It has been too long since I have had the bearings packed on the tent trailer and it has been sitting mostly idle for nearly two years. The plan is to pull the trailer behind the BoggsMobile when we leave Ohio and I had a nagging feeling the bearings needed some attention.
You have to know and respect your limits, right?
Taking things apart, I could do.
Cleaning wheel bearings I could probably do.
Packing wheel bearings I could maybe learn from YouTube.
Inspecting wheel bearings would make me nervous. I am not sure I trust my knowledge.
Putting it all back together being sure it was right, nope, beyond my limits.
It is time to bring in the professionals. Except, I have not been successful in finding the right professionals that I can trust. I have a trusted friend who is a mechanic, but he has been physically sidelined and there is no way he could get to it.
No one else was interested.
I did have one partial option. I could remove the wheels, check for improper movement in the hubs, remove the grease caps/dust covers fill the hubs and caps full of grease as best I could, put it all together and roll.
I used to do that to our Kountry Star wheels once or twice a year and I have done that to the tent trailer too. It is not a substitute for cleaning, inspecting and packing the bearings properly, but the wheels will pull the added grease into the mix.
It was really the only option that I had.
I awoke one morning to find an extremely pleasant surprise of 58 degrees in August. Wow! What an amazing gift!
I figured it was a gift that I should take advantage of!
I jacked up one side, inserted two jack stands, removed one tire at a time and went to work.
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All of them had plenty of grease. That is a good sign. I cleaned each cap, filled it full of good high-temperature grease, packed as much grease in the hub as I could and buttoned everything up.
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On the second side, the last two wheels showed a small problem. The grease cap on each of them was working its way loose. I am very glad that I caught that. You may be able to see what I mean in the picture below.
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I tightened all 48 lug nuts and I will tighten them again once I get south of Cincinnati in a couple of weeks.
I am not a mechanic, nor do I play one on TV, so please do not take anything I say as mechanical advice. I do have a very beautiful helper. That should count for something!
With KJo's help we had all six wheels removed and reinstalled in about two hours. I spent some time the day before finding my grease and some tools, but not too bad of timing for a flunky like me.
I am very close to having the tent trailer ready to roll and that makes me very happy!
Thank you for joining us today.
Davy
