Wet bolt suspension lube

[Howie0]

Noticed my 27RL has wet bolts with zerks. Is there anything special about how much grease is applied? I assume I just pump enough until I see a little exiting. Any advice?

 

[dryfly]

I think that's about all you can do. The wet bolt is nothing more than a small channel running from the zerk fitting down through the bolt then exiting the side of the bolt. It could be made to be a lot more efficient in greasing the bushing but it is what it is. I've really not come to a conclusion on how often to re-grease the fittings.

 

[geotex1]

Best tip I can share is to use Red n Tacky (or the equal of other brands) and pump enough till you see fresh red exiting and wipe away the dirty grease.

 

[tfgd21bhe]

I had cre3000 and morryde heavy duty shackles and wet bolts installed on my 21bhe by Morryde in Elhart last spring. I asked about how often to lubricate and they told me every 10K miles.

 

[Cannon07]

Make sure their taking grease. This is what one of mine looked like after 4000 miles.

 

[Howie0]

Thanks for your responses. I will give them a lube and not worry about too much.

 

[dryfly]

Best tip I can share is to use Red n Tacky (or the equal of other brands) and pump enough till you see fresh red exiting and wipe away the dirty grease.

I'll second this recommendation on grease. I'm also using it in wheel bearings now. Replaced Lubriplate for me. I also bought a high pressure grease gun for ease.

 

[TheJimmer]

My 2021 Reflection Travel Trailer has wet bolts, with the Moryde 3000. When I raise/lower the front of the trailer using the tongue jack, I can hear the suspension clicking/creeking. I just tried to lube up the wet bolts with a grease gun, but 4 of them would not take any grease. I had to rotate the position of the bolt until it would take grease.

So, all of you with new trailers/5th wheels that come with the wet bolts, you should immediately try to grease up the wet bolts before your first trip. If a bolt doesn't take grease, you can rotate the bolt by turning in the tightening direction. If your lucky, the bolt will spin in place, and then you try greasing with the bolt in a different orientation. If the bolt doesn't spin, you may have to loosen to turn it. I saw several different torque specs, from 50 lb-feet to 1/4 turn after contact/it starts to tighten. Do what you need to do to avoid the bolt coming loose.

You likely have some non-greased wet bolts from the factory, and if you don't do this, you're likely ruining a few of the bolts without any grease, which will result in a very premature failure.

 

[EsquireRV]

I had to rotate the position of the bolt until it would take grease.

...If a bolt doesn't take grease, you can rotate the bolt by turning in the tightening direction. If your (sic) lucky, the bolt will spin in place, and then you try greasing with the bolt in a different orientation.

Perhaps you inferred this expanded instruction below, but your above post made no mention other than to 'rotate' the wet bolts.

Do NOT rotate any wet bolt unless you first remove the oval nut and hammer out the wet bolt. Wet bolts have splines directly under the bolt head, to prevent rotation. Once you hammer them out, the typically suppled oval nuts are designed to be thrown away and replaced (unless you have castle nuts) The oval nuts are designed to deform to the bolt as they are tightened to the correct torque rating. Reuse of an oval nut will likely result in failure.

 

[huntindog]

My 2021 Reflection Travel Trailer has wet bolts, with the Moryde 3000. When I raise/lower the front of the trailer using the tongue jack, I can hear the suspension clicking/creeking. I just tried to lube up the wet bolts with a grease gun, but 4 of them would not take any grease. I had to rotate the position of the bolt until it would take grease.

So, all of you with new trailers/5th wheels that come with the wet bolts, you should immediately try to grease up the wet bolts before your first trip. If a bolt doesn't take grease, you can rotate the bolt by turning in the tightening direction. If your lucky, the bolt will spin in place, and then you try greasing with the bolt in a different orientation. If the bolt doesn't spin, you may have to loosen to turn it. I saw several different torque specs, from 50 lb-feet to 1/4 turn after contact/it starts to tighten. Do what you need to do to avoid the bolt coming loose.

You likely have some non-greased wet bolts from the factory, and if you don't do this, you're likely ruining a few of the bolts without any grease, which will result in a very premature failure.

Warning!!Do NOT do this! Spinning the bolts without removing them will ruin the hangers! The bolts have splines that bite into the hangers to PREVENT spinning. Forcing them to spin will cause the bolt hole in the hanger to wobble out in size.... Then the bolt can spin at anytime. The fix for this is to cut off the hangers and weld on new ones.

To the OP: You may be able to salvage this situation. Get new bolts and nuts. Remove the bolts you turned. Use a ball joint press. Auto parts stores generally have a loan a tool program that is free. If your hangers had the same sized hole on both sides, you can simply install the bolts backwards. (again , use the ball joint press)The downside to this fix is that you may have to remove the tires to grease them in the future....

 

[TheJimmer]

Warning!!Do NOT do this! Spinning the bolts without removing them will ruin the hangers!

Farg!!! This is not good. Thank you for information. Now I've given myself a much bigger project. Arggg. I have a big trip on Friday, and no time to work though this!! Thanks so much to both of you for correcting my erroneous post.

 

[huntindog]

Enjoy your trip don’t worry your axles won’t fall off
When you get ready to do the repair probably be a good idea to have some new bushings on hand as well just in case you need them

 

[TheJimmer]

Enjoy your trip don’t worry your axles won’t fall off
When you get ready to do the repair probably be a good idea to have some new bushings on hand as well just in case you need them

Thanks. Actually, there is only one bolt where I had to loosen the nut to spin it. I understand single use nuts, so I'll have to get that nut replaced.

Also, in thinking about it, by sheering off the splines on the wet bolt, the wet bolt will be able to rotate. Its a round bolt rotating in a round hole. What that means is the next time I go to grease the bolt, the grease hole might be in a blocked position. But I don't think I really need to change anything if I sheered off the splines, but did not loosen the nut, do I?

Also, if I do want restore to like-new condition, I can always fill the outside of the hole in the spring hanger by welding and then re-drill the hole back to the original size. So it's not that big of a deal (or so I think), right?

 

[Tigger1]

Farg!!! This is not good. Thank you for information. Now I've given myself a much bigger project. Arggg. I have a big trip on Friday, and no time to work though this!! Thanks so much to both of you for correcting my erroneous post.

When I greased mine (Dexter EZ Flex with heavy duty wet bolts) at the start of this season, I had to take some pressure off the spring by slightly lifting the wheel. I have a Lucas HD pistol grip grease gun with Red n Tacky grease.

Even with taking some pressure off I really had to squeeze the grease gun hard before grease came out of the rear of the wet bolt.

 

[huntindog]

Thanks. Actually, there is only one bolt where I had to loosen the nut to spin it. I understand single use nuts, so I'll have to get that nut replaced.

Also, in thinking about it, by sheering off the splines on the wet bolt, the wet bolt will be able to rotate. Its a round bolt rotating in a round hole. What that means is the next time I go to grease the bolt, the grease hole might be in a blocked position. But I don't think I really need to change anything if I sheered off the splines, but did not loosen the nut, do I?

Also, if I do want restore to like-new condition, I can always fill the The splines on the bolt are harder steel than the hanger, so they may not be shot. But any sign of damage to them = replacing them. YThy are cheap. Don't take a chance on "good enough".
As for welding up the hole and redrilling it,,,, yes it is possible depending on the skill of the person doing it. i do not think it would save any time though, probably take longer than just replacing them. They are cheap as well. BTW, I am a pretty good welder. I once welded up 3 broken spring hangers on my TT out in the woods, good enough to get me 150 miles home.

And the ONLY thing stopping the bolt from turning is the splines biting into the hanger hole. How tight the nut is has no effect.

I still think your best route now is to install new bolts/nuts backwards. This approach has a very high chance of working and is pretty easy to do, and easy on the wallet[/COLOR]

 

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Another option to removing and re-orienting the wet bolt is to jack up the trailer and take the load off the suspension. The offending bolts will then take grease.

 

[BobLandry]

If you have to jack up the trailer to take the load off the bolts so they take grease, something is wrong. The groove on the bolt should be at 2,4,8, or 10 o'clock. If they are at any other orientation, the hole in the side of the bolt will be obstructed by the pressure from the bushing.