How To Replace RV Trailer Brakes, Hubs, Rotors & Repack Bearing Grease
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- Опубліковано 15 лют 2019
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Certified Mobile RV Technician, Darren Koepp, walks you through an important yearly maintenance item on your RV or trailer - inspecting and/or replacing your wheel hubs, rotors, and brakes as well as repacking your bearings with fresh grease. Find out what tools you need, and a few tricks that will come in handy along the way.
If you are in need of RV Repairs in the Olympic Peninsula area of Washington state, submit a service request on our website at myrvworks.com today!
I started working as a Mechanic's helper when I was 14, and put myself through college working as a mechanic. I would have washed those bearings with a good degreaser, to remove all dirt and contaminants. The inspection would have noted not only color, but spinning to feel any irregularities or excessive looseness in the bearing. I would have hand packed them to make sure that the bearing was fully impregnated with grease. I would tighten the castle nut to the point where the wheel would not spin to properly seat the bearings, then back off 1/4 turn, and check to make sure the wheel spun freely, If there was excessive drag I would back the nut off more in 1/16th of a turn increments until the wheel spun freely, than put in a new cotter pin and finally the cleaned cap.
You know how to do it, but this guy doesn't. We cleaned the bearing with #2 fuel oil. Back in the day we didn't have degreaser.
Thats a good point about setting the bearing
Don’t gob the spindle up with grease before putting the hub on, you’re defeating half the purpose of the seal. He just pushed all that grease on the spindle back into the brakes, where you don’t want any grease, hence the seal that keeps dirt out and grease in, away from the brakes. You don’t want the inner or outer bearing race to turn or spin on the shaft so they don’t need grease between the bearing race and the spindle any how.
Gerard Trigo Bravo! And this how it was done! Old school learning was the best by far. If you are going to do a job, you do it right the first time! The BEST to you Sir!
I have been a qualified truck and car tech for 50+ years and I would have done it the same way as you Gerald Trigo not the way shown in the video.
Usually I pull the outer bearing out, put the castle nut back on, and pull the drum towards me and down real fast. That removes the rear bearing and seal all in one motion and quickly. Cheers
Master Tech here….always clean your bearing before repacking. It’s much easier to see hot spots and pitting when the bearing is clean. In the field, brake clean works well. 😎
Great Video and throughly enjoyed the audio and explanations. Thanks to all of the helpful comments which added value and constructive criticism to the content!
It's a drum. Invented by Frank Olds of Oldsmobile.
Fantastic video. Thank you. Just blew my back seals out not knowing any better and have to fix it now.
Thanks for releasing a video as to how you do this. The video gives others a chance to comment/ augment with their learnings. That’s the beauty of these videos.
Darren, you're like the Scotty Kilmer of RV's. Showing us how to fix and maintain our RV's ourselves. No nonsense, no bull just straightforward advice, and how to. I am about to undertake repacking the wheel bearings, changing the seals and brake assemblies in the next couple of weeks. God Bless you man! Thank You!!!
This was very helpfully, it is the most thorough description I’ve seen so far , I’m new to RVing and not much of a mechanic but I actually think I could do it based on this video , thank you
Thanks for another wonderful video, Darren! I'm about to tackle this job for the first time, and I watched several UA-cam contributors that I trust, but yours was the most informative, as usual. I'm sure you've heard this a lot over the years, but each of your videos provides a great resource for the rest of us trying to tackle these jobs ourselves in our driveways. It must be nice to know that the videos you have made continue to help people even years and years after you have made them. Thanks again, and best wishes.
Yep did this yesterday and found this video to be spot on!
Such a great video. Before I didn't even been know what packing your wheel bearings was, now i feel like I can do this myself thanks to your video!
Thank you for sharing your videos.
Armature/Drum
- The armature is cast as an integral part of the drum. The magnet maintains light contact with the armature at all times.
Wow. That is great. The brake pads are already mounted to the backing plate. The whole assembly as one unit. That is great. Great Video. Thumbs up.
Brake drum is what you're looking for. Rotor is fine, but more for disk brakes. Hub is what the bearing assembly and wheel retaining hardware are called.
Hello Darin. I recently became an owner of a RV Motorhome. I have watched a lot of your videos and learned so much. Thank You!!
Great video. I found playing it at 1.5x worked great for a quicker experience. I did this on mine and replaced the bearings on my 5.2K lb axles with 7K lb bearings. It doesn't make my trailer rated for 14K, but it gives me a slightly higher safety margin. Thanks for the tutorial.
All of your videos are extremely helpful. Thank you for taking the time to pay it forward.
I thank you . Working on cars 40 plus years and worked on trailers back in the 70's but reminded me about electric brakes.
Thank you very much for taking the time to make this excellent video. Heading out to my RV in the driveway with added confidence.
So glad you took the extra time to do this!
Great explanation and detail on this ..I feel I am ready to tackle my trailer 👍
Thanks for posting, your video was well put together and informative. I have done trailer electric brakes in the past but this refresher was helpful.
Good job on the brake assembly and wheel bearing re-packing. You know, a lot of viewers are not going to have the bearing packing tool, it would have been good to also show how to repack the bearing by hand without the tool. I was taught by my dad back in the 1960's and it has proven quite useful over the years. Thanks for the video tech tip.
that is a great video!! I feel very confident to replace my Argosy brakes now :]
Your intuition is correct. My Dad explained to me when I was a lad, that reusing "torqued" bolts over is "bad practice" because you actually stretch the bolt when it is originally torqued down.
Sir, I’ve worked on a lot of trailers, and watched a lot of you tube folks’ videos on this topic, and you have the best video I’ve seen on the subject. Clear instructions and explanations as you go. Very well done. Scott
Coming from a 12 year rv tech, do not follow this guy at all. Terrible.
Yep, I give him credit for the gadget and having the idea or knowing how it works, but lacks technical/mechanical knowledge; the jack lifting the axle was the first clue because it is a big no-no, the bearings should have been new with new drums, but if there was a need, then not reused without degreasing first and repacking manually to make sure they get it. I was horrified with all the grease on the end of the spindle before sliding the drum (with only one bearing), which can end up in the brakes. There is no need to do that since the spindle will grease up when added AFTER the drum with the rear seal is in place. And, they needed to be tighten and then backed 1/4 turn. Anyhow, any DIY guy out there has a responsibility to research from different youtubers and brainstorm, especially because he make sit clear he is not a mechanic when he stressed he did not know the name of the drums (asked for those of us who know to correct him) and decided to call them rotors, so people show know to verify and still consult their books and friends, but this can be a tad scary if it heats and breaks on the road.
60 yo PAHS Rough Rider (living now in Arkansas). Really appreciate the videos!
Extremely well done. Your attention to detail is amazing. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Well done very helpful as i haven't pulled electric brakes apart before but it looks easy enough Great Vid !!!
Excellent video. Found my brand new trailer had the castle nuts so tight the spindles turned blue. The dealer replaced the entire axle last summer. Just for sh*ts and grins I pulled a wheel off this summer. Low and behold there was about one ounce of grease on the new spindles. Once again a rush job that would have wither dropped my trailer on the highway and/or cost the dealer another 2500.
Yes brake drums! Also a tip with drum brakes is before installing the drum to extend the adjuster using the adjuster tool and coat the threads with grease, these tend to freeze with corrosion and make it hard to adjust them periodically as they should be. Also galvanized backing plates for electric brakes are available which will last longer and work better than painted brakes if you are in a humid area.
Also as noted if you get new drums install new bearings at the same time.
When installing seals measure the part of the axle that the seal rides on to make sure you have the right ones; there are different seal sizes for both 1750 lb spindles and 6000 lb spindles. I tighten the spindle nut till good and snug (but not binding) while spinning the drum then back it off by hand with the socket. Then just hand tighten with the socket by hand. You may have to go a little looser to get the cotter pin to line up. Doing it this way I don’t have play at the edge of the tire when rocked from side to side.
When adjusting the shoes I adjust them so there is basically no drag only light scraping noises. The advantage of doing it this way prevents the brake shoes from freezing to the drum due to condensation induced corrosion. My boat trailer sits for 5 months in a humid climate but the brakes are not locked up in spring. The last thing I do with hydraulic surge brakes is to cycle the actuator once a month this helps prevent corrosion from forming inside the wheel cylinders.
This is an amazing , detailed video for electric brake video! Thanks.
I really enjoyed your repair video so much that I had to write to you. I have a 2017 Grand Design 303 rls and had a leaking seal on the rig. Had been looking at videos for awhile when I came across your video. Just didn't think that Lippert would be using bearings made in China. But the nice thing is that because of stumbling on to your video and another gentleman's video I changed out the leaking seal and clean out the grease that came with the axles and replaced with a better grease. I'm lucky that the rig doesn't have a lot of miles on it so the brakes and hubs so far are in good shape, only got two done today, But that was because of running into your video, the other two are going to be done tomorrow, hopefully no surprises . All the others were not showing enough to make me feel comfortable in attempting the repairs. Finished up today but had two more that were leaking and no signs of it. Also the last one that I did seems to have a short in the magnetic brake some where. It wouldn't stop the tire before I took it off but after removing the hub and jiggling wires it would hold my steel putty knife but when I got the tire back on it wouldn't again. Fight that battle next weekend. Any idea would be welcome Thanks again. Happy Trails to you.
That leaking seal was a warranty item in case you didn't know.
Great Video! Extremely informative, will tackle mine tomorrow and feeling very confident because of this video! Thanks much!
This is awesome. Thanks very much. Just got my first trailer with brakes and will do this exact thing next week. Thank you
I still give you a thumbs up after about a year since I watched it last. A great reference video for RV brakes.
Thank you for doing this video I am not a mechanic and it helped me a lot to do my own breaks on my camper I just bought. Thanks again.
Nicely done, simple and very descriptive even for a novice to watch
Not sure how I got here, but I learned a lot -- if I ever have the occasion or need to do something like this!
(Clever little tool you made to do the on/off brake testing!)
Darren,thank you so much for this informant video, this will be my first drum work on my 6,000 lb trailer. I’ll be able to do this job with a great confidence. Thank you for Sharing your knowledge.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🍺🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻☮️☮️
Thanks for a great video. The infrared scan was the icing on the cake ! I’d love to see the difference of heat between a bad bearing and a new bearing.
Usually you dont get to cuz the bearing explodes all over in side the hub and comes out in pieces 😂
Drum for shoe type, Brake pads for Rotors(Disc Brakes) No piunt intended, jiust helping. You are great
Great video, I would add how to adjust the brake shoes using the star adjuster accessible through the hole in the backing plate. That will ensure that all 4 brakes begin applying force at the same time.
Great video, thanks. It is a brake drum.
Darren, excellent coverage
Glad I took a few minutes to get some information. Just getting ready to do a light flatbed trailer w/brakes and never-lube axles. Confidence oozing out of me all of a sudden
Very thorough. Now, to go get the parts, tools, & grease. This will be fun getting all messy!
Other than the drums at the beginning this was a very informative and made simple to follow video , great job sir
Excellent video, great narrative description
Thank you! You've demystified drum brakes for me :-)
Excellent video I’m now ready to go take a look at our Horse Trailer‘s brakes and bearings! Thanks
Hi Tom,
We are so glad to hear that our videos were able to help you! If you would like to support us please consider becoming an "RV Community Supporter" on our Patreon site: www.patreon.com/myrvworks
Happy Camping,
My RV Works Media Team
Fantastic video. Now I see what I need to do to convert my trailer from hydraulic to electric brakes as well as other maintenance items in the process.
OMG!! What a great video! A lot of good info and technique. I feel confident that I can do my own trailer brakes now.
One of the best bearing repacking videos I've ever seen 👍
Coming from a 12 year tech.. terrible video
Noted. I'd love to see a video that does it right. Any channels that come to mind let me know.
That 2 second on/off tool sounds pretty neat. Never played with electric brakes before. Great video!
You can have a look at my reply to Robb Ward below regarding the 2-sec on/off tool. I have made several of my own test tools - simplest is that 10' patch cable you see in so many of my video's... Love that thing.
Cheers,
Darren
Very good help!
Thank you and greetings from Portugal.
You are welcome! Thanks for watching and I would love to visit! LOL...
Thank you so much I never seen one of these done so thoroughly!
Oh great, I've been putting off checking my travel trailer brakes for a couple of years now. Your video is making me want to check them.
As others have said, too much grease is not good either which is the reason I don't use that zerk fitting in the hub. I had a boat trailer that I pumped too much grease into the zerk fitting and it blew all the grease out of the inner seal (axle side). What a mess!
This is exactly what I needed. I think I need to add electric brakes to my Travel trailer, but now I’m wondering maybe I could have them but they are faulty. It is a 2001 manufacture date. Guess I’ll see when I take it apart. But you’re a great teacher.
Great video. Comprehensive.
I appreciate the education.
Damn! Love this vid so much, Thanks for taking the time to put this together!
You kitty really starts paying attention at 13:09. Loves to see that grease coming out the back!
Excellent video!
Awesome. Very very professional videos. Thank you
Nice video, as a class 8 truck/trailer mechanic I’m going to throw in my two cents. The part he removed is a one piece hub/drum. Depending on the number of miles on the trailer, if you are replacing the hub, I would have replaced the bearings as well. Used bearings on a new race may last forever or it may not, new bearings are not that much more, food for thought. The claw hammer works, but they make a seal puller and driver.
This next part is pretty important. I would not reinstall the hub in the manner he did at 21:20. I would have the outer bearing already packed with grease and slide the hub on the spindle SLOWLY. As soon as you are able to slide the outer bearing on the spindle, put it on and push it in the hub. This ensures the hub and seal are perfectly aligned with the spindle. Then as soon as you are able, put the castle nut on and use it to push the hub and seal on to the spindle until it bottoms out. If you notice he only had the rear bearing in when he slid the hub on. This allows the hub to wiggle around and could potentially tear your new seal and allow grease to escape onto your new brakes. Once the hub bottoms out, then you can make your tension adjustments on your castle nut. You should really use a dial indicator to check “wheel end play” for maximum bearing life. The brake applicator he made was really cool. I’ve seen some of this guys other videos on electrical trouble shooting. He is very good at that and I would love to work with him to learn more on the electrical side
How much excess grease is required within the cavity? I’ve heard ‘half full’ but doubt that much is required. From my small experience, grease seems to stay in place anyhow, so the grease packed in the bearing is what will lubricate it until the next change.
C C On my 16 ft utility trailer, one of the four wheels lock up when I go in reverse. It's ok going forward. I thought it was an electrical short in the brakes so I unplugged the 7 prong plug to make sure. It's mechanical in nature, but again won't spin backwards. Is it the bearings, or something else that is locking it up? Thanks C C
@@lostinmyspace4910 I don’t think it’s a bearing. A bearing failure would cause a problem in both directions. It’s probably in the electric brake on that particular wheel. Even though you unplugged it The magnet inside there may be messed up and causing it to grab when the wheel rolls backward. Depending on how old the trailer/brakes are I’d probably just replace the whole brake assembly. if you don’t know, you can just unbolt the whole assembly from the axle and put a new one on with new shoes, magnet, ect. Hope this helps, good luck
Good informative video. Packed bearings before, first on RV, some focus points now, thanks.
Hope it helps and happy camping
Good video! Brake drum in my book.
Wishing you miles of smiles after a great video...dont know if I would do this again... trip to the shop on my next one!
Thanks for making this video. Helped me alot with my trailer.
Outstanding detail, sir. Thanks!
Will defiantly tear into this in a few months when weather is kinder. The info was great.
Thank you very much for the excellent training .👍👍👍
Thank you! I had no idea about the packing tool. I;m off to Oriely's to grab one before starting to tear brakes apart to see what I'm working with
Good video, I’ve see a few others similar how to brake videos. This one is superior.
Great video very detailed and helpful
Tip: To get the inner (back) bearing and seal out, take out the outer bearing (front) then put the nut back on the spindle, now gently pull the drum towards you until it contacts the nut, now push away and then pull towards you and slam the nut, rotate and repeat until it pops out. Don't bugger up anything, only nee like 1/2 to an inch of slam travel on the spindle . Done it 100 times.
Wheel HUB (what you called rotor). And the new unit you purchased was a new wheel hub assembly (the insides and brake shoes). Good job though...I love all of your tech and spec and explanations through your vids. Cheers!
Thanks for helping me with that. I think I mentioned in the video I wasn't so much a mechanic as I am electrician. When you get stuck on the electrical questions shoot them over I should be able to know that LOL
Thanks my friend I need to do this and fix breaks not coming on. Appreciate your vids
It even says the right spelling of brakes in the title ? Breaks ?? C'mon man.
Don't have to be a mechanic to know the difference between a rotor and a brake drum.
Great video, thanks again for another awesome video.
Very well done very very well done in depth video of trailer brakes excellent
Thanks a bunch. great video and I now feel confident to do it myself.
Go for it!
Very helpful. Gonna watch more of yours!
Hi Michael,
We are so glad to hear that our videos were able to help you! If you would like to support us please consider becoming an "RV Community Supporter" on our Patreon site: www.patreon.com/myrvworks
Happy Camping,
My RV Works Media Team
My first go at inspecting and refurbishing the trailer brakes. THERE WERE SOME LONG DOWNHILL PASSES IN COLORAD THAT HEATED MY BRAKES TO THE SMELL STATE. Great instructional video. Yhanks.
great job very informative thank you for the effort.
Drum. You got it at 13:30. They manufacture slide hammers that pull those seals out. Pretty handy. Good job on the video.
thanks for making it simple
Thank you for everything. Great way to explain.
Awesome tutorial. Thanks
Great explanation video sir.
Adding one more tip, since the new drums come with bearing races already installed in the center hub, its not advisable to run the old bearing. Bearings tend to get micro grooves and or just grooves in the rollers. If your replacing the drum replace the bearings too. Otherwise a possibility of old bearing creating a wear pattern in the new race. The race again is in the hub portion of drum. This was another great video just wanted to add this for all you diy people.
I would never reuse bearings if replacing the hub/drum! New bearings relatively cheap so why take a chance! Also I always repack my bearings by hand like my dad taught me so I KNOW they are properly greased! Thanks for the great video though I learned a lot!
Also note that brand of wheel bearings as some are junk. The following normally are good bearings- Timken and Moog. I’m sure there are other good bearings but watch out for cheap china knockoffs.
Simply a great video.
I started my mechanic's carear with going thru aircarcft an maintaice tech school. This wasn60 years ago and the basic bearing service is the same on aircraft of all sizes. I learned how to pack bearing by hand, no fancy bearing packer
I bet you were taught how to preload a bearing properly also.
This guy absolutely did Not set the bearings correctly on this trailer 👎👎
so good and detailed thank you!
Súper helpful video, thanks!
Great video
Great video , had a chuckle remembering Bill Cosby's version of Noah on his records. I always enjoy watching your youtube channel. Lenny
Great video. Thanks
Awesome. Thanks for the information.
excellent video and lesson! many thanks. now i get to check my own...
Good job Darren! Thank you for sharing.
You are welcome!
Good informative video.
Although my trailer does not have brakes, I believe the missing terms are brake shoes and brake drum.
I prefer to completely clean the wheel bearings prior to re-packing by using a readily available solvent such as aerosol brake cleaner, gasoline, kerosene, or mineral spirits to avoid any cross contamination of dirty used grease.
It is a good idea to keep a can of the aerosol brake cleaner on hand (for degreasing new and used brake shoes as well as metal surfaces like the inside of the brake drum) and then which ever liquid solvent which you choose inside a resealable metal quart container; a canned food can is a good choice for cleaning the wheel bearings as long as the largest wheel bearing will fit inside otherwise, a small coffee can will suffice (the larger the can's diameter the more solvent is required to immerse and to soak the wheel bearings).
Since solvents can be reused, simply pour the solvent back into the resealable metal quart container to use for next time when finished, less of course any solid pieces of debris.
Then repack the wheel bearings and reassemble.
If you tow a lot, the wheel hub assemblies can be purchased complete with new wheel bearings and bearing races which are super convenient during an unexpected break-down along side any desolate piece of road to keep you from being SOL.
Maybe film a new video, showing everyone how to make the 2-secong brake-stop gizmo you used for illustration during this video? That is a cool gizmo!
Thanks for this very informative video! I learned a lot!