Silvic
Gold Member
I recently replaced the brakes, wheel bearings and races on my equipment trailer. Took it out for test run of about 30 miles and everything went fine.
Left on a 1000 mile round trip. About half way through I noticed that one of the grease/dust caps on the hubs had departed the trailer. Of course there was grease all over the wheel.
When I got to my destination I purchased some spare grease/dust caps, cleaned up the wheel put more grease in the bearings and reset the cap. It was very tight, more so than the used ones that I had re-installed after the earlier mx. Had to use a big mallet to get it to seat properly and was happy. Somewhere between 30 miles and 170 miles later there was no grease/dust cap on the same hub. Put another cap on the hub and more grease in the bearings. After 49 miles it was missing again. Three caps in 750 miles and they fit really tight.
Called etrailer.com as I got the bearings and brakes from them to ask if they had heard of the issue. Pretty much they said no. After that I googled the issue and found several Q&A on etrailer.com site where the question had been asked before. In every case the answer was the cap must not have been fully seated in the hub.
I KNOW that the cap was seated in the hub fully. There is no reason to suspect that the hub ID has been compromised due to the tight fit of the cap on installation but is a possibility.
I have considered using RTV to try to seal and hold the cap in the hub but don't really think it will work.
The hub is fine otherwise and don't really want to get a new hub but may have to do so.
Any ideas as to how to stop this. It is not good and makes one heck of a mess.
Left on a 1000 mile round trip. About half way through I noticed that one of the grease/dust caps on the hubs had departed the trailer. Of course there was grease all over the wheel.
When I got to my destination I purchased some spare grease/dust caps, cleaned up the wheel put more grease in the bearings and reset the cap. It was very tight, more so than the used ones that I had re-installed after the earlier mx. Had to use a big mallet to get it to seat properly and was happy. Somewhere between 30 miles and 170 miles later there was no grease/dust cap on the same hub. Put another cap on the hub and more grease in the bearings. After 49 miles it was missing again. Three caps in 750 miles and they fit really tight.
Called etrailer.com as I got the bearings and brakes from them to ask if they had heard of the issue. Pretty much they said no. After that I googled the issue and found several Q&A on etrailer.com site where the question had been asked before. In every case the answer was the cap must not have been fully seated in the hub.
I KNOW that the cap was seated in the hub fully. There is no reason to suspect that the hub ID has been compromised due to the tight fit of the cap on installation but is a possibility.
I have considered using RTV to try to seal and hold the cap in the hub but don't really think it will work.
The hub is fine otherwise and don't really want to get a new hub but may have to do so.
Any ideas as to how to stop this. It is not good and makes one heck of a mess.