Venturer Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 I do not know the service history of the steer axle wheel bearings on our 2006 Executive. It spins free and quiet, but I want to have them serviced so that I know they're good. I will travel 6-8,000 miles per year. My previous coach had oil bath, however, the Exec is grease packed. The hub caps are secured with 4 Allen screws which makes it difficult to check oil levels daily. Will the oil bath caps fit inside the Monaco wheel caps or is there an open cap that allows for a visual check of the oil level? Without the ability to conveniently check the oil level, I would stick with the grease packed method. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vito.a Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Motor homes usually sit for long periods and grease type bearing are considered ideal. Oil bath bearings are designed for vehicles that are constantly rolling. But, I've seen several motor homes converted to oil bath front wheel bearings. You should be able to find a conversion kit. As you've pointed out the challenge is how to visually check the oil level with the chrome wheel center covers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chargerman Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Stay with the packed bearings. Have them repacked when it’s convenient and forget about them 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan K Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 If you go with oil, when by a truck stop with a chrome shop, look for a "Hubdometer Cap" that might fit you wheel. Not sure about those Allen screw situation. Or Google one that would match your wheel manufacturers dimensions. I have switched to oil bath inspection hub caps just to be able to look at the bearings. My chrome covers are easy to take off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacwjames Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 I had my coach converted to oil bath in 2013. Josam's did it, cost ~$450, which wasn't much more then a repack would be. The argument of grease or oil bath is a personnel preference. I know with grease they suggest annual or 30K repack>>> Ya that's going to happen. I asked the foreman at Josam's about maintenance and he said just check it on a regular basis, I should never have to change. I have a small hub cap that I can pop off to check the oil level. I've never had to add any. Last year I drained as much oil out of them that I could and then added new oil. I've probably put 45-50K miles on the rig since converting. My experience in the underground mines I worked at drove me to the oil bath. Very harsh demanding conditions and all the equipment had oil bath. Much easier to maintain and check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Busch Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 I have oil bath on my tag axle and considered putting them on the other wheels. I was helping a truck repair shop with his pol barn and asked him about it. All the truckers he was dealing with were changing oil bath to packed bearings. He said the oil bath always failed but I think it probably was because they put 10s of thousand miles on each year. I didn’t bother with it. paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveD Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 Be sure to get under your coach regularly and look at the inner seal. As soon as you see any moisture you need to change that seal. When they totally fail you will oil down your brakes. If you keep going you will weld the bearing to the spindle and then it gets ugly. I run a trucking operation and have seen plenty of failures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chargerman Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 Another reason to stay with grease packed bearings 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venturer Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 (edited) It seems my best option is to stick with grease packed bearings. The oil bath is much simpler to service, however, it isn't a viable option with the type of wheel/hubcap combo on the Executive because of the difficulty involved with monitoring the oil level. Cleaning and repacking the bearings now will carry me a minimum of 5 years. Might be done motor homing by then. Thanks for the comments. Edited March 7 by Venturer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacwjames Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 Prior to changing to oil bath I'd inspect the front wheel hubs and brakes. Do that at least twice a year. When I bought my rig in 2008 it came with no maintenance records, no idea what previous owner had done but from appearance it the rig was taken care of. Even with that I started to worry about front greased wheel bearings. I ended up buying a long ~8" hypodermic needle used on horses that fit in the end of the grease gun. I'd pull the end off, put the needle in place, put the end back on. I could then insert it deep into the hub through the roller bearings and I'd pump ~6-8 pumps of grease. Figured this would redistribute to the inside of the bearing. But I was hesitant to pull the hubs off to physically clean and repack the grease. Not an easy task and didn't have a good place to do it and/or the right tools. Even with that you have to be careful putting everything back together to make sure not to damage the seals and then have to deal with re torquing the spindle nuts. I know on the big hubs on the equipment in the mines we didn't let just any mechanic tackle this type of job, a lot of grunt work but also you have to pay attention to what your doing. I believe if I was on the road and started to see a seal failure I'd pull out the long needle and grease gun and pump grease into the bearing and roll on and monitor the hub temps with my thermo gun. I usually check the hub temps when I stop for fuel while a do a walk around inspecting the coach and toad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmotorsports Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 Personally, I am a fan of oil bath vs. grease on our coach. I converted our last coach's steer axle to oil bath right after first purchasing, 1991 Beaver on Gillig chassis purchased in 2000. Our current coach had oil bath on steer and tag already upon us purchasing it. I have serviced the steer and tag every 5 years or roughly 25k-30k. Way overkill for servicing oil bath hubs but with the small amount of oil it takes to drain and fill each axle end it isn't that big a deal. Plus I feel it allows me to get a feel for how things are wearing by being able to see what the fluid looks like coming out. I had to replace a tag axle seal about 8 years or so ago that I noticed was a bit wet behind the drum during one of my chassis inspections. I noticed it in plenty of time, so it never got on the brake shoes and only required a new seal, Stemco gasket and fluid. I am replacing all my tires right now on our Dynasty and have fluid sitting on the workbench as both steer and tag axles will be getting serviced again next week after the tires arrive. For routine inspections, my center caps have the outermost cap that comes off for a visual inspection that I check a couple times a year plus I inspect the back of the drums at least 3-4 times a year while I'm under the coach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivylog Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 Shade tree Dick…I’ve previously posted that instead of repacking wheel bearings (or converting to oil bath) I just add half a cup of 90 gear oil to soften the grease. Been doing this to all my trailers for decades. Thought it would be a good time to check the condition of the ones I did a couple years ago, mainly because of the problems Jeff Macklin is having after having a shop replace a wheel seal on a oil bath conversion. It got so hot, the oil caught on fire… likely caused by the bearing preset was too tight. While my grease was soft, there wasn’t as much oil as I expected having put half a cup in 2+ years ago… lost a little oil taking the cap off and decided to add some more. When I work on the front tires I use a pry-bar to check for play in the bearings before taking the wheel off. I’m of the opinion, if it’s not broke, leave it alone. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venturer Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 I'm about to have them repacked. I want to have the seals in hand before doing it. Did Monaco use the same hub for all years? Does anyone have the inner seal brand and part number? Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan K Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 Monaco hasn't even used the same axles on same models the same year as I found in our case. You'll have to get your axle make/model to get correct parts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venturer Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 (edited) Looks like I have a Spicer E1462W axle. After searching, I found a 2018 post from someone with the same axle. His research shows a Stemco 383-0126 Hub Seal. Can anyone here with the same axle who may have replaced their hub seals, confirm the part number?? Edit: To complicate the issue, the 2006 Brochure says the 2006 Denalli has the 15,100# steer axle as does the tag next to the drivers seat. However, the build sheet says E1462W which is a 14,600# axle. Then, other data tells me that Spicer upped the rating to 15,100# for motorhome use. Guess nothing is simple in the Monaco world. 🙄 Edited April 4 by Venturer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank McElroy Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 On 4/4/2024 at 4:41 PM, Venturer said: Looks like I have a Spicer E1462W axle. After searching, I found a 2018 post from someone with the same axle. His research shows a Stemco 383-0126 Hub Seal. Can anyone here with the same axle who may have replaced their hub seals, confirm the part number?? Edit: To complicate the issue, the 2006 Brochure says the 2006 Denalli has the 15,100# steer axle as does the tag next to the drivers seat. However, the build sheet says E1462W which is a 14,600# axle. Then, other data tells me that Spicer upped the rating to 15,100# for motorhome use. Guess nothing is simple in the Monaco world. 🙄 Yes, that is very common for motorhome use. The idea is that the useful life in terms of miles driven for a motorhome is no where near that of a commercial truck so the axle ratings were uprated giving a cost savings to motorhome manufacturers. Parts should be referenced to the actual manufacturer label on the axle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96 EVO Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 On 4/4/2024 at 1:41 PM, Venturer said: Edit: To complicate the issue, the 2006 Brochure says the 2006 Denalli has the 15,100# steer axle as does the tag next to the drivers seat. However, the build sheet says E1462W which is a 14,600# axle. Then, other data tells me that Spicer upped the rating to 15,100# for motorhome use. Guess nothing is simple in the Monaco world. 🙄 I'm not shocked. My sticker lists my drive axle as 20,000 GAWR. When I went shopping for seals, discovered it's listed as 19,000lbs from the manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now