FIXED - HELP! Need suggestion for trailer repair in Lovelock/Winnemucca, Nevada

[Busted Knuckle]

Dexter makes a unified sealed bearing that's supposed to be the cats meow.  If you're going to keep the trailer-look at the Dexter website.  Since you have an air suspension bus-Dexter makes an air suspension for the trailer-would be my choice.  Can't beat air suspension for its' ride.  Good Luck, TomC

Boy now ya talking $! I like the sound of it, but really doubt Brian will spring for it! (I know the only way I could is with Tom's $! LOL)
  BK 

[Jeremy]

I had the bearings all repacked only 6,000 miles previously...

To me 6,000 miles is a HUGE distance to travel between re-greasings - but then then my bearings get dunked in water on every trip, and often salt water from sandy beaches. I've tried waterproof grease (like normal grease isn't waterproof? I've never understood that), supposably sealed bearings, and hubcaps with those clear plastic expansion devices. None of them replace actually getting your hands dirty and taking 5 minutes to check the bearings properly before a big trip.

Jeremy

[bevans6]

Since checking the wheel bearings amounts to leaning on the top of the wheel with your knee and push/pulling on the top of the wheel as hard as you can, you can check the wheel bearings at every rest stop while you walk around the rig counting your wheel nuts and otherwise checking for random damage.  You can detect down to around .010" of bearing looseness this way, which is enough to get you to check deeper.  At the race track we do this everytime the car stops moving for more than 10 minutes.  If we feel looseness, the car goes up in the air and we can do a proper check.

I personally use 10,000 miles or 6 months of regular use as the service point for trailer bearings, which amounts to annually for me.  They all seem to be the ones you can lube with a grease gun these days, so if they spin OK and I'm not checking the brakes, I just take the cap off, check the nut and cotter pit, pump in a little grease and good to go.

I've seen the outer bearing fail before, and you can usually trace it to overloading or some kind of lack of maintenace, but random failures are certainly known to happen.

Brian

[belfert]

The brake assemblies, bearings, and drums were replaced on the axle in question in August 2010.  Obviously, the bearings were repacked at that time.  The other axle had been replaced this summer so it had fresh grease.

We had an issue in Salt Lake City with the trailer getting kinda hooked on a new curb that had been installed, but not backfilled.  We are thinking the spindle might have gotten bent a little back then.  We noticed the hub running hot at one point, but we checked it again ten miles down the road and it seemed to be fine.  In retrospect we should have pulled the drum and checked things out.

The reason to put leaf springs on instead of something fancy like an Airflex suspension is so we can get parts anywhere if we have issues in the future.  Airflex and Torflex axles have to be factory ordered while there are any number of places that have straight axles and associated parts in stock.

I no longer actually own this trailer as I sold it to a friend after last year's fiasco.  If it was up to me I think I would just sell this trailer and get a new one.

[Fred Mc]

That trailer is either really junk or is being abused something fierce. Or overloaded.
I have built multiple trailers (including 2 horse trailers) over the years and never had a problem. These include trailers with springs and those with torsion axles.A trailer is a pretty simple contraption. And truth be known, I can't remember the last time I checked the wheel bearings on the two I have now. Maybe its time.

[belfert]

We never had the trailer weighed with it fully loaded, but I can't imagine we had over 4,000 lbs of stuff in there.  The trailer itself weighs 3,000 lbs and it has two 3,500 lb axles for a 7,000 lb total capacity.  Cargo consisted of an ATV that weighs around 1,000 lbs and a 4x8 utility trailer that weighs around 500 lbs plus some tables, a rocket or two, a grill, and four propane tanks.

On the way back with the ATV and some of the stuff still in the trailer we were able to get the single axle under 3,500 lbs.

I've never had any issues with any other trailers I have owned besides this one.  I had the bearings on my travel trailer repacked just about every year.  I have a 5x10 enclosed trailer that gets repacked every few years with no issues to date, but I bought it new 10 years ago.