When to replace tires and repack wheel bearings.

[Henry16415]

Originally Posted by mgarland48

I have China bombs on my camper, new 2016 with about 10,000 miles on them. They are not wearing at all. I'll keep a close eye on the tread and I never drive over 65 anyway. Plan to replace with Carlisle or GY Endurance once they wear or fail.



I'm hoping I can call a Tire shop and have them check the bearings and repack if needed. Not something I want to do myself but I'd like that peace of mind.

I have a 2016 also. One of the bombs went off at about 14k and did $6500 damage. Been in the shop for about 4 weeks now.

[reinreb]

So i was 11minutes out of the campground ready for an easy day on the roàd. We were on the Transcanada highway 3 hours from North Bay, as i looked in my side mirror the wheel well on the driver side was smoking up a storm. Fearing the worst i came to a fast stop on this busy highway with transport trucks wizzing by, I grabbed my extinguisher and went to the smoke. No fire, thank goodness but one damaged hub anď no outerbearings anywhere to be seen. Good Sam found a service that would come and see what he could do. In the mean time I moved the rig ďown the road a half mile in 100 foot intervals and parked where repairs could be done safely. The bearings had been inspected by my dealer in the spring, but not visually, just the shaking the wheel thing. He said all was good. So the road side service called "Busted Knuckles" repàired and changed the bearings, races and grease on the drivers side on site. We decided to change the other bearings on the same side and found them showing signs of burning.This is the 7th summer with these bearings all the time being told i was good to go and yearly packing with grease. Long and the short of it is it was a scary lesson to learn and my own fault for not digging deeper. On the trip home decided to change the 7yo tires.

[elchilero53]

Originally Posted by reinreb

So i was 11minutes out of the campground ready for an easy day on the roàd. We were on the Transcanada highway 3 hours from North Bay, as i looked in my side mirror the wheel well on the driver side was smoking up a storm. Fearing the worst i came to a fast stop on this busy highway with transport trucks wizzing by, I grabbed my extinguisher and went to the smoke. No fire, thank goodness but one damaged hub anď no outerbearings anywhere to be seen. Good Sam found a service that would come and see what he could do. In the mean time I moved the rig ďown the road a half mile in 100 foot intervals and parked where repairs could be done safely. The bearings had been inspected by my dealer in the spring, but not visually, just the shaking the wheel thing. He said all was good. So the road side service called "Busted Knuckles" repàired and changed the bearings, races and grease on the drivers side on site. We decided to change the other bearings on the same side and found them showing signs of burning.This is the 7th summer with these bearings all the time being told i was good to go and yearly packing with grease. Long and the short of it is it was a scary lesson to learn and my own fault for not digging deeper. On the trip home decided to change the 7yo tires.

Whew! I'm glad this all worked out. I guess you know by now that "shaking the wheel thing" doesn't constitute a bearing inspection. I never trust a dealer on the bearings, tires, etc. We have a place that only repairs trailers and they serve most of the ranchers around here with their stock trailers, so they are experts on bearings, tires etc. They do my work. I just had my bearings repacked after two years, had them inspect and adjust the brakes, and do the State-mandated inspection. Cost was US$210. We travel through the back roads here in the States and need something that is absolutely reliable, I maintain it and the vehicle regularly. Makes for a peaceful, relaxing trip. Glad you made it through yours ok.

[reinreb]

This has been an informative thread. One more question, w-packing are taking the bearing assembly apart and actually re-packing the bearings by hand with grease or are we talking about Injecting grease via the zert.