #308730 - it fits with 1/16" to spare. It is 1/8" smaller than the coupler that came with my "standard" grease gun.

Long neck zerks may still be a good idea - maybe someday in the future I'll send Dexter a query to see if they recommend that refit.

[arniesea]

Trailer: New 2019 5.0 TA picked up from ETI 4/25/2019. Miles ~ 8,000

We were returning from our cross country trip from Bremerton Washington to Washington D.C. On I-84 WB just at Mountain Home, ID I noticed smoke in my driver's side mirror. I was in the left lane so by the time I navigated traffic to pull off to the right side shoulder, the smoke coming out of the bearing on the driver's side rear wheel was pretty thick.

Stunned, I sat there a moment and tried to collect my thoughts. My wife wisely suggested we call the police to have some traffic control as the shoulder was quite narrow. Once we had a Sheriff deputy with his flashing lights behind us, I rolled the good wheel up on my Andersen leveler, removed the lug nuts and the tire from the affected wheel. With the Sheriff escort, we were able to limp the 6 miles off the highway to a R.V. repair shop.

Terry the owner said that even though the manual says to repack the bearings at 12,000 miles, he has seen many new trailers with my issue. He said the the axel manufactures use minimal grease and that the builder just install the axels without inspecting them, trusting that they are ok from the supplier. He recommends a bearing grease and adjustment at the first 5,000 miles, the every 10,000 miles after that. I had Planned on doing my bearings once we got home.

So I have filed a warranty claim with Dexter. It will take 7 to 10 days for them to build and ship the axel to the R.V. repair shop in Idaho. Then we will need to return to Mountain Home to pick up our repaired trailer. Quite the sour note to an otherwise wonderful trip.

I would be interested to hear of any others that have had bearing failures in the first 10,000 miles. Thanks!

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by arniesea

I would be interested to hear of any others that have had bearing failures in the first 10,000 miles. Thanks!

Yours is the first I've read since the forum started in 2008. I think Dexter knows how much grease is needed, which is not to say that wasn't the problem. Good luck.

[Rossue]

Wow- sorry to hear, yet glad for a safe outcome. I have had three outer bearings show signs of being hot despite annual bearing repacking.

A reminder to do it right and inspect. Got a lot riding on it.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by arniesea

Terry the owner said that even though the manual says to repack the bearings at 12,000 miles, he has seen many new trailers with my issue. He said the the axel manufactures use minimal grease and that the builder just install the axels without inspecting them, trusting that they are ok from the supplier. He recommends a bearing grease and adjustment at the first 5,000 miles, the every 10,000 miles after that.

If that's really the situation, and the axle manufacturer can't be trusted to properly assemble the axle, then I don't understand waiting for 5,000 miles to check the bearings - it should be done before using the trailer, or at least before the first trip after getting home from picking it up. Time and use won't make anything better, and once the bearings are packed and adjusted properly it won't matter how they came from the factory.

[gbaglo]

I'm still on the original set of bearings ( 2008 ). I've had them repacked every couple years. The amount of grease involved in packing bearings must cost seven cents at most. I don't think Dexter is cutting expenses by reducing the grease used and then coping with warranty claims.

[Iowa Dave]

There are a considerable number of factors that can cause a situation like Arnie encountered. Inadequate grease, main nut too tight, defective bearing at assembly time leaking seal etc. glad nobody was hurt and the inconvenience was the main outcome. Bearings, Tires, etc can fail. Sometimes inspection can detect a problem before it affects the outing and sometimes not. Glad everyone is ok and the trailer is back in service.
Iowa Dave

[Perry Butler]

Owners should understand no manufacturer is perfect. Neither Dexter nor Escape are exceptions. In the end the product is either manufactured by humans or machines.

The rear axle on our 2018 5.0 was replaced by Dexter at about 9,000 miles and the front axle at 14,000 miles. Seems both were built by a human on "Hangover Monday." We ruined three of the four tires in the process and Dexter paid for two of the tires. We were in Arizona when it became apparent we had a problem and wanted to get home to our axle guy for the repair, so were willing to ruin a third. We saw abnormal wear on our second axle when we got home. Took to trailer to a alignment shop in St Paul and found the second axle was also incorrectly manufactured.

So far the 1st replaced axle (rear) has nearly 10,000 miles since replacement and the tires are perfect. Only have 4,000 miles on the front axle but everything looks good.

Our bearings have been inspected/greased at 4,000, 6,000 again (when we saw the problem in Arizona), 14,000 on the rear axle (when the front axle was replaced), and now at 18,600 miles, the axle will go in to our axle guy and both will be repacked.

After that the bearings will be inspected/repacked every year no matter the mileage, just like in the past for our previous campers. We used to live on I-94 in Minnesota and have seen numerous campers on the side of the road, and pulled into our town, with bearing problems. Many thought the only service needed on EZ-Lube axles is to purge the grease.

Enjoy,

Perry

[Iowa Dave]

I know that must be a typo on living on I-80
In Minnesota. You probably had a great house with great neighbors and soil in your garden without rocks that would grow anything and every day you walked outside and said this is like living in Heaven as you heard the distant moan of the CAT Diesels in those Peterbilts on the Highway south of you. Is this Heaven, no it’s Iowa. And I- 80 is the ribbon that spans our great state from the Missouri Creek to the Brook we call the Mississippi.
Iowa Dave