Wheel Bearing Seals

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JoelP

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 2, 2016
Posts
735
Location
San Jose, CA
I have a 2010 Itasca Suncruiser on a WH W22 chassis. My question: is it better to have wheel bearing seals replaced at an RV dealer or at a truck repair shop?  I took it to one RV dealer and told him to replace the seals and, to my surprise, he only replaced the high temp lubricant, which I only realized later.  Now I need to get this done all over again. 
 
I would never have those type of chassis repairs done at an RV dealer. Ask around for opinions on a local truck service center and establish a relationship.
 
Thanks.  That was also my inclination after being fleeced by an RV dealer.  Now I need to to find such a suitable shop in San Jose, CA.
 
Welcome! If you find a reliable and honest RV dealer with a good service department, cherish them and let us know - they are few and far between.

Generally speaking a chassis problem should go to a truck shop or in my case on a Freightliner chassis, to a Freightliner dealer (oil changes are a different matter - find the best deal or DIY.) For the house part of an RV, you should be able to find a good one or two man mobile RV service outfit. Our experience with mobile RV techs has always been quite good. In most cases these guys work for themselves and they aren't going to be in business very long if they do a poor job.
 
This type of maintenance or repair only at a chassis/truck facility.  In Florida its Josam in Orlando.
 
I had the seal bad on My Coach and was lucky to find a great place in north Fort Worth, Tx if anyone finds themselves in that area, Buck's Wheel and Alignment. Fair price compared to Freightliner, also Cowser tire, in Fort Worth.
I hope you find a great place near you, No to RV service places..
 
utahclaimjumper said:
I can't imagine why seals would be failing on a 6 year old vehicle.>>>Dan
From sitting. I had to have the seals on mine changed on both front wheels. My MH is a '09. The 1st owner had only took about 8 short trips with it. Never leaving the state of Ohio. He only put 6,000 miles on it. He past away. No wife or kids. So his estate went to the state of Ohio. So the MH sat for a couple of years in a garage, covered. When the estate was settled. The MH went up for auction. Dealership bought it, then I bought it. I had Freightliner do the seals. Bought an extended warranty which paid for the seals. $600 a side.  :eek:
 
If you only got seals for that amount you were robbed,, I recently had all brakes and seals, at all four corners, rebuilt and replaced at my favorite (and local) heavy truck repair for $1320.00 >>>Dan
 
utahclaimjumper said:
If you only got seals for that amount you were robbed,, I recently had all brakes and seals, at all four corners, rebuilt and replaced at my favorite (and local) heavy truck repair for $1320.00 >>>Dan
I paid $100. That's what was charged to the warranty company.
 
Thanks for all of the replies.  I called 3 different truck service centers in the Bay Area near San Jose and was told by all of them that they would not work on any RVs and knew of now truck shop here that would.  I tried to find out why, since this made no sense to me, but failed to convince any of them.

Finally I called 3 different RV shops and got bids.  One told me that without seeing the seals which vary widely from vehicle to vehicle they could not give a firm bid.  Basically I was offered prices from $320(for 4 wheels) to $700 for 2 wheels from these 3 shops.  I went to the local Camping World only to find out that their $320 bid was for a trailer and not an RV (despite having worked on my rig before an having Itasca Suncruiser written on my bid).  They sent me to the shop that does their truck chassis work.  This shop didn't look like much but they were very knowledgeable.  They bid $500 incl tax for replacing seals on my front wheels, estimating 3 hrs of shop work.

One very upsetting thing to me was that after removing the cap on one front wheel they showed me that my wheels did not use high temp lubricant, but rather I had a type that took a type of oil that bathes the bearings and axle, so the first RV dealer clearly ripped me off for doing a procedure that did not apply to my wheels.  Clearly they had done nothing at all for the $293 that they charged me.  Needless to say, I'm furious.
 
Joel I wondered when I read your initial post if you didn't actually have oil bath front hubs.  My 2002 Adventurer has them and they are easily checked by removing the center of the wheel simulator to look at the level.  I recently had one leaking but thankfully it was just the drain plug that was loose so it just needed to be retightened.  I assumed that your later model on the same chassis as mine (W-22) has been updated with greased roller bearings.  Glad you found out what was going on.

Bill
 
Bill,

This makes we wonder if I have 2 drain plugs that are loose.  How did you figure this out?  While I see lubricant on the chrome wheels it is not so apparent when I remove the cap. 

It occurred to me that the shop that ripped me off for high temp lubricant that it doesn't use also charged me to change the oil and filter. I now have to wonder if I ever got new oil or filter.

Joel
 
JoelP said:
Bill,

This makes we wonder if I have 2 drain plugs that are loose.  How did you figure this out?  While I see lubricant on the chrome wheels it is not so apparent when I remove the cap. 

It occurred to me that the shop that ripped me off for high temp lubricant that it doesn't use also charged me to change the oil and filter. I now have to wonder if I ever got new oil or filter.

Joel

My leak was very easy to detect. First I noticed an oil drip on the front tire. The oil was coming from behind the wheel simulator so I popped the center cap off the simulator and saw that the clear plastic hub with the fill line was empty.  the plastic plug on the side of the clear plastic hub was where the oil was dripping from and I just hand tightened it and did a bit more with some pliers and then refilled the hub by popping off the rubber tip on the end and putting in enough
80-90 wt oil to get it up to the full line.  Took very little oil.

Bill
 
JoelP said:
Thanks.  That was also my inclination after being fleeced by an RV dealer.  Now I need to to find such a suitable shop in San Jose, CA.

I take my Freightliner chassis to these guys. 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/superior-auto-and-rv-morgan-hill-2

RV Restore & Repair in Morgan Hill does good coach work.
 
Before I saw your reply about Superior Auto I took it to Star Motors in Morgan Hill.  They seemed to know what they were doing and gave me the opportunity to watch the process.  They had clearly done this many times before and impressed me as very capable.  The biggest initial problem was that the inner seals that they received from Napa were not correct.  They kept ordering new seals until they got the right ones the fit exactly.  I elected to even change the oil reservoir while we were at this to insure no leaks.  Then they filled it with hub oil to the line and had me drive it a short distance and topped it up again.  This happened 4X until the oil was at the correct fill line.

The only problem was that when I drove the rig it now had the ABS light on and an additional message on the display saying to check the ABS.  They checked all of the ABS connections and found all to be secure, but the problem persisted.  They check the codes and it was showing 5 different error codes some of which were pointing to wheel locations they never touched.  As I write this they still had not determined the source of this malfunction, but I am still feeling confident they will figure this out.
 

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