Check your brakes

[John G]

Both my rear brakes appear as if too much grease was pumped into them. Needless to say I had no rear brakes on my trailer. I had a mobile tech do the work because I had never done this myself. He said do not use the lube zerk on the axle to grease your bearings. I have to assume this was done at the factory or at the dealership.

 

[darrell]

I am sure mine was an isolated issue, but when I picked up my Alliance there were no brakes. They never tightened down the brake lines, so had brake fluid all over and they had to cut into the bottom to address it. Always check your brakes (and do a tug test - this will test them for you).

 

[exps01]

I haven't personally used it since my coach is only a few months old, but I know the dealer told me to never use a power grease gun if I used that zerk. Similar advise on Youtube and other resources. Those things just push the grease in too hard and fast and blow past the rear seal in the hub, shooting grease into the brake area. It should be a slow, deliberate process. I'd bet someone used a powered grease gun, though the rear seal could have just failed too.

 

[BryanValRox]

It feels like this comes down to a powered grease gun or a failed seal or both.
If the Dexter calls out use of the zerks as a means to grease the bearings it should be safe to use following their maintenance instruction.
Personally, I just used my zerks to ensure the wheel bearings were greased properly for our trip to Indy for the Eclipse.
1200 miles later we are home safe and sound without any grease leakage on our 310 RL.

 

[dwcfish]

Attached is the Dexter Service Manual. The process for using the E-Z Lube is covered on page 57.

As a side note - instead of putting new bearings in myself I purchased Dexter's pre-greased hubs this time. What a time saver, just pull the old hub off, clean the spindle and put the new hub on.......

I think I was told by Alliance that some rigs - I think the Avenue line - is using Lippert axels instead of Dexter. There should be a sticker on each axel with the spec's.

 

[HarveyTheRV]

Thank you for the Dexter service manual. Very informative. Do you recall how much the pre-greased hubs were?

 

[dwcfish]

They were $140 each with free shipping when ordered on Dexter's Web site. I just took a picture of the label on the axle, sent it to their support and they provided the part number.