wheel bearing life ?

[John in Santa Cruz]

So before we set out for our Mexican adventure we had our wheels all freshened... New brakes, new bearings, and new tires, all in late 2023.... The Mexican trip, Jan-May, was 9960 miles. We also drove another 1000 or so miles since we got back from that. My mobile mechanic wsa here yesterday to fix some other little things, I asked him to check the bearings, and holy crap, the grease was all brown and dispersed, like they had overheated. Most of the trip, we were driving 45-50 in Mexico, and 55-60 in the USA across to Texas, and home from Arizona. He uses red sticky grease. I sure don't think I overheated the brakes, I use a lot of engine braking, and have my trailer brakes set pretty light, and periodically would check the wheels at a gas stop to ensure they weren't too hot. Oh, and the brakes + rotors + magnets were fine, barely any wear.

I would think trailer bearings should last longer than 11000 miles and 1 year?

 

[GinoandLinda]

You are right, John. They should. I only replaced the wheel bearings on our 50K mile Rpod 3 times and even then, they looked pretty good each time. Of course, being the OCD mechanic type I am, I was meticulous about repacking every year and when I did replace bearings, I replaced the races as well. All that said, if you have doubts, I would have them replaced. Peace of mind is priceless.

 

[Ron in BC]

Good grief, that averages under 17,000 miles per set of bearings. Seems very frequent to me. I inspect the bearings, periodically, probably not nearly as frequently as some. If there's anything visible I replace them but I've done a lot more miles than that on a set of bearings.

 

[GinoandLinda]

Good grief, that averages under 17,000 miles per set of bearings. Seems very frequent to me. I inspect the bearings, periodically, probably not nearly as frequently as some. If there's anything visible I replace them but I've done a lot more miles than that on a set of bearings.

Good for you! Like I said, bearings are cheap and relatively easy to install and peace of mind is priceless.

 

[CharlesinGA]

If the new bearings said CHINA on them, that explains it right off. Its also possible whoever set the bearing nut, didn't know what they were doing. I do all of my own bearing work. I bought brand new hub/drums when I converted to six lug. First order of business was to remove and discard the preinstalled races and install all new Timken components. Moly synthetic grease and away we go.

Charles

 

[WillyB]

Timken!

 

[RossH]

Maybe you came close to wasting the spindles the bearings ride on. If that had happened say hello to new axle(s). A reminder as to why Dexter says one year or 10K miles for bearing service. I had a shop do a bearing service a few years ago and they replaced one outer bearing- which is easy. They didnt properly install the race and that caused my wheel to almost fall off.

 

[jack sparrow]

Hey Ron, how do you keep track of your mileage?
Paper log or what? I'm just looking for better ways
to keep track of it. All suggestions welcome.

Cheers to ya....... and Happy Trails....... Jack

 

[WillyB]

When I connect my camper to my F150 it tracks the mileage. I have the tow package.

 

[GinoandLinda]

When I connect my camper to my F150 it tracks the mileage. I have the tow package.

What WillyB said. Our '22 F150 keeps track of trailer mileage when it's connected. It will even give you reminders of trailer maintenance. When we towed our previous camper with a Nissan Frontier, I kept a logbook of mileage and dates when maintenance was performed. Did not intend to answer for Ron.

 

[Jim Bennett]

If doing lots of travel I wait until I hit at least 20,00km before regreasing the bearings. At the time, and in some case more often, I check and adjust tightness of the nut. Having pulled dozens of different trailers over long distances I have very rarely had to change bearings, and then it was mostly due to buying a used and not well maintained unit.

Timken bearings are made worldwide, including China. China has the capability of making quality products, though they tend to mass produce what the rest of the word prefers to pay, which is as little as possible in most cases.

 

[MVA]

If the bearings were bad, I would also check the races. The only failed bearing I have had is on a utility trailer where the borrower got the axle under water and the grease failed. Was there heavy rain where you were traveling?

 

[Ron in BC]

Hey Ron, how do you keep track of your mileage?
Paper log or what? I'm just looking for better ways
to keep track of it. All suggestions welcome.

Cheers to ya....... and Happy Trails....... Jack

Hi Jack

As others have said, the truck keeps track of miles towed. But my wife is trigger happy with a camera. We can come back from a simple little trip with hundreds of photos. Including every restaurant meal eaten.

All the photos, many many thousands are put into trip files and I could, if I really thought it necessary, account for every trip mileage total driven. But I'm not that concerned. I generally regard the first trip in the Spring to be the time to think over what might need checking or servicing. I don't service my bearings every year although I'll often look at one to confirm all is good.

Ron

 

[jack sparrow]

Thanks Ron and everyone for the come backs...... Great information from all of you.
Thanks again and as always......

Cheer to ya........ and Happy Trails......... Jack

 

[CharlesinGA]

Timken bearings are made worldwide, including China. China has the capability of making quality products, though they tend to mass produce what the rest of the word prefers to pay, which is as little as possible in most cases.

Every Timken trailer bearing and race I have used is marked USA on the bearing or race. I am aware they make bearings and seals all around the world. I doubt they degrade the quality to suit 3rd world preferences though.

My first set of trailer bearings I bought thru an industrial bearing supplier locally and that way, the cones and cups are separate parts and cost ALOT. (they saw me coming) I finally found out that many common combinations of TIMKEN cones and cups are packaged together (which is how you get them at auto parts places for other brands generally) I started buying from Summit Racing as they have a warehouse about 50 miles from me with an attached retail store (one of four in the US) and that given their size, they get their bearings direct from the manufacturers or trusted industrial suppliers who can get them directly from Timken, and no middle men to sell them bogus copies of the real thing. These sets have special Timken numbering such as SET4 and SET17 right on the box (which are the outer and inner sets for a 3500 lb axle). I also use National/Timken seals #473336 which is a very good quality double lip spring tensioned seal.

SET4 is $10.99
SET17 is $11.99
Seal 473336 is $10.99

$135 will get you a complete set of bearings and seals for a tandem axle trailer. The seals were about $6 a year ago and the bearing sets are up two to three dollars each.

The chart below lists every thing I could compile based on the Dexter parts catalog. Lipper axles use the same bearings. parts are largely interchangeable between the two.

Charles

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

Timken!

these were Timken, I think. I'll verify when my mobile repair guy comes back with new ones.

 

[Ron in BC]

Good information Charles. Wish I had a local Summit Racing.

Ron

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

they ship, i assume they'll ship to .ca

 

[CharlesinGA]

Good information Charles. Wish I had a local Summit Racing.

Ron

Over a hundred they usually ship free. Not sure about the great white north

 

[Ron in BC]

they ship, i assume they'll ship to .ca

Yes, they do. Between them and Rock Auto I built half my car. But the border is the border and often it was easier to have stuff shipped to Point Roberts in WA. Made at least weekly trips for many months and that gets old fast.

Ron