TV wheel hub failure

[ebcobra93]

Hello all. I pull a 2016 Roo 183 with a 2014 Ford Explorer Sport. I've weighed my setup when fully loaded several times in the past year and I'm always within towing specs. My closest numbers are the rear GAWR, usually within 50 pounds of the limit.

Within the past 6 months, I've had to replace both rear wheel hubs on the TV due to premature bearing failures. Has anyone else experienced this kind of failure? Could this be due to towing? The dealer says that bearings just go sometimes and can't tell me if excessive axle weight could be the cause.

Any thoughts? I appreciate the feedback

Eric

[SailorSam20500]

Any chance you got the hubs wet - submerged in water?

[ebcobra93]

Originally Posted by SailorSam20500

Any chance you got the hubs wet - submerged in water?

Nothing beyond driving through shallow puddles every now and then (no boat).

The only thing that I could think of (other than just bad luck) was that towing was perhaps adding extra stress to the hubs causing them to fail.

[ryand]

Have you searched for hub failures on any ford forums or explorer forums? If there is some info to support its not just you it I don't know what the next step would be. How many miles have you towed with this truck and how many miles are on it overall? Given that you are so close on the rear weight....likely over depending on what and who you take while traveling with the camper....towing near or slightly over your rear axle rating could very well be the reason for the failure. Good luck.


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[ebcobra93]

Hi Ryand. Thanks for the response. I have searched for other owners with the same issues and haven't come up with much. I bought it as a certified used vehicle. It was a Ford Executive car for a year before I bought it, so was relatively high mileage. It now has about 55,000 miles on it. I've probably towed about 2,500 miles in the past year and a half.
I've never towed beyond the weight limit of the vehicle. When I was within 50 pounds of the limit, I was fully loaded for camping including people and supplies.

Ford ended up paying for the hub replacement (both times) due to the premature failure. It was not covered under warranty, but I called the corporate offices to complain.

[gizmo98]

try replacing your grease with full synthetic

[ryand]

Originally Posted by gizmo98

try replacing your grease with full synthetic

I would imagine that this is not possible, I would think this is a sealed bearing.


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[ebcobra93]

Originally Posted by gizmo98

try replacing your grease with full synthetic

They are sealed bearings

[stevejahr]

Is that Explorer a solid axle or independent suspension (aka: IRS)?

More and more of the SUVs are going over to IRS for a better ride but the solid axle is usually more robust. One challenge for the IRS is there is less volume of oil and cooling area for the differential. This becomes a problem in high load situations.

What type of hub failure are you having? Presuming IRS I would anticipate either bearing failure or hub breakage, which are very different fault paths.

[Jim34RL]

As a retired engineer, I do know that things fail. There is a B10 life on all components. This means that 10% of the components will fail below their expected useful life and that varies by manufacture of said component. You might have gotten some of these components, there is no way to know unless a failure analysis has been done of the failed bearings.

Just follow your maintenance schedule for your given vehicle and check the components when required. I know that my vehicle maintenance schedule calls for the wheel bearings to be inspected every 30K miles.

[ebcobra93]

It does have the IRS. The wheel hub bearings started making excessive noise (loud humming), so I took it in before they actually failed.

I appreciate the responses. Sounds like it was most likely a random failure (B10 life, as Jim mentioned) and not something definitely caused by towing. Now that both hubs have been replaced, it'll be interesting to see how much life I get out of them. I definitely don't plan on towing any less than I do now.

[Bluepill]

I worked for 2 dealerships and a manufacturer. They gave me "Demonstrator" or "Executive" cars and trucks. All of us who had them drove them like we stole them. Just like rental cars, we beat them just for the fun of it. Being an SUV, it's quite possible that it was used to trailer a boat, or driven off-road through water crossings.

[Rrickim63]

My wife has an explorer and we have changed the wheel bearings several times in its lifetime. It is a weak area with many manufacturers as there is no way to grease them.

[uhduh camping]

Originally Posted by Bluepill

I worked for 2 dealerships and a manufacturer. They gave me "Demonstrator" or "Executive" cars and trucks. All of us who had them drove them like we stole them. Just like rental cars, we beat them just for the fun of it. Being an SUV, it's quite possible that it was used to trailer a boat, or driven off-road through water crossings.

Could not agree more. We had new (at the time) Demo Suburban. We were asked to go and get a fellow employee and his family. Who were snowed in and had lost power not to restored for days. Anyway we had this thing in the air many times while busting thru snow drifts. We put in a ditch, up on a tree stump. We had a blast in this truck but beat it up good. Did some repairs and put on the sales lot. It sold quickly poor new owner had no clue what had happened. For that matter, dealer owner didn't either. I don't believe I will ever buy a "demo" regardless of price.

[ebcobra93]

Originally Posted by Bluepill

I worked for 2 dealerships and a manufacturer. They gave me "Demonstrator" or "Executive" cars and trucks. All of us who had them drove them like we stole them. Just like rental cars, we beat them just for the fun of it. Being an SUV, it's quite possible that it was used to trailer a boat, or driven off-road through water crossings.

That's my assumption about how it was driven. When we were first looking at it, it wasn't "Ford Certified". We insisted that they certify it in order to get the extra warranty coverage. We did get a very good deal on it also.