New ezy lube dexter axles

[tjdonahoe]

I recieved my new ezy- lube axles from Colin Hyde yesterday afternoon, My old neighbor and I removed the nevr lube axles and installed the new ezy lube axles today in less than 8 hours. , not bad for 2 old fat boys tomorrow i will wire the brakes I believe i need an ibuprofen…. The old axles were still fine if any one wants them or the hubs with sealed bearings contact me

[Redbarron55]

I can't really comment on how well the never-lube axles are, but when we visited the Mothership in Jackson Center there was a pile of them stacked outside by the garage door.
I suspect that it sounds like a better idea than it is in real life.
Funny that bearings last hundreds of thousand miles on cars while...

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by Redbarron55

I can't really comment on how well the never-lube axles are, but when we visited the Mothership in Jackson Center there was a pile of them stacked outside by the garage door.
I suspect that it sounds like a better idea than it is in real life.
Funny that bearings last hundreds of thousand miles on cars while...

Realize..on a passenger vehicle the steering axle turns and the rear axles follow...less stress when turning?

Are they as problematic on single-axle AS's?

Bob
🇺🇸

[sfranklin]

Originally Posted by Redbarron55

I can't really comment on how well the never-lube axles are, but when we visited the Mothership in Jackson Center there was a pile of them stacked outside by the garage door.
I suspect that it sounds like a better idea than it is in real life.
Funny that bearings last hundreds of thousand miles on cars while...

The factory installs the axles onto the frames at the time of construction. Both components come separately from different sources I would suspect there would be piles of frames and axles given they produce about 100 trailers a week. The factory service center also does a fair amount of axle upgrades and replacements, so a pile in that area would not be indicative of a poor axle design or high failure rate. Also keep in mind that the nev-r-lubes have been on trailers since around 2006 on the Classic line and on nearly all the fleet over 25' long in 2010. Given the axles themselves last roughly 10-15 years on average, so again, a pile outside the service bays would also not be an indicator of bad design given many trailers of the era mentioned above would be about the time to see replacements being needed.

I came from a prior trailer that had neither ez or nev-r-lube axles and repacked my bearings every other year. I got so good at it, I could have been on a pit crew. I had a 4 year old trailer that had nev-r-lube and had zero issues and might not have for many more years if it didn't get totaled out in a tornado/hail storm. I now have a 24 and would expect similar results.

Now if we had dozens of hundreds of folks with demonstrable failures like the good old days of the Goodyear Marathons, to me, that would be far more of an indicator that a pile of axles at the factory.

[Redbarron55]

The pile of axles were removed and showed it and most of them were Never-lube, but I guess that people just want to upgrade to a cheaper axle. The paper tags on them looked pretty good, but not a stack of new axles to be installed. These were not at the factory, but at the service enter near the Terraports where we stayed.
You are correct they may have been replaced on time and axle suspension degradation. The Never-Lube should not really give any problems as this type of cartridge bearing has been used in millions of automobiles and last hundreds of thousane miles. I do understand that the electric brake surface can become scarred and the coils need to be replaced and the mating surface needs to be reworked and either a mandrel made for the hub with either the bearing in place or with the bearing still in place. I understand lots of shops don't care to go to the trouble and the replacement cost of the hub/brake drum is pretty high and a replacement axle is not much more than new hubs / drums.
Just saying that for whatever reason there was a pretty good sized pile of Never-Lube axles piled outside of the shop area.

[sfranklin]

Originally Posted by Redbarron55

I understand lots of shops don't care to go to the trouble and the replacement cost of the hub/brake drum is pretty high and a replacement axle is not much more than new hubs / drums.

Yup and you hit the nail squarely on the head with this statement. I think that when folks have these type of axles, and they need new bearings along with new hubs, they get sticker shock and then see the price of conventional axles or ez-lube and most will not replace with Nev-r-lube due to costs which unlike at the time the trailer is purchased, there are a few choices.

Now my brakes, knock on wood on prior trailers lasted over 40k miles. I never needed drums, so if my bearings start to fail on my '24 and I'm equally as fortune with the brakes/drums, I can get the bearings for about $40 I believe. Someone here on the forum did a fantastic write up on getting genuine Dexter bearings for the Nev-r-lube, so for $160 plus a shop to press out and back in (if I didn't want to invest in the tools the poster shared), it's still reasonably economical, but yes, if you need the whole assemble, you've got some decisions to make for sure.

[BikeCamper]

Originally Posted by sfranklin

Yup and you hit the nail squarely on the head with this statement. I think that when folks have these type of axles, and they need new bearings along with new hubs, they get sticker shock and then see the price of conventional axles or ez-lube and most will not replace with Nev-r-lube due to costs which unlike at the time the trailer is purchased, there are a few choices.

Now my brakes, knock on wood on prior trailers lasted over 40k miles. I never needed drums, so if my bearings start to fail on my '24 and I'm equally as fortune with the brakes/drums, I can get the bearings for about $40 I believe. Someone here on the forum did a fantastic write up on getting genuine Dexter bearings for the Nev-r-lube, so for $160 plus a shop to press out and back in (if I didn't want to invest in the tools the poster shared), it's still reasonably economical, but yes, if you need the whole assemble, you've got some decisions to make for sure.

And I bet a lot of owners would figure this was a good time to go ahead and get that “lift” they’ve always wanted with a taller axle.

[lemley]

I see a lot of comments in this thread about Never Lube. The OP mentioned EZ Lube. Those two are a world of difference apart. You can treat an EZ Lube just like a conventional and they will be fine. The only difference between the two is a tube that allows the entire bearing cavity to be filled with grease after reassembly. That’s great for boat trailers, but unless you routinely drive through 12 inches of water, it’s not much help for an Airstream. And since the brakes need inspection every year (or 10,000 miles?), you’ll always be inspected and repacking the bearings ahead of their maintenance times.

This was all pointed out to me by the training director for Dexter, who said just to treat EZ lube like a conventional axle. And that’s what I’m doing with my EZ Lube.

[BikeCamper]

Originally Posted by lemley

I see a lot of comments in this thread about Never Lube. The OP mentioned EZ Lube. Those two are a world of difference apart. You can treat an EZ Lube just like a conventional and they will be fine. The only difference between the two is a tube that allows the entire bearing cavity to be filled with grease after reassembly. That’s great for boat trailers, but unless you routinely drive through 12 inches of water, it’s not much help for an Airstream. And since the brakes need inspection every year (or 10,000 miles?), you’ll always be inspected and repacking the bearings ahead of their maintenance times.

This was all pointed out to me by the training director for Dexter, who said just to treat EZ lube like a conventional axle. And that’s what I’m doing with my EZ Lube.

Actually, the OP mentioned both types. He switched from Never-Lube to the EZ-lube version, which is not something I would ever do but to each their own.

[Al and Missy]

Originally Posted by lemley

I see a lot of comments in this thread about Never Lube. The OP mentioned EZ Lube. Those two are a world of difference apart. You can treat an EZ Lube just like a conventional and they will be fine. The only difference between the two is a tube that allows the entire bearing cavity to be filled with grease after reassembly. That’s great for boat trailers, but unless you routinely drive through 12 inches of water, it’s not much help for an Airstream. And since the brakes need inspection every year (or 10,000 miles?), you’ll always be inspected and repacking the bearings ahead of their maintenance times.

This was all pointed out to me by the training director for Dexter, who said just to treat EZ lube like a conventional axle. And that’s what I’m doing with my EZ Lube.

I have EZLube axles and am on my second grease refresh. There is a passage down the center of the axle from the end to behind the inner bearing. Grease flows from the end of the axle to the rear of the inner bearing, then through the inner bearing, through a passage to the rear of the outer bearing. After it passes through the outer bearing it comes out around the nut and washer holding the hub on.

I have disc brakes and can check the pads without pulling the wheel. Unlike the electric drum brakes, there is no need for inspection, cleaning, and lubrication of the mechanism. Drum turning, particularly the surface where the magnets run, is fast becoming a lost art. An additional benefit of the disc brakes is the greatly improved stopping power on my heavier trailer. In the event that the rear seal is damaged by excessive pressure (unlikely if proper procedure is followed) the brakes will not be damaged. I inspect the bearing play and rotation when I jack up the wheels to spin them while greasing. Total cost is the price of two cartridges of grease, and it takes substantially less time than pulling four drum/hub assemblies, cleaning and packing bearings, replacing seals, and re installation.

That's my process , but to each their own.


AL

[Redbarron55]

I have had EZ lube hubs on trailers since 2016 and have never had any issue with them.
I follow the instructions almost to the letter, but I have one observations...
I have been in heavy industry for years and how retired. The color of the grease has nothing to do with the wear and tear of the grease or its remaining "quality".
The color is just a dye and it changes to brown in almost every case and that does not indicate that it is bad, just that it has been churned around a little.
Grease does NOT lubricate your bearings - the oil that is suspended in the grease does that. A bearing when rolling will expel the grease from the race, leaving a coating of oil which will be replenished from the adjacent grease due to heat and vibration and a little gravity.
A bearing that is full of grease that dows not have a way to be pushed out will run hotter and even cause the bearing to get hot enough to cook the suspension media and starve the bearing of lubrication in worst case situations.
When you grease the bearings using the EZ Lube that bearing will run warmer until the excess grease is pushed out which is why the rubber seal has a small hole in it. Taking a finger and pulling the excess grease from the dust cover is a good idea to help this along.
Expelling brown grease does make you fell like you are doing a great job, but is pretty much unnecessary in real life, in my opinion. The full bearing housing does keep water and condensation out of the hub and is not a bad thing. Personally I pump grease in until I see that some is coming out of the outer bearing and that is enough (as long as you are not driving through deep water that would get into the housing).
I have no idea where the thought that a trailer bearing needs to be greased 10 times mor often than a wheel bearing on a car or truck comes from! The fact that there are side loads on a trailer is nothing compared to the side loads on the front wheels of a car at every corner for it's entire life without being regreased at all.
I suspect that the greasing of trailer bearings for their first installation has more to do with the overall life than anything else. Factories probably have the least trained people greasing axles in the whole shop doing the job.
In my last position before retirement we had a bearing fail on a $40,000 pump and upon inspection we found that there was no grease around the bad bearing at all and the other bearing in the housing that did not fail and had no sign of distress had a very small dab of grease next to it tha did not look like it would do any greasing at all, but supplied enough oil to the race to operate with no sign of distress in temperature or vibration as all bearings had monitors in this application.
We always found that when bearing were greased (on schedule) they always ran hotter until they excess grease worked its way away from the races and then they ran at normal temperatures, slightly above ambient until the next scheduled cycle.
Follow the instructions from the manufacturer and you will not go wrong as it will be by far overkill for the application. The grease that they specify is a very good choice and continuing to use it will make certain that the greasing will stay compatible with what they put in at the factory.

[lemley]

Originally Posted by Al and Missy

I have disc brakes and can check the pads without pulling the wheel. Unlike the electric drum brakes, there is no need for inspection, cleaning, and lubrication of the mechanism.


AL

Great point on disc brakes. I’d not considered that. And that does give a very compelling reason for EZ Lube.