Thank you for this video. I am in about the same predicament. We went to go camping yesterday and everything was good and then a man in another car on the expressway was trying to tell me something. We pulled off at the next exit and I walked around looking for what he could have been saying and found the dust cap off and a clear problem with the bearings and the wheel was hot. Thank goodness he told us or we could have been in a serious accident. We were 90 miles from home, I stopped at an Auto Zone and got a tub of grease and kept packing it by hand about every 10 miles going about 30mph the whole way (not on the expressway). 1 mile from home we heard loud noises and got home to lots of smoke. I don’t know that it was the best move. This video gave me more confidence to go out, take it apart and assess the damage. Thank you!!!
At least you made it home safe! We had to leave our pop-up at the campsite (2 hrs away) and have AAA carry it back (AAA has an RV add on for cars-best thing ever!). The job wasn’t’ hard. The hardest part was making sure I had the right stuff. There is an online parts store (etrailer.com) that was fantastic for this. My trailer used a Dexter trailer hub idler assembly-I ended up buying two (if one is going bad, the other might be getting on as well) and replaced both. I started on the easy side so I could see what it should look like. I spent about $400 on the two assemblies, two D-nuts, a grease gun, and a tube of high performance grease. The job took about 4 hours for both. Considering the local RV place couldn’t even take my trailer in for repair until summer was almost done, I called it a win! Good luck!
@@wendygrossereducational3737 Thank you! Thank you for all of this information! That was why I wanted to get it home. I was afraid even if we stayed and tried to get it in to a mechanic I didn’t know when it could be fixed. It’s so good to know AAA was good. And that we could have it towed. I’ve gotten them in the past for our big trips. I will definitely sign up again for our trip to Glacier in July. I have been so glad this happened now and not in the middle of nowhere Montana. I’m going to do both as well. A couple of years ago we were popping down and my daughter took the roof safety braces out while we were packing up and still going in and out of the pop up. We started cranking down and after one turn the cable snapped and the top (with the heavy a/c unit on the roof) came zooming down. It still devastates me to think how lucky we were that none of us were in it. We are now super, super careful. We were also fortunate it came down mostly straight and we were able to close it and get it home. I called around and it was going to be at least a few weeks and we had a trip planned. I’m totally grateful to the guy on UA-cam for posting a video that walked me through replacing the cable on my own. Thank you again. I’ll keep you posted. 👍😊
@@wendygrossereducational3737 Hi Wendy, I just wanted to thank you so much again for posting this video. I bought the bearing removal tool and it worked so wonderfully and easily. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't seen your video. I bought and replaced both hub assemblies with new ones from etrailer. We did a 120 mile test trip the next weekend and the hubs stayed cool. We then successfully traveled 3,000 miles roundtrip to Glacier 2 weeks later. PHEW!!! I had some PTSD and checked all my wheels at every gas station, but continued to be grateful the bearings failed before we were driving through the middle of Montana with no cell service. I also got roadside assistance thanks to your suggestion. I did some research and ended up choosing Coach-Net based on some UA-cam reviews by long distance RVers. Thankfully, we did not need to test out their service, but I did feel a lot better knowing I had someone to call. I had read a comment on another UA-cam video from a guy who said he carried a spare hub on his 6,000 mile trip, so I bought replacement bearings from Amazon. It was tricky to figure out the correct ones and decipher the feint part numbers on the old ones, but it all worked out. I replaced and greased the bearings, washer, spindle nut and cap on the good old hub and brought it with us. It will now stay permanently in our popup. I felt much better carrying a spare hub assembly just in case. Going forward, I will always remove the hub and repack the bearings manually each year so I can inspect them. I'm so glad you knew to check your cable and replaced that as well. I now kind of think of popup campers as potential death traps. It is a little scary what you don't know that you don't know. Hopefully, no more potentially disastrous surprises come up. ;) Thank you so much again! Kim
Amazing! Never thought of carrying a spare hub, but that is a great idea! I also had a bit of PTSD after my issue. So scary to think how much worse that all could have been. Totally my fault since I never knew to grease the bearings. Like you, I’m very vigilant about it now!
Thank you for this video. I am in about the same predicament. We went to go camping yesterday and everything was good and then a man in another car on the expressway was trying to tell me something. We pulled off at the next exit and I walked around looking for what he could have been saying and found the dust cap off and a clear problem with the bearings and the wheel was hot. Thank goodness he told us or we could have been in a serious accident. We were 90 miles from home, I stopped at an Auto Zone and got a tub of grease and kept packing it by hand about every 10 miles going about 30mph the whole way (not on the expressway). 1 mile from home we heard loud noises and got home to lots of smoke. I don’t know that it was the best move.
This video gave me more confidence to go out, take it apart and assess the damage. Thank you!!!
At least you made it home safe! We had to leave our pop-up at the campsite (2 hrs away) and have AAA carry it back (AAA has an RV add on for cars-best thing ever!). The job wasn’t’ hard. The hardest part was making sure I had the right stuff. There is an online parts store (etrailer.com) that was fantastic for this. My trailer used a Dexter trailer hub idler assembly-I ended up buying two (if one is going bad, the other might be getting on as well) and replaced both. I started on the easy side so I could see what it should look like. I spent about $400 on the two assemblies, two D-nuts, a grease gun, and a tube of high performance grease. The job took about 4 hours for both. Considering the local RV place couldn’t even take my trailer in for repair until summer was almost done, I called it a win! Good luck!
@@wendygrossereducational3737 Thank you! Thank you for all of this information!
That was why I wanted to get it home. I was afraid even if we stayed and tried to get it in to a mechanic I didn’t know when it could be fixed. It’s so good to know AAA was good. And that we could have it towed. I’ve gotten them in the past for our big trips. I will definitely sign up again for our trip to Glacier in July. I have been so glad this happened now and not in the middle of nowhere Montana. I’m going to do both as well.
A couple of years ago we were popping down and my daughter took the roof safety braces out while we were packing up and still going in and out of the pop up. We started cranking down and after one turn the cable snapped and the top (with the heavy a/c unit on the roof) came zooming down. It still devastates me to think how lucky we were that none of us were in it. We are now super, super careful. We were also fortunate it came down mostly straight and we were able to close it and get it home. I called around and it was going to be at least a few weeks and we had a trip planned. I’m totally grateful to the guy on UA-cam for posting a video that walked me through replacing the cable on my own.
Thank you again. I’ll keep you posted. 👍😊
@@kimstube7244 UA-cam is great! Thanks to a youtube video I also replaced my cable-the thing was majorly frayed and ready to snap any time!
@@wendygrossereducational3737 Hi Wendy,
I just wanted to thank you so much again for posting this video. I bought the bearing removal tool and it worked so wonderfully and easily. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't seen your video. I bought and replaced both hub assemblies with new ones from etrailer. We did a 120 mile test trip the next weekend and the hubs stayed cool. We then successfully traveled 3,000 miles roundtrip to Glacier 2 weeks later. PHEW!!! I had some PTSD and checked all my wheels at every gas station, but continued to be grateful the bearings failed before we were driving through the middle of Montana with no cell service.
I also got roadside assistance thanks to your suggestion. I did some research and ended up choosing Coach-Net based on some UA-cam reviews by long distance RVers. Thankfully, we did not need to test out their service, but I did feel a lot better knowing I had someone to call.
I had read a comment on another UA-cam video from a guy who said he carried a spare hub on his 6,000 mile trip, so I bought replacement bearings from Amazon. It was tricky to figure out the correct ones and decipher the feint part numbers on the old ones, but it all worked out. I replaced and greased the bearings, washer, spindle nut and cap on the good old hub and brought it with us. It will now stay permanently in our popup. I felt much better carrying a spare hub assembly just in case.
Going forward, I will always remove the hub and repack the bearings manually each year so I can inspect them.
I'm so glad you knew to check your cable and replaced that as well. I now kind of think of popup campers as potential death traps. It is a little scary what you don't know that you don't know. Hopefully, no more potentially disastrous surprises come up. ;)
Thank you so much again!
Kim
Amazing! Never thought of carrying a spare hub, but that is a great idea! I also had a bit of PTSD after my issue. So scary to think how much worse that all could have been. Totally my fault since I never knew to grease the bearings. Like you, I’m very vigilant about it now!
Good work! thanks, think i will be doing this, this weekend.
Did you do it? How’d it go?
@@wendygrossereducational3737
It went well, i got it off using the ideas shared, thanks!