Attempting Huge RV Repairs with Zero Experience

Dude word from the wise, pack your wheel bearings from the open side only so that when you see your new grease coming out the small side you know all voids are filled. If you pack from both sides before it is full you run the risk of an air pocket or an area void of grease. Your wheel bearing nut should be tightened then back it off to insure the bearings are seated properly. Hand tighten with your fingers is NOT enough! Have a great Memorial Day!!!

Hey guys just a couple tips from an rv tech and inspector here. When you put that Grease seal in, do NOT use a hammer. Use a piece of wood like a 2×4 and hammer on that. It will distribute the blows evenly to the seal. When using a hammer, you run the risk of damaging it. And another very important one, when putting on the castle nut, you want to torque it to 50 ft lbs then back it off and then hand tighten it. This will seat everything properly.

Whoa Nelly!!! As many people have said your "finger tight" nut will NOT be enough and will be dangerous for you and others. You have not seated the bearings properly and the entire apparatus is going to loosen and wobble. If you leave it as is you will likely ruin the spindle, bearings, and potentially could have the wheel "freeze up" and potentially even fall off when driving. Currently it is not safe! I would stop wherever you are at and take the time to resolve this error. It will take you no time at all to remove the tire/grease cap and tighten the nut until you feel a marked increase resistance when spinning the drum. Then slowly back the nut out (lefty loosey) while turning the brake drum. The brake drum should turn freely as the nut is loosened. It usually takes about 1/4-1/2 turn out to free up the drum. You may also consider replacing the remaining drums/bearings sooner than later. The money you are saving now is going to haunt you later and likely at a time when it is less convenient to repair. Last advice - use shrink wrap over the crimp connectors to keep moisture out of the crimp connection. Moisture plus current will rust out the connection. For areas under a vehicle and near the tires where water is thrown all over the wires I usually solder the connections and double up on the shrink wrap. Good luck and be safe!

I was taught that with new bearings you should tighten nut down till you can’t turn hub to make sure bearings are seated properly then back nut off. Have safe travels and a good Memorial Day

Wow! Y'all really opened yourself up for the comments on this one, didn't you? I'm a 60-year-old woman and me and one of my other 60-year-old woman friends do a lot of this kind of stuff on our vehicles and around her ranch. We watch a few YouTube videos and then just kind of take a little bit from everything. Nothing we've done has broken or killed us yet. So... Take all the "you have to do it this way!" comments with a grain of salt. I'm not saying they are wrong, I'm just saying there's more than one way to skin a cat. Y'all are freaking awesome and I get so excited on Thursdays when your videos come out.

Invest $15-$20 to buy an infrared thermometer, and check the temps of all your wheel hubs from time to time. If there's any problem with bearings or brakes, it first shows up as extra hot wheel hubs. You can head off expensive problems.

You have no clue how many times we've pulled out of the campground and forgot to get the trash out of the truck bed. I've been a mechanic my whole life, I love seeing people step out of their comfort zone and try fixing things themselves. It's not rocket science, If i can learn to do it, any body can. Great video guys.

FYI, to pack bearings by hand: put some greese in your palm (as you said) you only pack from the large side, keep packing till you see it come out the small side of the bearing. The grease will push all the way through the bearing, removing all the air with greese. And yes, once the hub is put back on, don't over pump grease. If you do, it will drip on the inside and get on your new break shows. Overall, you scored a 9 out of 10.

Good job. FYI: Your wire butt-end connectors have a built in heat shrink to prevent water intrusion.

This week I watched "a different RV couple" get a high end inverter and high end lithium batteries installed on their high end RV by a high end shop (and probably didn't spend any of their own money in the transaction) and I watched the Hanks(es) swap out their own brakes and bearings. Guess which video appealed to me more?

You need to tighten the nut with a wrench while spinning the hub to seat the bearings, then loosen it, and tighten it until it is snug without moving the hub. After you have the clip on spin the hub then check for play in the bearings by trying to rock the drum. There should be little or no movement. There is no need to fill the hub up with grease using the zerk fitting.

You guys really need to get some jack stands for something like this. Relying on the hydraulic jack to keep the trailer in an elevated position over time is dangerous...if a seal blows it will collapse suddenly and if you're under it at the time, you're going to have a very bad day. Use the bottle jack to raise the trailer, but it raised with jack stands. Good call re: breaker bar. One more benefit that you didn't mention is that a breaker bar never runs out of battery juice.

Out of all the RV living YT channels, I relate to yours the most. All the DIY'ing that you do to save money and also be able to say, "Check out what I just accomplished!" While there's bound to be minor setbacks and post-fix moments of, "Oops, I should have...", it feels so satisfying when a self-done job is a great success! Well done, Hanks!!

Use your weight when loosening those lugs with the breaker bar instead of trying to pull. Great video as usual!

Sir, you put that nut on wrong. You need to tighten with Channel Locks (push down hard) or a nut driver to push the bearings/hub into place fully. Then back the nut off and hand tighten. You can get the manual from Dexter Axles (Service manual) which will walk you through this whole process.......I'd hate to have you burn up your axel and bearings or have a major wheel problem......Stay safe you two!

As an Army mechanic, who changed many hubs, tires etc.. this brings back memories. 130 pound girl trying to break loose or torque 300+ lb torque was a challenge and I often grabbed help from the bigger guys! Good and not so great memories! But always fun learning and accomplishing tough challenges!! Just a suggested… grab a rubber mallet for tapping in the seals and if you do this often get some seal presses to tap on the seals evenly! Less chance of marring them.

As a bearing sales professional for over 44 years, I would like to kinda echo/refute some of the comments so far: first, you should clean the bearings and check them for any pitting or scratches on the rolling surfaces- INCLUDING the bearing races which are inside the drum. If they look fine, just clean them further and put back on. I did not see you replace those races, and I highly doubt that the hubs came with them, and replacing just the bearing cones (the part that has the conical roller bearings) is not considered good practice. Now, the finger-tight issue: if you're not replacing the bearings or removing the races, then it's still a good idea to tighten up the retaining nut after spinning the hub a few turns, then backing the nut off a bit. As bearings heat up, they will expand and they need that little bit of play to allow that. And you definitely want to tighten them good before backing off when you do replace the races so they seat properly in the hub. The other issue I saw was greasing the grease zerk on the spindle. I don't know exactly what that is greasing, but you DO NOT want to fill the entire hub up with grease! Grease retains heat, and believe it or not, more bearings fail from OVER-greasing than they do under-greasing. I had a 37 foot toyhauler that came with "Bearing Buddies", and one of the service centers I took it in for service before a trip decided to unload what seemed to be a 120 lb keg of grease into the 6 wheels, and wound up filling the entire hub AND brake assembly. This was one a significant trip where we were 1,000's of miles away and I had to spend almost $2,000 to have everything replaced by a local shop (they went through 2 cases of brake cleaner just to clean up the mess!).

Y’all make a great pair. I always enjoy watching your adventures.❤

Carl, You really need to seat the new bearings after repacking them. Per Dexter you need to tighten the nut while spinning the hub by hand and you reach about 50 ft/lbs of torque. While holding the hub from spinning loosen the spindle nut just slightly so you can retighten by hand before placing the nut retainer back on. Failure to do this will result in the tire and hub to wobble on the bearings causing premature wear of the bearings, tires, and brake pads. Also, it was great to meet you guys in person while in Valdez, AK. We really liked the photo of my wife and I with you.

The PB blaster helped more than you think. That stuff is a miracle worker on rusted/stuck bolts and nuts. They also make a tool that you set the bearings in to grease them. It's not to expensive and does a better job than hand packing.