Wheels Have a Lot of Brake Drag Turning By Hand

[WillardE]

2024 GD Image 22 MLE

We've not taken this rig out since the 150 mile trip home from the selling dealer around three months ago.

Had the rig lifted to replace the equalizers (all went perfect) and when done decide to grease the bearings. The wheels on the driver side and to some extent the passenger were extremely difficult to turn by hand. Actually took both hands/arms to rotate the driver side wheels. Seemed to even drag more in some parts of the revolution.

I believe there are Lipert electric brakes. I have the red brake drums. I had read that an easy manual adjustment can be done, but these may be self adjusting to a certain extent? Any idea why these are so hard to turn by hand? Thanks in advance.

 

[RPAspey]

Since you haven't moved it in 3 months, it's very likely that theres rust in your drums. Is there a grinding or gritty sound?

 

[WillardE]

Since you haven't moved it in 3 months, it's very likely that theres rust in your drums. Is there a grinding or gritty sound?

That is an excellent observation. Yes, they sound gritty/grinding. I believe if they were out of adjustment that much, I would have overheated them during the trek home from the dealer. That trip was uneventful and there was no buring smell when we stopped halfway.

One side is alot harder to turn maybe because that side is the side that never sees any sunlight under the shelter.

I think I shoud hook up and do a few miles and then do a some trailer break stops using the break controller and then check them again.

 

[goducks14]

If you're going to grease the bearings then the drums come off and you can see the problem. You'll have to retract the drums manually to pull the drums off.

Or were you just going top squirt grease in the eazy lube?

 

[WillardE]

I used those ez lube zerks. Greese was warm as to not have too much resistance. I did not add so much grease as to see it coming back on the outside of the spindle washer.

I had read that initinally just the bearings are packed from the factory and if you use the ez lube fitting it will take a ton of grease to fill up the void around the bearings and push the grease back out the front. So I used less that one tube on all four wheels. I may need to read up some on what is the proper wat to use that method.

 

[goducks14]

JMO but I would hand pack. You have no idea what's going on unless you can tear it down and look. How do you know if you have don't a bearing that's turning color from heat? How much grease did the factory put in? Did you blow some grease out the back seal? Can't tell unless the drums pulled.

If it's not coming out the front then you're not exchanging the old for the new grease.

 

[TimtheToolMan]

I used those ez lube zerks. Greese was warm as to not have too much resistance. I did not add so much grease as to see it coming back on the outside of the spindle washer.

I had read that initinally just the bearings are packed from the factory and if you use the ez lube fitting it will take a ton of grease to fill up the void around the bearings and push the grease back out the front. So I used less that one tube on all four wheels. I may need to read up some on what is the proper wat to use that method.

If you did not see some grease come out near zerk, when using EZ lube, you may have just greased the inner bearing. Once you see grease come out, wipe much of it away to add some space for grease expansion. I am not a fan of EZ lube but not totally against using it either.

 

[WillardE]

If you did not see some grease come out near zerk, when using EZ lube, you may have just greased the inner bearing. Once you see grease come out, wipe much of it away to add some space for grease expansion. I am not a fan of EZ lube but not totally against using it either.

That's what I was thinking too. But being as how the wheels were difficult yo turn by hand I figured it may be better to maybe get the rig out on the road for several miles and do some breaking to see if that would "free" them up some from be not used for a few months.

If they still drag I'll probably do a manual adjustment and then complete the wheel bearing pack using the ez zerks until I get fresh grease coming out. There are some videos where it can take almost a full tube of grease to get all the old the first time the ez method is used.

 

[Hoopy Frood]

JMO of course, but since this is a brand new trailer, I have to side with the "pull the wheels and check things out" group. Just pumping in grease without knowing the state of the bearing seals, and bearings themselves, is not a very good idea. Pull things apart and check everything, then you'll have a baseline to operate from.

 

[Wileykid]

I am another one that is not a fan of the EZ lube. I tried it, and blew out the rear seal without much effort. I think it is a waste of excess grease, and if things go wrong (and you have no real idea that it did), now you are talking about replacing pads. I hand pack every other year, and know that it is good.

 

[Chaps2018]

Whichever you decide to do (pull the hubs or take it for a drive to loosen things up) be sure to:

-Spin the wheel freely while squirting grease into the ezlube zerks. The wheel moving on the spindle is what distributes the grease from the rear of the hub to the front. If the wheel is not moving when you are pumping grease it will likely blow the rear seal as noted above...Then you WILL have a brake problem when the grease exits and gets all over the brake components (brake shoes at a minimum will need to be replaced).
-Check your axle build sheet to determine if you have auto-adjust brakes. If you need a build sheet on your axles, get the serial number from one of the axles (stamped on the axle tube about in the middle of the axle) and send it to the axle mgr (either Lippert or Dexter) and ask them for the build sheet. This will give you the brake type, bearings size, seal size, etc.
-Should you need to adjust the brakes, this is a great reference/how-to https://www.etrailer.com/faq-adjust-trailer-brakes.aspx
-I think the collective wisdom here on the forum is not to assume your bearings are properly greased when they come from the factory. So inspection and greasing would be a good idea...of course while the wheel is up in the air might as well adjust the brake shoes.

Don't ignore the problem. I have had a brake plate failure (even tho they were fully adjustable brakes) and it caused a wheel lock up and a blowout.

 

[WillardE]

I wanted to follow up. I have Lippert self adjusting brakes. I did hook up my TT and did a few brake controller stops to loosen them up and then did an adjustment. I watched many YT videos and here is one that perfectly shows both manual adjusting and self adjusting and how they differ.

RV Electric Brakes Manual vs Self Adjusting, How To

 

[jleonard]

Im no expert but in MY opinion my non self adjusting brakes have to have a good bit of drag to work properly while being towed.
Much more drag than the drum brakes that the older vehicles had. And I worked on a lot of those.
Glad you got yours figured out.