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  1. #11
    Site Sponsor Cate&Rob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by carnolddsm View Post
    The question of why have the grease fitting has come up. before. Answer is these same axles are used in a lot of different applications. And like Gold Country Livin suggested a good way for purging water from axles that are regularly immersed in water.

    A while back Grand Design was asked why don’t the order the axles without the grease fittings. Answer was the axle manufacturers wanted to charge more for removing the fittings.
    The LCI Service manual makes no mention of using the zerk fitting . . . which is there for other applications as Colan describes. The LCI manual and the discussions in their Rally tech sessions were specifically about cleaning, inspecting and hand packing the bearings. Apparently Dexter recommendations are different.

    Bearing grease does not go away by itself, thus needing to be replaced though the zerk injection system . . . unless there is a pending bearing failure or the grease is getting past the rear seal and on to the brakes. In either of these situations, you would need to pull the hub/drum to inspect for this.

    (another) Rob
    Cate & Rob
    2015 Reflection 303RLS

  2. #12
    Long Hauler LCBoyer's Avatar
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    Yep! I agree with Rob. It won’t take much grease to be too much.
    2018 Freedom Elite 24FE, 2 Yorkies, and my wife MARILYN, HAM call K0LCB. Traveling around this great country, making friends and seeing lot of beautiful and interesting places

  3. #13
    Rolling Along carnolddsm's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cate&Rob View Post

    Bearing grease does not go away by itself, thus needing to be replaced though the zerk injection system . . . unless there is a pending bearing failure or the grease is getting past the rear seal and on to the brakes. In either of these situations, you would need to pull the hub/drum to inspect for this.

    (another) Rob
    I’ve serviced the axles on around 40 RVs in the past year, none where I said, “wow this thing needed more grease.” On the other hand a fair number have needed at least one bearing replaced.
    Colan and Marilyn Arnold
    Des Moines, IA - kind of, on the road full time.
    Currently in Durango, Colorado
    Momentum 350M originally, now a 397TH

  4. #14
    Seasoned Camper
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    One of the causes of the Lippert grease seal fiasco that lead GD to move to Dexter was too much grease in the hub. Im with others here, pull, clean, inspect, repack. Do not use the zerk, you will eventually fill the hub completely full which will lead to seal failure, if you haven't already forced grease past it already.

  5. #15
    Site Sponsor Buckskin's Avatar
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    I think you should pull hubs at least one a year to inspect brakes and bearings - also good time to clean everything. If you pump grease into zerks you don't know how brakes and bearing are holding up. Going to get one of those cheap infrared heat guns and start checking heat on hubs while pulling camper - never can be too careful.
    Just finished repacking wheel bearings on 2018 2250RK Imagine we purchased in March 2018. Factory grease job seemed to still be good and was properly done at factory.
    Lessons learned:
    1. Use grease packing tool like the Lisle #34550 Handy Bearing Packer to flush all old grease from bearings - much better/easier than hand rolling grease into bearings; took several times to flush out all oil grease.
    2. Use good quality grease; for example Lucas X-Tra Heavy Duty Grease, stay away from full syn grease - opened tube of Mobile 1 and realized it wouldn't work, too watery/runny looking and not tacky.
    3. replace seals and found using seal puller tool worked great. Found Lippert 10 pkg of good quality seals on Amazon for $19 dollars .
    4. have plenty of spray brake cleaner to wash everything down good and plenty of paper towels to wipe away old grease. I put some blue paper shop towels underneath brakes and sprayed brake assembly to clean them and lots of brake dust washed out. Sprayed inside drums also and lots of brake dust came out.
    5. pumped a little grease into zerk fittings just so there would be a little extra around seals to keep them from running dry on spindle and burning seals.
    6. Use plenty of grease around hub bearing races; once hubs are installed grease will not move inside hub and spindle.
    Bought everything from Amazon including grease.
    Realized the Imagine has cheap lug nuts and thin aluminum covers cracked on some and going to have to replace with solid lug nuts without thin covers.
    Last edited by Buckskin; 08-08-2019 at 04:20 AM.

  6. #16
    Commercial Member huntr70's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by colomountain View Post
    Then what’s the point of having an easy lube axle?
    Nice marketing/selling point, isn't it?
    Steve- Inventory Manager at Tom Schaeffer's RV, Shoemakersville, PA www.tomschaeffers.com
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    2011 RAM 3500 SRW Outdoorsman Edition 4X4, 6.7 Cummins--TWEAKED!
    2021 Reflection 310RLS

  7. #17
    Long Hauler
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    The reason Lippert injects thin bearing grease into their axles is simple. It's a time savings when the hubs are installed/assembled, and time is money.

    After all the problems experienced with brakes being grease contaminated, you'd think they'd spend another $1 and install higher quality rear oil seals. It appears all they've done is to figure out the proper amount of axle grease into the hub and leave it at that.

    I never figured out why manufacturers didn't spec out their axles with self adjusting brakes? The difference in cost is very minimal.

  8. #18
    Rolling Along carnolddsm's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bamaman View Post
    The reason Lippert injects thin bearing grease into their axles is simple. It's a time savings when the hubs are installed/assembled, and time is money.

    After all the problems experienced with brakes being grease contaminated, you'd think they'd spend another $1 and install higher quality rear oil seals. It appears all they've done is to figure out the proper amount of axle grease into the hub and leave it at that.

    I never figured out why manufacturers didn't spec out their axles with self adjusting brakes? The difference in cost is very minimal.
    When Lippert went to their new process in 2017, the amount of grease they use was dramatically reduced. The center of the hub is practically devoid of grease, and the old runny black grease was replaced with thicker and higher quality grease.

    There is a video floating around somewhere showing the new process.
    Last edited by carnolddsm; 08-08-2019 at 08:08 AM.
    Colan and Marilyn Arnold
    Des Moines, IA - kind of, on the road full time.
    Currently in Durango, Colorado
    Momentum 350M originally, now a 397TH

  9. #19
    Setting Up Camp Bad_dog's Avatar
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    This is the instruction video directly from Dexter. And this is what I did today. Thanks for everyone's input.

  10. #20
    Setting Up Camp Bad_dog's Avatar
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    Some of the older GD's have Lippert axles. I think they changed to Dexter in the 2018 model year.

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