In preparation for our 'long distance' trip of the season, I decided I better get off my butt and pull the drums to inspect the bearings, seals and brakes.

I always check for wheel play and add a little grease to each wheel before the first trip of the season. I generally do a visual inspection and brake adjustment every other season, since we bought the trailer last year (used), it was time to pull the wheels.

Everything looked good, no signs of heat build up in the bearings or spindles. All the seals looked good too.

Brake shoes and magnets looked good, no uneven wear or signs of getting hot. Although the shoes were definitely in need of adjustment, so I expect braking to be a little better now:

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Even managed to get my oldest to give me a hand in pulling everything apart:

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I'll probably just replace all the bearings and seals next season, since the trailer still has the cheapy Chinese stuff on it from the factory. I plan on snagging a spare bearing and seal set to pack, vacuum seal and keep stored in the trailer for any over the road repairs.

There's something to note about that front hanger... check out the length of the hanger vs. the height.  There have been lots of threads on RV forums about that style hanger ripping off the frame.  Usually happens if you're making a tighter turn on pavement and there's a lot of stress.  Others have welded in gussets to prevent that from happening.

Also wondering what brand axles you have.  Ours is a Dexter 3500lb, (Apex Nano 187RB) so I'm wondering if Dexter just uses the cheapest bearings they can buy.  Not that I've had much better luck with Timken bearings on various vehicles.  They all seem to wear out, the timkens last a little longer.

Axles are 3500 lb Dexters...I'm sure the bearings and seals are the cheapest they can get. Even had a different brand of bearing on each side. Seals were all the same, so I assume they had yet to be changed out.

Timken or SKF is what I'll replace these with come next season.

As far as the axle hangers go, I've see reports of hanger failure, but a lot of them seem to be centered around the spread axle type trailers.

My turn to get into the driveway is a little tight, so after I park it at the end of each trip I take my floor jack and lift up each tire to let it reposition itself.

On the to-do list for next season is new spring bushings and wet bolts. I may look at adding gussets to the hangers at that time.

I just don't know why they think that little weld, and narrow hanger is strong enough.  Even our trailer has a lot beefier hanger in front.  It's twice as long at the frame as it is where the spring bolts to it.  I have to install the new wet bolts in ours, probably a little later in the season, as we have a couple trips back to back starting this weekend.

Yeah the hanger, shackles and hell, even the frame, look a bit on the thin side.

Fortunately mine look to be fully welded on both side and the front and back of the hanger. I see a lot of broken ones only have a small section of weld.

Still, reinforcing it a bit will be a good thing.

Don't forget to check your tire dates and air pressures.  Doesn't hurt to check the sizes either.  My Echo ATV trailer came with two different size wheels and tires, not sure how that happened.  You wouldn't believe the difference it makes towing with a matching set of wheels and tires.

Bearing replacement at 12K intervals seems to be a pretty common recommendation.

By automotive standards, that doesn't sound like much - but it's 5 full trips across the continental US.

Yeah I doubt I'll be at half that by the time I replace them next year. Mostly just a peace of mind thing, obviously you could get junk bearings made in the US as well.

Yep, always solid advice, especially when picking up a used rig.

I replaced all my factory tires last year with Goodyear Endurance. Can't remember the date codes exactly but they were all manufactured early last year.

Was greasing my wheels bearings tonight in advance of a long trip.  One sounded like something was binding going backwards, sounded fine forwards.  Second one was a little dry and didn’t sound just right.  Guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow.

We have a 2019 Outdoors RV. One thing I really like about it is the construction of the suspension mounts. 1/4” steel and everything is gusseted decently.
First outing was a short weekend “shakedown” trip, about 200 miles round trip. When we got back home a jacked up the wheels and checked the bearings. All were excessively loose and one had about 3/16” of axial play. Eeek!
I took the opportunity to replace all the Chinesium bearings with Timkens and good seals.
I kept 2 sets of the original bearings for emergency spares.

Not trying to be an ass but, especially with your son helping, where the hell is your jack stand? There should be one under that axle at the least..............

Nice to see your son interested in that type of stuff, mine couldn't have cared less about ''greasy bit'' type of work when he was younger and still doesn't.

[Of course guess who I call for computer issues?]

I think the tire size (diameter) has a lot of influence on the wear - those small diameter tires (at least for boat trailers) spin a helluva lot more at 60mph than the car tires do.

Yep, you got me.

We didn't use a jack stand during this project. Simply went one wheel at a time and jacked up the axle just enough to get the tire off the ground.

Yes, jack stands should be used every time, but I felt the risk of dropping the axle down a foot off the ground was minimal.