Adding Grease to the Wheel Bearings

Did my bearings this past weekend. I have to say other than being quite messy and a roll of paper towels the E-Z Lube system is by far the easiest bearings I have ever done.
Bill, thanks for the pictures and valuable information you had posted. Made it simple.
Also, the q-tips came in very handy.
Look, no cut fingers............

[pauloh]

I also greased my EZ Lube bearings last weekend for the first time since purchase (and maybe 1000 miles of travel) 18 months ago. I have no idea if the previous owner ever did it. Using yellow/light color grease (Lithium No. 2 of course as Bill recommended) is a great idea, I could see it coming through the old grease after pumping in about 1.5 or 2 of those little cartridges per side. So I knew when I could stop. The old grease was dead black.

Last summer (on the old grease) when I traveled about 400 miles on 2 trips I stopped periodically to check the bearing hub's temperature. My laser temperature gun was recording (as I recall) around 140 to 180 degrees at the hub, definitely hot to the touch, almost too hot to touch. One hub was hotter than the other as I remember.

Yesterday I pulled the TM 20 miles on a test drive with the new grease and checked the temps again...one hub was 95 and the other about 102, just warm to the touch. Not a very long test drive but at constant 60mph I figured it would warm up enough to make sure I had no leaks, etc. I was also checking for possible grease getting through the seal to the brakes, but they seem to be working fine.

180F from last year seems very hot - you might want to inspect those bearings - it sounds like the grease wasn't working great last year. But I'll let the people that understand mechanical things better than I do speak up.

[Bill]

Pauloh -

That kind of temperature worries me. I've done a lot of cross-country miles (thousands, in fact), and I routinely "touch tires" at each stop. That means using my fingertips to touch the tires on my TM and my tow vehicle, and to touch the hubs of all six as well. I have never felt anything I would call "hot" in all those miles. At most, a bit warmer than ambient, but no more than that.

Since I upgraded the TM to 15-inch Marathons (thanks, Bobby!), the trailer tires have always been cooler than the tow vehicle tires, even on sunny hot days on the sunny side of the vehicles (yes, it makes a difference!) And the hubs have always been cooler than the tires.

Maybe that should set your expecations - if the trailer tires or hubs are warmer than the tow vehicle tires, things aren't right. It might be worthwhile to follow the example of others, and manually pack the bearings at least once.

Bill

[pauloh]

Thanks for the cautions about my hot bearings from last year. I do recall them being ALMOST too hot to touch on a hot day of towing last year. Should have greased them before that trip last year. I am currently camped about 400 miles out on a trip from home, and checked the bearings several times on the way here (with the new grease in them). Always under 100 degrees, just barely warm to the touch, on the outer hub anyway. So things improved a lot with the new grease. However when I do get back home I'm thinking I'll replace all the bearings...one less worry. The previous owner let this TM sit in one position a lot in his yard from what I heard and I understand that can be hard on bearings also. I will certainly monitor them carefully as I tow home in a couple weeks or so.