Trailer Wheel Bearings Burning Out Repeatedly After Little Mileage

Updated 09/25/2013 | Published 09/24/2013

Question:

I have burned out 3 wheel bearings on my tandem axle Fleetwood travel trailer in just 30,000 miles. Each time the bearings had been checked and packed by professionals within at most 2,000 miles of burnout and more often within a few hundred miles. I feel the hubs at every stop and have never felt a hot hub even, in one case, when the bearing burned out only 40 more miles down the road. In two cases I discovered the problem at a routine stop smoking hub, but in one memorable case the wheel separated from the axle and followed me down the interstate!! Thank God, no accidents. The cost of dealing with this problem is considerable because of the distance the repair person has to travel to replace the burned bearings. The professionals that I have pack and inspect my bearings each year can give me no reason for the problem. And this includes the service people who come to rescue me including a a tire and wheel shop a trailer repair depot and a tractor trailer repair facility. I am not over weight and come nowhere near the axles total gross weight capacity. It has been a different spindle each time. The last repair persons opinion was cheap Chinese bearings prematurely failing one at a time. But it seems to me all bearings are made in China these days My plan is to have all spindles competently inspected and all bearings, races and seals replaced with a top brand. Any advice or ideas as to what could be causing this problem?

asked by: Bob C

Expert Reply:

Thank you for providing the photo and the detailed history of the wheel bearing issues with your Fleetwood trailer. A potential cause for bearing failure is the castle nuts being over tightened. Castle nuts should be just slightly more than hand tight. If too tight this will put excessive pressure on the bearings and could lead to premature failure.

I suggest an inspection of the tires on the affected wheels. If you notice uneven tread wear this could potentially indicate a source for the problem. If the tread is more worn on the inside edge (nearest the hub) this could indicate an overloaded axle, although you have noted you are certain this is not the case. I do urge that you have your fully-loaded trailer weighed at a commercial scale to confirm that its weight does not exceed the axle capacity. Uneven tread wear could also indicate mis-aligned spindles. If the spindles themselves have any scratches or nicks on the bearing or seal surfaces this could lead to premature bearing damage.

Although this is a long shot, if the inner grease seal were compromised, for example by an excess application of grease, seal failure could allow the grease to seep out of the bearings allowing them to run dry once heat softened the grease enough for it to leak out. Since you indicate that you have not detected heat build-up when checking your hubs this seems fairly unlikely. I suspect your technicians would have advised you if any of the affected bearings were without adequate lubrication.

Another possibility is that the foreign-made bearings were indeed from a sub-par production run.

expert reply by: Adam R