Sealed wheel bearings... or maybe not ?

[A&EPerico]

Ok guys, I screwed up from the get go. I have a 2003 Extreme Trailer with Oil Bath bearings. I spoke with Extreme Trailers today they are about a 45 minute driver from my house. They said the seals may have gone bad. They told me they can service the whole system for about $250.00, I am hoping to do the service myself with some help from my Tige experts. I have taken a few pics of my system. Thanks guys.

[A&EPerico]

I screwed up again the trailer is an 05 I need to stop drinking on days that end in Y.

[jsz]

You can't have both bearing buddies and disc brakes, I know that for a fact.

I'd double check that zad. Especially since my Extreme has BB's and disc brakes and everything works fine. The only time I had any problem was when one of the brakes were sticking due to a rusted piston.

As somebody already mentioned, I'd check to see if your brakes are sticking. Jack each tire up one at a time and see how it spins.

[Waterski-Rebel]

I have an 2004 Extreme trailer that has BB's and disk brakes too.

[jsz]

BTW my trailer is an 02 that gets about 3000 miles a year. The bearings have never been replaced or pe-packed. I just check them before each trip and give them a squirt or two if it needs it.

When I started having problems early this year. My rims (on the brake axle) looked just like yours did. I thought the beraings were bad but as I said before it was caused by the brakes. After replacing the brake calipers everything was fine again.

[jsz]

I have an 2004 Extreme trailer that has BB's and disk brakes too.

I was wondering why nobody said anything sooner. I'll bet there are thousands set up that way.

[A&EPerico]

Thanks guys i am going to take a close look at the brakes to day.

[Joeprunc]

You can check the brakes by jacking the wheel off the ground. Spin the wheel, if it spins freely that is good, there is no brake drag. To check the brakes...put the receiver hitch ball in the coupler. Spin the wheel again, while the wheel is spinning push the hitch towards the trailer (this will simulate your truck decelerating). The wheel should stop spinning if all is working correctly.

Now as for the grease...it looks like your bearing system is closed (ie no zerk fittings for new grease). This makes me think its a blown seal, or the dust cap is working its way off. You can look up on YouTube to see how to change a seal and repack the bearings (although I would always recommend putting new bearings in while everything is apart). One issue I see with disc brakes is that grease probably worked its way onto the disc. Then the pads pick up the grease creating a weak braking system. Its very hard to get the grease off those pads. The brake pads should be replaced if they have grease on them. Or you might be able to grid that layer off the pad with a belt sander.

While your at it, I would also check the other wheel as well...usually if one is going bad, the others aren't too far behind. The wheels with the discs will probably go bad first as they see a hell of a lot more heat.

You probably will not know the root cause until you start tearing it apart. I would guess that any trailer shop will tell you very similar advice.

[A&EPerico]

Thanks, sounds like i have a fair amount of work to do. I will hit it hard this weekend!

[jsz]

You can check the brakes by jacking the wheel off the ground. Spin the wheel, if it spins freely that is good, there is no brake drag.

The tires with no brakes should spin freely. But there should be a tad of resistence when spinning the tires that have brakes. You should also be able to hear the pads rubbing against the rotors which causes the resistence.

When I lifted mine, you could barely spin the tire even after working the surge brake back and forth to simulate braking and releasing. I had to bleed some of the fluid out of the line to free up the caliper and get the tire spinning again. After doing this and applying pressure on the surge again, the caliper would stick and once again the tire became very difficult to spin.

At this point I took it in to the shop and they replaced the calipers. I looked at the piston from one of the old calipers and it was rusted causing it to stick and not release pressure.

[slacker661]

I had the same thing happen on my trailer. I talked to extreme and it turns out that every year or so they recommend checking the oil in those hubs and when you put the plug back on the hubs you gotta use lok tite. Even doing so with the heat from the brakes they tend to leak so he told me to jus re-lok tite em and save myself the money. I redo them every year know and havent had a problem

[zad0030]

Ok, Thinking back on it now, I think the person had electric disc brakes with the grease filled bearings. I guess thats what caused his problem.


And yes the oil bearings are recommended to be changed every other year.