Lippert SBS failure pics included

First topic message reminder :

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.

I replaced mine with a USA Timken bearing and purchased an extra MOOG (made in Gremany) bearing for a spare to carry in the Cat until I change out the axles. (They only had one timken in stock.) Both are a huge improvement over the cheap china bearing.

I will get the part number for you tomorrow so you can buy before taking apart. Your local auto parts can cross reference the bearing number for several different brands.

You do not grease the replacement bearings or the original bearing. They are sealed. You'll see when you get the replacement.

We only had our Wildcat for 6months when ours failed... and we were on the highway!!

Lippert replaced them with 2 different ones because they aren't making the SBS ones anymore.

Scary thing is that several RV sales places still have them on units and they know as well as Lippert that they are a problem waiting to happen!!

jsk - Here are the bearing part numbers for your SBS bearings.

The original China bearing number is JRM4249. Stay far away from this bearing. Its less than half price of the others but absolute Junk.

National brand (MOOG) with lifetime replacement is 513058. Around $40.00.

Sorry I don't have the Timken part number but your local auto parts can cross reference it from either of the two above.

The National bearing is made in Germany and of very high quality. Its on par with the Timken.

MountainMan - thanks for the info.. Is there anything else I may need or will everything come in one package? Sorry for so many questions but this will be first time doing this. Hopefully I can find one and the other foreign bearings will make it this weekend. I talked to Lippert again today and they told me the hub and bearings came from Kodiak. All they could tell me about the bearing is that it was a 42mm.

Just the bearing. Its all you need. There are no outer seals like a regular bearing because its a sealed bearing from the manufacturer.

Its a big bearing so don't be shocked when you see it. Its actually two tapered roller bearings in one housing.

You will need a big socket or pipe to drive out the race of the old bearing. Use the old bearing outer race to drive the new bearing back in the hub. Just be careful to not over drive it and get the old race stuck in the hub.

Yes it is a 42mm. JRM4249

Well Lippert sent two 6000 lbs axles, greasable bearings and drums. Used original brakes, back plate and springs. My dealer put it all together. No cost to me. Pulled it home today and after looking over all they did, it seems good. I hope everyone that has the neverlube system gets Lippert to take care of them like they did me. Now ready to pull out next Tuesday morning to go to Destin, Fl at Henderson Beach State Park. It is a very good park.

I went ahead and changed out both my axles today. I pulled the Cat up on my ramps to check the bearings yesterday evening. I found excessive play in two of the three remaining original bearings. The original rear axle bearing was really sloppy and rough sounding.

We have a thousand mile round trip scheduled in about 10 days so I decided to just get it over with and change them out. Took me about 5 hours by myself. Not a bad job and I feel much better about my work than my local dealer. Matter of fact I would trust my wife changing them out more than our local dealer.

I have rubber caps.

Is there any alignment of the axles/wheels? Should the back wheel be directly behind the front wheel or does it matter? I asked the local dealer this question and they said they do not line it up. I would not think it would matter if they are truely independent of each other but are they?

Mine are right behind each other.

Sorry i have been gone for so long. Lippert did come through with two new axles for my 32QBBS (no cost to me for the parts just labor to put them on) they replaced them with 6k lb greasable axles. Trailer came with the 5200 lbs SBS.

I may be wrong on this, but I thought the 6000 lb axles have 16" tires, where the 5200 lb axles have the 15". Under that assumption, how do they trade out 5200s for 6000s without changing the rest?

TC

TC my trailer came with 15" wheels and 6000 lb axels.

In the case of the 5200 and 6000# axles (at least AL-KO), they are the same axles (3"x.180 tubes and 12"X2" brake assemblies). The rating changes with the spring pack it seems (aka the weakest link less the tire rating). 7k axles have .250 wall tubes and required the 8 lug hubs (optional on the 5200 and 6000). I can't speak for the Dexters.

http://www.al-kousa.com/pdf/T52_T60_T70_D52_D60_D70_5200-7000lb.pdf

5200 lbs SBS. <---- With a camper weight of 11,600 on a qbbs seems like that would be a law suit waiting to happen....

With pin weight, they are on the line of the GVWR.

That's why I opted for the 16" wheel upgrade back in 2006 an ended up with the 6k axles. I didn't like the idea of running the 15" wheel that close to capacity all the time. Recently, I got FR to up the GVWR to 13,500. The sticker initially showed 5200#, 15" wheels and a GVWR of 11,430. When I weighed in at 12,500 I saw I needed to get a corrected sticker with my options. The genset added a lot of weight, as well as my second fresh water tank. After a discussion with the frame shop, it made me feel better knowing the frame was rated for 15k with 6k running gear (assuming a 3k pin weight).

I just wanted to thank you guys for this thread. I found a bad bearing on my 2010 27bh with that stupid sbs set up over the weekend. I was able to get new bearings from an auto parts store but when I pressed one of the new bearings into the hub it was loose in the hub. I was searching online trying to find a new drum/hub assembly when I found this thread. Lippert is now sending me new axles and hubs thanks to you guys!!! We purchased our camper new in June 2009. We are way out of warranty and they were very cool about it. Must not want to get sued I am guessing. They should recall all of those junk axles. Thanks again!!!

Welcome to the forum, glad you got it worked out.

etrailer wrote: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.

I'm with ET replace the wheel. I had the SBS , but that not my problem any more. My first year I pull about 4000 mile with on problem. Maybe just lucky.