Had a wheel bearing fail on way home from Fling in Bristol. Cleaned and regrease yearly.

Found out Dexter uses Chinese wheel bearings when assembled new (upsetting) have just over 112,000 miles on trailer and cost nearly 900 bux to replace all bearings, races, and seals with American made Timpkin. Not so much worried about the cost of parts as I am more fearful of FIRE from failure.

This was the 2nd bearing failure in 2 years...anyone replace bearings due to miles or age or replace wheel bearings just because they are Chinese?

Lots of miles and on a preventative maintenance roll this week...

I don't have a stacker or put nearly the miles you do, but I've always used a good quality synthetic grease and have never really had a problem. I agree that the chinese bearings are probably junk but I would use synthetic grease in addition to quality bearings.

chris I probably have more miles than you do but ive got the timkins and ive been greasing them 3 to 4 times a year and check for excessive play after every long trip
a lot of work but on my trailer the spindles are non replaceable...you have to change the whole axle if one gets scored

The problem that has plagued the bearing industry are counterfeit bearings. You'll be amazed the 10's of millions of dollars lost due to counterfeit bearings. In my line of work, Yes Timken only and Delo Syn Grease-SFE-EP. It is a high load product for Semi trailers. Never had a
CBNC>> Come Back No Charge. You don't want to know what an axle cost in one of these.. It would be a bad day at bedrock.

This is the only company i will call if all else fails.This quality company is second to none.
I have had to call them.

https://axlesurgeons.com/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TD3550,

I just purchased new Timken races and bearings from RockAuto last week for my Featherlite trailer. Although the new races and bearings are marked USA, the box does say Made in US W/US & Imported Content.

I’ve put on over 60k miles on my 16 yr old trailer and it was 7 yrs old when I purchased it, so don’t know how many miles are on bearings. Grease bearings every other year with Mobil 1 Synthetic and always jack the wheels up off the pavement to check for excessive play after returning home from trip. Dexter 4.8k axles with oversized brake drums.

The original races were China made and the bearings were from Romania.

TD3550, thanks for the tip on Delo Syn Grease-SFE-EP.

Axle surgeons wont touch a drop spindle with air ride as they dont have fixtures for it. Tried twice!

8000 lb dexter with drop spindle trailing arms and air bag. Has air over hydraulic disc brakes on every wheel. Custom made axle for goldrush only and is on shelf no where in the country. Twice I have waited 2 weeks or more for axle to be manufactured at dexter due to bearing failure on previous axle manufactured and installed at factory.

The new Timkin bearings recently purchased clearly have more metal and better construction than the ones removed from original factory installation.

VERY disappointed in American companies using sub par components from China or other places and calling it made in the USA with components other than USA made...quality can be comprised by doing so. JMO

2007 Classic Dominator with 7500 lb. Dexter axles with the Neverlube option. Never touched them since brand new other than the front axle was replaced once from hitting a giant pothole and it bent. It was 1500 bucks to replace it.

I admit I’m starting to worry a bit so I am planning on checking things after the upcoming Vegas races.

quote:

Originally posted by TORQIN:
Axle surgeons wont touch a drop spindle with air ride as they dont have fixtures for it. Tried twice!

8000 lb dexter with drop spindle trailing arms and air bag. Has air over hydraulic disc brakes on every wheel. Custom made axle for goldrush only and is on shelf no where in the country. Twice I have waited 2 weeks or more for axle to be manufactured at dexter due to bearing failure on previous axle manufactured and installed at factory.

The new Timkin bearings recently purchased clearly have more metal and better construction than the ones removed from original factory installation.

VERY disappointed in American companies using sub par components from China or other places and calling it made in the USA with components other than USA made...quality can be comprised by doing so. JMO

Yes,proprietary axle. Was there ever an option to go to an oil based setup on that axle? Just curious, where does that trailer gross out at?
For years there has always been pro's and cons on oil vs grease.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TD3550,

quote:

Originally posted by Cashflow:
2007 Classic Dominator with 7500 lb. Dexter axles with the Neverlube option. Never touched them since brand new other than the front axle was replaced once from hitting a giant pothole and it bent. It was 1500 bucks to replace it.

I admit I’m starting to worry a bit so I am planning on checking things after the upcoming Vegas races.

MY 2002 Classic Terminator has Nev-R-Lube bearing cartridges

I replaced them once and check them regularly......old ones were good and replacements have been fine.....

Probably been 7-8 years on the replacements with zero problems....


I just put new brakes shoes on the trailer and bearings were fine...

Chris

Are you using a TPMS system for the trailer?

Our system tracks pressure and temp. Hoping the HOT wheel shows up as a high temp on the TPMS.

the other thing I do is I have a heat gun sitting on the dash of my motorhome.evertime I stop at a rest area etc..I put the gun on each of the trailer hubs and measure temps...this is a real good way to see if one is increasing substantially in heat..
on my trailer I find the two rear wheels are always 5 to 10 degrees higher than the middle and fronts

Steve, sure was! I heard tire blow, looked in mirror and saw tire blown. Looked at TPMS and a second later the alarm for pressure under 90 was screaming. I was shocked the system did not alert me prior as the wheel was on fire before I could get stopped.

Inner bearing failed and put tire into brake caliper and inner fender well catching tire on fire FAST! Every component was on fire fast and it took a total of 5 fire extinguishers and hooking water hose to motorhome and flooding it till the fire could not reignite for the 4th time as it relit a total of 3 times!

I fought this fire with no regard for my own safety to save my chit! IF some pilot cars assisting a wind turbine blade trucker hauling a huge blade would not have stopped with 3 more fire extinguishers she would have burnt to the ground for sure. They saw me under the trailer blasting away with a 10 lb extinguisher...hell after they left we had to drown it in water from the motorhome or we would have lost it then too! The tire/ bearings/grease/brake pads/ and brake fluid were all on fire at one time...my fat a s s dont fit under the trailer with a tire down real well either. My only thought was the full fuel jugs of methanol in the basket racks on fender wells of inside of the trailer were going to be a HUGE issue FAST!

As stated in prior posts this is the 2nd bearing failure in 2 years and I have been changing over all bearings/races/seals to timkin this werk to hopefully avoid future issues.

In the end the TPMS had ZERO ability to detect the issue. Hi temp side set at 130 degrees and low psi set at 90 and high psi set at 125 psi. It has caught a tire going down from road debris sticking in side wall of tire resulting in pressure loss in the past but got skunked on this occasion.

JENEVET, I also used the heat gun when stopped...always seem very consistent temps...once I started using the TPMS I left the heat gun in the trailer...pulling it back outfor sure!

quote:

Originally posted by TD3550:

quote:

Originally posted by TORQIN:
Axle surgeons wont touch a drop spindle with air ride as they dont have fixtures for it. Tried twice!

8000 lb dexter with drop spindle trailing arms and air bag. Has air over hydraulic disc brakes on every wheel. Custom made axle for goldrush only and is on shelf no where in the country. Twice I have waited 2 weeks or more for axle to be manufactured at dexter due to bearing failure on previous axle manufactured and installed at factory.

The new Timkin bearings recently purchased clearly have more metal and better construction than the ones removed from original factory installation.

VERY disappointed in American companies using sub par components from China or other places and calling it made in the USA with components other than USA made...quality can be comprised by doing so. JMO

Yes,proprietary axle. Was there ever an option to go to an oil based setup on that axle? Just curious, where does that trailer gross out at?
For years there has always been pro's and cons on oil vs grease.

I would thought it would have been a oil bath spindle on these but it is not. GOLDRUSH tag on side of trailer says 24000...most all these stackers carrying 3-4 cars with scooters and golf carts weigh more than 24k loaded...mine was 22880 last weight taken with 3 dragsters and 2 scooters only. Goldrush is aluminum and the stackers just get heavier when not aluminum from what I have seen.

I think of servicing my trailer bearings every year.......when I'm going down the road about 3 states away from home.....lol. Bad ordeal, glad it came out ok.

quote:

Originally posted by jenavet:
the other thing I do is I have a heat gun sitting on the dash of my motorhome.evertime I stop at a rest area etc..I put the gun on each of the trailer hubs and measure temps...this is a real good way to see if one is increasing substantially in heat..
on my trailer I find the two rear wheels are always 5 to 10 degrees higher than the middle and fronts

Mine were also until I lowered the front of my trailer down about 2".

quote:

Originally posted by TORQIN:

quote:

Originally posted by TD3550:

quote:

Originally posted by TORQIN:
Axle surgeons wont touch a drop spindle with air ride as they dont have fixtures for it. Tried twice!

8000 lb dexter with drop spindle trailing arms and air bag. Has air over hydraulic disc brakes on every wheel. Custom made axle for goldrush only and is on shelf no where in the country. Twice I have waited 2 weeks or more for axle to be manufactured at dexter due to bearing failure on previous axle manufactured and installed at factory.

The new Timkin bearings recently purchased clearly have more metal and better construction than the ones removed from original factory installation.

VERY disappointed in American companies using sub par components from China or other places and calling it made in the USA with components other than USA made...quality can be comprised by doing so. JMO

Yes,proprietary axle. Was there ever an option to go to an oil based setup on that axle? Just curious, where does that trailer gross out at?
For years there has always been pro's and cons on oil vs grease.

I would thought it would have been a oil bath spindle on these but it is not. GOLDRUSH tag on side of trailer says 24000...most all these stackers carrying 3-4 cars with scooters and golf carts weigh more than 24k loaded...mine was 22880 last weight taken with 3 dragsters and 2 scooters only. Goldrush is aluminum and the stackers just get heavier when not aluminum from what I have seen.

Just out of curiosity. I looked up oil bath conversion kits.They show a 7K kit to oil. not sure on the 8K.

Just thinking outloud but wouldn't an oil bath axle be better?

Chris you sure have had your share past year or so.

Ceramic bearings for the trailer now?

quote:

Originally posted by TORQIN:
Just thinking outloud but wouldn't an oil bath axle be better?

I believe so. All heavy duty axles seem to be oil bath bearings. When I was going to build my trailer from scratch, I spec'd out oil bath axles.

Most units on the road in my line of work are synthetic oil. Now when you get into container chassis, most are synthetic grease. i have had wheels (Duals) come off with both oil and grease. When i was about to do an inspection and repack on my 44 recently, i pulled one off. It looked like a white synthetic, Like lithium grease. Man did it have a strange odor to it. You can smell the chemicals in it.