When should I have the wheel bearings repacked?

Hi All,

Im back with another question since I get better answers here than anywhere else!!!

I have a 2006 Wildcat 31QBH. I bought it new and have only towed it locally. I would guess less than 5000 miles.

I am about to go on a trip up to Mammoth Lakes this July and want to make sure I take care of any service needs.

Do you think I need to repack the wheel bearings?

I seem to remember that the dealer told us something about these RV's not needing this service or at least super easy to lube.

Also, we had it out last weekend and heard a sizzling sound (like water boiling off something metal) when running the water heater off of electric shore power. When I switched it over to propane, the sound went away. We had plenty of hot water when on electric.

Any ideas?

As for wheel bearings, even if you have EZ-Lube, you should have them repacked every other year. I don't use the grease zerks in the axles because it can push grease past the inner seals onto the brake shoes/hub area. Sitting in one place also takes it toll on the bearings/grease ....

The hot water heater will make noise when operating off of electric. There is an over-pressure valve if the water gets too hot. The reason you don't hear it on propane is because you are heating the whole metal tank versus the electric where a rod is heating the water directly. The electric rod gets much hotter but heats a smaller quantity of water at a time. No need to worry. Use both (electric and gas) if you need a faster recovery time (long showers ....)

Some folks will say you should re-pack you bearings every year, some every other. If yours is a 2006 and never been done, I would definitely do it before your trip.

Ditto on the hot water heater, have you checked your anode rod lately?

The dealer where I have mine serviced does his rental units every spring (before the season) and after every 5,000 miles of towing. If it's good enough for him, me too!

OK, next question.... what's the going rate for having this job done? My local guy quoted me $200.00 ! That seems a bit steep to me.

$200 for all 4 wheels is not really all that bad. The seals can be purchased for a couple of dollars each .... the grease is probably about $10.

So for $175 labor for 4 wheels - it is not that hard of a job, just a bit tedious and very messy.

Each wheel should take 30 to 45 minutes for each wheel depending on what is used to lift the trailer. It takes me a while to raise each wheel independently. So for 2 hours of labor, that is roughly $85 to $90 an hour. It takes me much longer .... :;

If your Cat sets parked most of the year with only the occasional short weekend trips, you might consider at least having the bearings inspected every year to insure everything's hunky-dory. But definitely get them repacked every other year.

If you take extended, cross-country/multi-state type trips every year, I'd definitely have the bearings re-packed every year. You know what they say about an ounce of prevention...

I just had mine done in April and pd $120.00 (1 1/2 hrs labor + materials), which included:

Re-packing all four wheels
Brake inspection
Axle inspection
Shackle inspection
Tire inspection (including valve stems)

This sounds impressive, but it's pretty much an all-at-once procedure. Inspecting everything is quick work cuz they have everything torn apart already.

TC

Repacking the wheel bearings - once a year for our 'Cat. We might have to rethink that if we keep going on those coast to coast trips.

We generally pack bearings once a year --more often than not we travel close to, or over 12K per year. If we have less travel we might wait a little longer, but we always consider the parked time as important to the need of packing wheel bearings.

In this area the going rate is 1 hour of labor per axle and they do all the checks/inspections that TC indicated. I generally have mine done since we don't have a good place to work of the 'Cat at the house.