[Bill]

I emailed Dexter Axle about this problem. Christine, the applications engineer at Dexter, called me today. Several points emerged from the discussion. Since I have EZ-Lube, the discussion was centered there. The Reliable Sure-Lube did not come up, but I bet a lot of it is the same.

• It is OK for the bearings to throw a little grease from the outer end of the hub. Yes, it is a bit ugly, but that is all.
• If it is thrown from the inner end of the hub, it means a grease seal has failed. Bad for the bearing, but worse, the grease may get into the brakes, which is a disaster, brakely-speaking.
• When you pump new grease into EZ-Lube, the old grease collects under the little sheet metal end cap (see the sketch). This is the reservoir for a lot of the grease that gets thrown. It is hard to clean out this cap without removing it (WARNING - I sliced my finger on the sharp edge of the cap, trying to poke it in to clean out the old grease). But it is perfectly OK to pop the end cap off, at which point the whole thing is easy to clean. Be sure the end cap is replaced tight and square, and it shouldn't leak - but there is no real seal there, like there is on the back of the hub. Mike D, I think you have the right idea here.
• EZ-Lube wasn't really intended for travel trailers - it was intended for boat trailers, so the owner could easily replace water-contaminated grease. In a travel trailer, the ease of using EZ-Lube tends to lull people into thinking that if they regrease frequently, they never have to remove or inspect the bearings. WRONG - Dexter still recommends that you pull the hubs and inspect the bearings every 12 months or 12,000 miles. Since that is the same as the re-grease interval (per Dexter - TM recommends more often), the advantage of EZ-Lube is somewhat lost.

Bill