Trailer Wheel Bearing Issue

[63corvette]

Originally Posted by Rick Bailey

Being a retired UPS mechanic and seeing my fair share of trl bearings ....going to Timken is a great move.
Then get you a temp gun... and after an hour or so of towing pull over , in a safe area of course .... shoot the temp of all tire tread surface and side wall and then shoot the hubs ... record all info and then analyze .... This can tell you a lot about your load placement and maybe where to move the load around to equalize temps and weight on each tire.
you can also test with an empty trailer to see the big picture !

Hope this helps !

Rick

I have a temp gun just never did shoot the bearings.
We stop every few hours of travel and I always just feel the tires and bearings caps with my hands. In the summer the tires are pretty hot to the touch but that was what I expected in the hot summer days running on the hot pavement.
When we go out next time I will have the temp gun in the cab with me and do just as you suggested.
It may be interesting when I look at the results as the high temps on our next trip should be close to 100 degrees in the afternoon.
This has to be one of the best places to ask questions as you get some very good suggestions and answers to issues with all the experience on the site.
Thanks to all.
Rick Cates

[Rick Bailey]

Rick, Hope this helps !

Party On !!!

[63corvette]

First update on the issue.
I have the front axle completely rebuilt. New hubs, new brakes, new Timken USA made bearings.
I relocated the storage in the attic so the weight would be in the center of the trailer.
One thing I noticed after rebuilding the axle I had the trailer up in the front about 2 inches to get some weight off the front axle when working on it. When putting up tools and all I noticed that the trailer was more stable when walking into and out of it with the front up just that 2 inches.
I visited the trailer sales place today and asked about that or if I was just reaching. The owner told me there if the front is up it should balance the load a little more to the back end of the trailer with a spring type triple axle.
I have always pulled the trailer with it very level on my driveway which is also very level.
The trailer sales owner suggested I try pulling it this next time with the 2 inches up in the front and see what happens. My next step on the hitch is 2 1/4 inches so that is what I am going to try.
I am also going to check the tire and bearing temps ever couple of hours while traveling next week on a 550 mile trip. I am hoping that the temps tell me something about the balance on the trailer.
I will be posting more updates as we take our trip.
Thanks again for everyone that posted suggestions.
All were thoughtful and I appreciate them.
Rick Cates

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by 63corvette

First update on the issue.
I have the front axle completely rebuilt. New hubs, new brakes, new Timken USA made bearings.
I relocated the storage in the attic so the weight would be in the center of the trailer.
One thing I noticed after rebuilding the axle I had the trailer up in the front about 2 inches to get some weight off the front axle when working on it. When putting up tools and all I noticed that the trailer was more stable when walking into and out of it with the front up just that 2 inches.
I visited the trailer sales place today and asked about that or if I was just reaching. The owner told me there if the front is up it should balance the load a little more to the back end of the trailer with a spring type triple axle.
I have always pulled the trailer with it very level on my driveway which is also very level.
The trailer sales owner suggested I try pulling it this next time with the 2 inches up in the front and see what happens. My next step on the hitch is 2 1/4 inches so that is what I am going to try.
I am also going to check the tire and bearing temps ever couple of hours while traveling next week on a 550 mile trip. I am hoping that the temps tell me something about the balance on the trailer.
I will be posting more updates as we take our trip.
Thanks again for everyone that posted suggestions.
All were thoughtful and I appreciate them.
Rick Cates

Typically trailers do not like being higher in the front than the rear. It usually makes them more unstable and sway more. Level would be best. I had one bearing on my trailer that kept failing. Never really figured out what the issue was. New tires have helped with that issue. Its always the outer bearing that fails due to it being the smaller one. None of the other positions have given me any problem. 40 ft goose w 3 axles. Mine is the road side center that gives me grief.

[voltdr]

Rick,
I saw that you were in Topeka. How did the trailer toe? How were the temps? I would think that getting a little weight off the front (problem) axle could be good.
Dan

[63corvette]

Originally Posted by voltdr

Rick,
I saw that you were in Topeka. How did the trailer toe? How were the temps? I would think that getting a little weight off the front (problem) axle could be good.
Dan

Dan I did make it to Topeka and back home now and did not have any problems.
Trailer towed just fine with it about 3 inches up front to back. I had it basically level in the past.
Being retired we do not have to hurry back home so we traveled on Monday.
On the way home we traveled in rain off and on all day so I did not get to take the temps on the bearings and tires. I did not think they would tell me much anyway with the rain and cooling it provided.

I did take temps going to Topeka on Tuesday with the ambient temps running from 88 degrees on my first stop to 99 degrees on my last stop before arriving at Topeka.
One thing I did note is the tire temps are 20 to 30 degrees higher if the tires are running on the sunny side of the trailer versus the shade side of the trailer. That is something I did not expect.

The curb side bearings run 10 to 20 degrees higher than the road side and if the tire is hotter in the sun it seems to transfer to the bearings also and then the curb side bearings can be as much as 30 to 40 degrees higher than the road side. The temps seemed to balance side to side a little if the road side tires ran in the sun.

The highest bearing temp I recorded was 145 degrees and the highest tire temp I recorded was 154 degrees.
The highest bearing temp was from the center axle curb side and the highest tire temp
was the front axle curb side running in the sun for several hours.

I believe the balance of the load and lowering the tongue weight and the raising the trailer on the front is the key.

One other thing I did find when rebuilding the front axle I found the curb side which I had packed annually but it had its original bearings the outer bearing race was smooth but it was discolored. It did not look like it had been hot it just had a grey color only where the bearing rollers ran. It just looked strange to me and something I had not seen before.

I plan on taking the temps again on the next trip. I am just not sure when that will be.
Thanks to everyone who commented and made suggestions.
I appreciate all the knowledge on this site and hope I can contribute to others issues in the future as some of you have done for me.
Thanks again,
Rick Cates
Canyon, TX

[340Cuda]

Rick,

This has been a very interesting thread.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Bill

[63corvette]

Originally Posted by 340Cuda

Rick,

This has been a very interesting thread.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Bill

This has been my pleasure and I received much more than I put into the thread.
I hope this helps everyone who pulls a trailer as everyone will have a bearing issue at some point.
I will follow up when I take my next trip with more info.
I really believe the key is balancing the load over the axles without to much tongue weight and having the front up just a little.
Those things seemed to keep the temps balanced when I checked.
I just wish I had done that earlier to know what they were when I was having issues.
More to come in November after the Finals in Pomona.
Thanks to everyone.
Rick Cates

[63corvette]

A quick update on the trailer bearing issue.
The son was found to have a brain tumor the first of October with two surgeries to follow that my racing was done after the trip to Topeka for 2017.
I have now pulled all the China bearings out of the 2 remaining axles and all axles now have fresh grease and new USA Timkin bearings.
There were a couple of the China bearings I pulled that looked discolored. Not rough in any way just like they were etched in a few places. They are now trash anyway.
The next racing trip will now be in February or March 2018 and I will take the temps and post again how it goes for everyone to view.
I really believe with a better balance front to back and side to side in the trailer and the bearings change will take care of my issues.
My personal idea is that the balance of a trailer weight over all the axles is more important than I had previously thought. I thought in the past the three axles balanced the weight themselves better than I do at this point.
Again thanks to everyone for the input.
Rick Cates

[340Cuda]

Rick,

Thanks for the update.

That is a disadvantage to the torsion axles, they don't equalize like the leaf springs on most of our old open trailers.

I hope your son is doing well.

Thanks,
Bill