Hub surface temperature after bearing replacement

[d2reid]

Boo hoo I burned up a bearing on my 1 year old Performance Trailer Kodiak disk brake upgrade. Caught it pretty early so it was an easy fix. Well shoot, if one is bad what do the other's look like. One other was going as well. So I decided to get all the bearings replaced. Ok, they are all off, replace all the brake pads too, just in case.

I stick my my heat sensor in the wholes of the wheels and check the surface temps of the hubs at rest/potty stops. Typically 120-140f. After the bearing replacement from a trailer repair facility my surface temps are running around 240. Good part is that it is the same on all six wheels. Bad part is that I thinks that's pretty hot. I've got about 400 miles on them now. Temps are starting to drop, 220. I will add some grease today to see if that helps.

Does anyone see a problem here or am I just being a little paranoid about the higher temps?

[bertschb]

That seems pretty warm to me. I never saw hub temps above the low 100's on my prior two RV's. Sorry for the simple question but do the wheels spin freely when unloaded?

[Cate&Rob]

I will add some grease today to see if that helps.

Hi Dallas,

This does not seem like a good idea. If you are going to transition from hand packed bearings to zerk injected grease, it is going to take a lot of grease to fill the centre cavity and get to the outer bearing. I agree that 200+ is too warm. If you lift a wheel (which you should do to inject grease anyway) there should be enough play (top to bottom with everything cold) that you can feel. If not . . . the retaining nut is too tight.

Rob

[JCR GD]

Too hot! Seems like the castle nut might be installed too tight.

[d2reid]

Well I had hoped not to have to work too hard at this. But it looks like it's time for me to spend a day with my wheels. Thanks for the affirmation that I have a problem. It's disappointing that a professional trailer place could not do a proper bearing installation.

In 400 miles I will be someplace where I will be parked for a month. I think I will just check them frequently and see if any go supernova on me and then pull them when I have lots of time.

[d2reid]

Update; I did nothing. 2 days of hot running, sat for a week. Today's run was around 250 miles. Temps were down around 140-180. Granted it was raining so running cooler. But I am thinking the new bearings are getting seated (whatever that means) and running more efficiently.