Lippert SBS failure pics included

I had a bearing failure this weekend on my 2009 Wildcat. Thankfully i was able to make it to the campground without incident. Lippert is sending two new axles with greasable bearings. Mine were equipped with the sealed bearing system and evidently Lippert discontinued these axles. Trailer maybe has 2k miles on it in a year and a half of ownership. Thank God for extended warranties and mobile RV repair. Trailer is still sitting at the state park and waiting on parts. I can only imagine how bad this could have been if it had failed while on the interstate.

Defiantly bad news. Thank goodness I have the grease able ones.

I am never a fan of anything that claims to be maintenance free. I am guessing they had to eat quite a few of these axles being they are discontinued. I am amazed that the wheel stayed on.

Chevy has them on there trucks if my memory is still functioning.

I had a bearing failure many years ago. The thing got so hot it caught fire. Quite a site in the side view mirror.

John

Wow, good thing you made it safely to the CG.

Yeah Avid I could see how it could have caught fire. By the time I parked it in my spot you could barely hold your hand on the tire. Anyone know where I can find a replacement wheel for the Wildcat without going through the dealer?

BayouDude wrote: Anyone know where I can find a replacement wheel for the Wildcat without going through the dealer?

If the wheel is only damaged cosmetically you could have it refinished to make it look like new.
Sean

HWT, the manufacturer of your wheel, has a number of trailer wheels out there. We carry a number of their wheels, but not the exact model you have.

Run a Google or Bing search for "HWT" as well as your wheel size and bolt-pattern. It may very well be that Forest River had HWT build that design just for them, so you may have to call them up.

If the discoloration is from smoke or burning grease, you can probably have them refinished. But if the discoloration is because the aluminum heated up so much, it would be safer to replace that one.

Lippert sbs strikes again!

We had a bearing failure today on our 2010 29RLBS. No way it has more than 3000 miles on it. Luckily I made it home before it completely blew apart.

I kept hearing the familiar squeek, screech, squeek every time I would turn to the left. We were about 200 miles from home but we limped in without harm. I checked hub temps several times and prayed.

I raised the suspected wheel off the ground and sure enough it had an inch of play from top to bottom. I removed the wheel, popped of the dust cap, removed the spindle nut and seen the craziest bearing set up I've ever witnessed on a trailer. Two tapered roller bearings back to back forming a V in the middle with a seal on the outside of each bearing. The inner bearing actually fell apart in my hands when I removed the hub. (That explained the noise only when turning to the left.)

I called Lippert but it was after hours. I'll call again tomorrow.

MountainMan, glad you made it home safely with the failed bearing. I can tell you I have hearing of these kinds of problems on such a new trailer.... Guess I will be keeping an extra eye on my wheel bearings...

That's bad news. What year did Lippert start with the sealed bearing system?

Time for a change.

Bill - Hopefully your west coast model has a different bearing system. If yours has a grease fitting it is not the sealed bearing system like mine and BayouDudes. Your bearing dustcaps would also have LCI/SBS on them if you have the sealed bearings.

scruffy and tater - From searching the web I think Lippert started using the SBS around '06 on Heartland and a few other RV's including Forrest Rivers Cedar Creek. The first I could find anything on Wildcats with SBS was '09. This system is sealed and bearings are not greasable.

I talked with Lippert today and hopefully will have good news to report in a few days.

Thanks, Mountain Man. Maybe our 06 will be okay then. Scruffy gets the bearings packed every two years.

Tater

MountainMan wrote:Bill - Hopefully your west coast model has a different bearing system. If yours has a grease fitting it is not the sealed bearing system like mine and BayouDudes. Your bearing dustcaps would also have LCI/SBS on them if you have the sealed bearings.

scruffy and tater - From searching the web I think Lippert started using the SBS around '06 on Heartland and a few other RV's including Forrest Rivers Cedar Creek. The first I could find anything on Wildcats with SBS was '09. This system is sealed and bearings are not greasable.

I talked with Lippert today and hopefully will have good news to report in a few days.

Any news from Lippert, Mountainman?
I'm worried after these post about the sealed bearing failures. Our Wildcat has them.

Headed out for the 4th of July weekend, were about 40 miles from the house when my wife noticed the brake controller flashing SH. We pulled over at the first safe spot and the wheel bearing was shot - my wheel looked exactly like the picture posted by Bayaudude. We bought the trailer in Mar of 10, and it only had about 1000 miles on it. It is at the shop now, and they are going to contact Lippert about this. I will make sure the shop sees what Bayaudude said about Lippert replacing both of his axles, maybe I can get mine replaced as well. Sure messed up my 4th of July trip!

Sorry to hear about your bearing failure, to begin your holiday weekend camping trip. Sure glad you were able to make it back to a service center. Hopefully you will get two new axles to replace yours.
Just clear up any confusion, did your Cat have the never lube style bearing/axles on it????
Keep us updated!

Well with all these failures lately to the axle bearings, and specially wildcatgps's rig being the same model and year as mine, got me very nervous. I had to go check and confirm what I had on my Cat, and found that I do have the grease zirk fittings on the hubs.

Rubber dust cover attached:


Dust cover removed:

Anybody know if there is a recall on Lippert's bearings? Seems to me there should be.

Scruffy and Tater wrote:Anybody know if there is a recall on Lippert's bearings? Seems to me there should be.

I sure hope there would be with the failures on such new units...... I hope that there not just figuring on replacing them as they go out, specially since they aren't using this style of axles anymore.

BSmall2800, to answer your question, I do have the sealed bearing system on my trailer. If I have to keep my original axle (the one that doesn't have to be replaced) I am going to see if the shop can convert them to bearings with grease fittings. I just do not trust them. The funny thing is when I was trying to get a mobile service out to fix the bearing, the guy on the phone kind of yelled at me and told me I needed to service the bearings every 3000 miles, he was totally shocked when I told him my trailer was about 15 months old and only had about 1000 miles on it.

I even had the same bearing fail as bayou did (right rear), funny coincidence!

Found this information on the Lippert Site, figured I would post it, it might help someone with greasing the bearings.

bsmall2800 wrote:Well with all these failures lately to the axle bearings, and specially wildcatgps's rig being the same model and year as mine, got me very nervous. I had to go check and confirm what I had on my Cat, and found that I do have the grease zirk fittings on the hubs.

Rubber dust cover attached:


Dust cover removed:

bsmall2800 I have the same wheels you do except I cannot for the life of me figure out how the plastic cap comes off of the crome center cap I have tried to pry them off but I'm afraid I'm going to break the plastic cap.
How did you remove yours?

[quote="bsmall2800"]Well with all these failures lately to the axle bearings, and specially wildcatgps's rig being the same model and year as mine, got me very nervous. I had to go check and confirm what I had on my Cat, and found that I do have the grease zirk fittings on the hubs.

_________________

It looks like I may have the Never Lube even though the body sticker says Super Lube. My centre cap is solid chrome with no rubber dust cover in the centre. I also checked behind the wheel and see no evidence of a grease fitting there either. I may have to remove the tire and wheel to confirm further when I next move the unit onto the road (driveway too steep).

Bill: is your rubber dust cover visible and removeable from the centre of the wheel without removing the wheel itself?


thanks, Kim

onetonford wrote:

bsmall2800 wrote:Well with all these failures lately to the axle bearings, and specially wildcatgps's rig being the same model and year as mine, got me very nervous. I had to go check and confirm what I had on my Cat, and found that I do have the grease zirk fittings on the hubs.

Rubber dust cover attached:


Dust cover removed:

bsmall2800 I have the same wheels you do except I cannot for the life of me figure out how the plastic cap comes off of the crome center cap I have tried to pry them off but I'm afraid I'm going to break the plastic cap.
How did you remove yours?

OneTonFord, if you take a very small flat tip screwdriver and rub the entire edge of the chrome cover you will find a small slot. Just start at that point and slightly with due care twist the screwdriver. I managed to get all but one off without any problems. On one I managed to crack the cover slightly. I did put a little grease along the edge of the cover so they would pry off easier next time. I also pumped some grease in the bearings this morning. Hope you get them off mine were really stuck on real tight.

Kim,

If you have the solid silver cap with SBS on it you probably have the one that seems to be failing. If you take it off you will see what looks like threads for a zerk fitting, but it is not made for one. The mechanic that looked at mine said it should have a grease fitting on it, then looked into the threaded hole and said nope, not made for a fitting.

Hope that helps,
Randy

Thanks I will check it out today.

onetonford wrote:Thanks I will check it out today.

OneTonFord, I meant to say run not rub in my reply to you about removing the chrome covers, hit the wrong key on the board....
I was really amazed how much grease I pumped into the fittings. I actually had to order more grease cartridges to have some on hand to use down the road.