1st Wheel Bearing Repack on 2019 Solitude 3350RL

[Overtaxed]

I think the majority of customers don't really know any different.

I suspect your right. It's amazing how much of that knowledge has been lost to the younger generation. My father and I used to spend weekends tearing apart/maintaining the family car. I tore my 125CC engine down to nothing but parts at 16 years old and put it all back together. And having owned and worked on tractors, there's a LOT to know and maintain on any of them, even the new ones. But this knowledge just doesn't seem "common" anymore, it's become something that's totally outsourced to others, which, in some ways, is fine, in other ways, it's sad to see the loss of that information in general population (replaced, even more sadly, with the latest tweet from the Kardashians, no doubt). I work with a lot of men who are younger than me, and VERY few of them have any mechanical knowledge at all. What's the difference between a super and turbocharger? No idea. Really?

I told my wife the other day, you notice how many television commercials are NOT targeted at us anymore?

Because, once you hit a certain age (let's say, about 40 or so), you become "immune" to advertising. It just doesn't work anymore, you're too "wise" to the tricks and you already have set buying patterns. That's why nearly all commercials target the younger generation (and always have) because they are the ones that can be influenced. Once your "old and wise" you know better and have can make your own decisions without a celebrity endorsement.

[Txfivver]

Overtaxed I couldn't have said it better. I too get frustrated at the way people just "replace" parts and things anymore rather than diagnose what the problem really is. I'm getting to the point I don't want to crawl around on cold concrete and change my own oil or rotate tires or grease wet bolts anymore either. But I will seek out places that do it right and will pay more to have it done right. I am lucky that I have an excellent dealer but they don't do much chassis type maintenance so I think I've found a good place for that. Hopefully this year I am getting the Morryde IS installed and then I don't have to worry about the 100 yr old buggy spring technology anymore lol. Ok I guess all us crusty ole codgers have vented enough LOL!

[Nuffsaid]

My 2018 310GK didn't have wet bolts on the ends of the springs either. I replaced all of my shackles as soon as I got the trailer home right after finding grease on my brakes. I also upgraded the end bolts to wet bolts. When doing this I found several bronze bushings that were trashed! The trailer went 400 miles from the dealer to my home, plus the distance from Indiana to Denver. The bronze bushing was splayed out and broken due to out of round eyes on the leaf springs. I replaced the bushings, but expect they are trashed again. I am looking for some better quality springs right now. The wet bolts need to be installed with the grease hole facing either forward or backward, but not up and down and then there still isn't any guarantee that they will always take grease. I installed all of my wet bolts with the zerk fitting facing the outside of the frame instead of the way the factory did it facing the underside of the trailer. I purchased a 90 degree fitting to make greasing them easier.

[Steven@147]

Well I went ahead and ordered the MORryde HD shackle kit yesterday U012-016 from amazon $99 with tax. The Solitude 7000# axles have the 2.25 shackles (bolt hole to bolt hole) and 1.75 spring width. The same kit our Imagine 2950RL took by the way, and it had 4400# axles.

The kit is enough to replace all the shackle straps on both axles with all new wet bolts/bushings. The kit comes with enough wet bolts and bushings to do the spring ends as well and I'll have a couple left over that would normally be used for the equal-flex frame mounting which already has wet bolts. The kit should be here this week.

Yup clocking the grease hole in the wet bolt to the 3 or 9 oclock position has the best chance for grease to flow through the bolt. I'll mark all the bolt heads to be sure I get them installed in the correct position. The MORryde grease zerk is screwed into the wet bolt head which has a better chance of staying in the bolt head and not pulling out of the bolt and sticking in the end of the grease gun! Thats a complaint with the cheaper E-trailer wet bolts, the grease zerk is pressed into the wet bolt, some very loosely.

Didn't really want to have to do this, but better do it now while I have a place and the story on the forum of the 2017 that had a shackle break helped me make up my mind. When I did this mod on our Imagine 2950RL it made a difference. Well might as well get to it!

[terryriddle]

Well almost have it done. I have one wheel to go, but its raining today and tomorrow. Been pleasantly surprised by what I've found so far. All the castle nuts have been finger tight, not overly filled with grease but a little runny, some old grease a little darker, bearings all looked good so far, using thicker red and tacky grease. Cleaned the bearings out with brake clean, checked the rollers and races, dried and repacked by hand. All brake parts looked great, wire clips attached where they should be brake readjustment just so the drums drag on the shoes.

I was a little surprised when I received the new spare bearings I ordered through amazon using the Dexter reference numbers, they were timken. The new seals were Dexter. LOL!! I guess you never know what you'll get!
Next is replacing the bad wet bolts and installing new ones at the spring hangers, I am not looking forward to that, its just a PITA.

Having lost an RV due to bearings...I determined in the future all bearings would be USA made, and used Timken. I also found out that one can only get them thru an authorized distributor. All online orders implied Timken but on the box it stated Made In China. You want to take a good look at the container...if ordered online, it is most likely Made in China. All Dexter parts are made in China and I found that a China bearing vs a Timken beating was significantly better in the material used. Beware of copy cats by China. We lost our RV because of this and the fact it was going to take 14 weeks to get a new axle. Our seven week trip out west did not give that ability so we (at a significant cost), so traded in our RV for a new RV. It was that or head home without our RV and wait for the dealer to replace the axle with a new one and drive back to get it. Did not have the time and did not want to have to drive back to Nevada to get the RV back 14 weeks later. Finished our trip with a different RV and came home with the same, and I immediately change the bearings to Timken from an authorized dealer.

[Steven@147]

Got the MORryde HD shackle and wet bolt kit last week, waiting for a good day to do the work. Also ordered a set of Centramatic balancing plates and will put them on at the same time, part number 300-318A for the below RV in our signature, cost $226.39 with shipping and tax for a set of 4. You need to order the balancing plates with a phone call to Centramatic to make sure you get the "A" variant of the balancing plates, their web site ordering does not distinguish between "A" or "B" plates. The "B" plates are for trucks, "A" plates are for RVs. That should take care of balancing the Rv tires now and in the future. The last time I had trailer tires balanced at the RV dealership, they would only do road force balancing thorough a subcontractor (they cant do it themselves, they cant even do a simple spin balance) and the cost was $400. Well I figure for half the cost any tires i put on now or in the future will be balanced no matter how many times I change out the tires.

Tire business's around here like discount tire, never heard of lug centric rims and will not balance the tires with the TPMS external sensors installed. Some even say there is no need to balance trailer tires. Idiots!