A topic passionately discussed regularly on this forum.

Travelling from Joburg to Kgalagadi today aiming for Red Sands.

Flicker pulses fast, I stop to see if the 7pin plug is not connecting properly. Walked to back of van ..... rear roadside wheel and hub is missing!!!

Crawl to Vryburg to Truck and Trailer. Overshoot turnoff to the business. Reverse, and see I am missing a left hand wheel.

The helper goes looking and finds the wheel at the last intersection.

Verdict bearing failure.

I had no feeling and was not aware of any change when the wheels went AWOL.

He is trying to source parts here, failing which ...??

Bearings were replaced by Tygerberg Caravans in 2020.

Sounds like bad workmanship.  Bearings usually last for a lifetime unless they were improperly torqued of without grease.

Hub, rim (white same as spare) tyres and bearings sourced in Vryburg, will be on the road shortly.

What a relief.

Thankful you could make it to town. Another advantage of a 4 wheel caravan. 😏 

You should really invest in a set of tyre monitors.  If you had it, you would immediately have known when  you lost the wheel.

What caravan do you have?

If it is a  Sprite, go to B/Man or Goldwagen and request VW Golf bearing set.

Most Sprite's and Venter trailers use exactly the same bearing set and cost you less than Campworld.

You can either ask them for Timken or FAG.

Please, ignore Cheapies such as Chinese Brand.

Gerden wrote:

What caravan do you have?

If it is a  Sprite, go to B/Man or Goldwagen and request VW Golf bearing set.

Most Sprite's and Venter trailers use exactly the same bearing set and cost you less than Campworld.

You can either ask them for Timken or FAG.

Please, ignore Cheapies such as Chinese Brand.

- If it is an oldish Van, the hubs get worned out.

- Remove the old Cup & Cones and clean hubs.

- Take a Centre and hammer softly small Punch Marks into the Hubs.

- "Smear as per photo around the cup and set Cups into position.

- Leave overnight, pack bearings with Ghries and off you go.

Driving and no signal thanks to load shedding.

We made it to Red Sands. Repairs took 4 hrs, with another truck repair emergency in between.

Thankfully all spares were sourced in Vryburg.

Fred wrote:

You should really invest in a set of tyre monitors.  If you had it, you would immediately have known when  you lost the wheel.

I was discussing this with my wife, if if...

Sadly the horse (wheel ) has bolted.

HM wrote:

Thankful you could make it to town. Another advantage of a 4 wheel caravan. 😏 

Indeed Hendrick..... but one right, one back, one left, one front ....

What if they were on the same side? If, if ...

According to the 'expert's:

But car bearings don't get serviced. ( My Volvo in 10 years, 460 000 kms never that I know of had bearings checked and packed)

He says that car and caravan bearings are not the same!?

Was it poof workmanship ?

He would not blame the workmanship.

Why did they fail?

Outer bearing got dry and seized.

Third bearing was checked,ok and repacked.

Fourth bearing was dry, had 'filings' and he reckoned would/could have failed within 30 km. It's grease was very black and viscosity poor. It was replaced.

His advice, service every year, check, repack or replace.

Mine as replaced at the end of 2020, at my request, so Just over 2 years ago.

Perhaps towing in high 30C and even 40C does damage?

Gerden wrote:

What caravan do you have?

If it is a  Sprite, go to B/Man or Goldwagen and request VW Golf bearing set.

Most Sprite's and Venter trailers use exactly the same bearing set and cost you less than Campworld.

You can either ask them for Timken or FAG.

Please, ignore Cheapies such as Chinese Brand.

Dennis as per my info, we have an Exclusive, 2015 model that did not run for 3 years.

I am learning about mechanical and electrical issues in my retirement years. Was a 'bean counter', 'das draer' during my working career, so don 't see myself servicing the bearings, but your advice no doubt can be useful to other readers, thanks.

What I have not mentioned. The flicker that caused me to stop in the first place, worked perfectly when I re-hitched the caravan, ready to depart.

Also, as mentioned I had no inkling that I only had 2 wheels. I do not use a stabilizer. And the caravan felt fine for the crawl in, on 3 wheels.

But, if was an extremely stressful drive, with white knuckles..

Ja had mine serviced in Cape Town just as we started our trip up to Pta and all was fine and repacked. Previous vans we owned I never serviced them at all 🤭.

If caravan wheel bearings are correctly installed, greased and torqued, I can see no reason why they would not last as long as that of a car, which normally mean for the life of the car.  In my more than fifty years of owing cars and caravans, I have never had to replace wheel bearings.  I used to service all my vehicles once they were out of their warranty and still do it as far as possible.  Our Sprite was used for 30 years before we replaced it. My opinion is tampering with wheel bearings just because someone thinks it should be done, is exactly the reason they fail.  What makes you think that even at the dealership, the person working on the bearing is qualified to do so?  Working on bearings is a dirty job so probably it is passed on to the labourer with little or no knowlegde of what to do.  Some people tend to think you torque any nut as hard as you can and the bigger the nut, the harder you try.  And this is exactly what kills a wheel bearing.

Wheel bearings on any vehicle should come out of the factory correctly set up and all that you have to do once in a while,  is check the play by lifting the wheel off the floor and wiggle it to feel if there is any noticable play.  If not, lower the wheel and forget about it.  If there is play, get someone with knowledge to adjust it. In other words, treat it exactly as you treat your car's. 

By the way, how often do you replace it's bearings on your car or even check them?

RichardJ wrote:

Bearings were replaced by Tygerberg Caravans in 2020.

Met die skelm reputasie wat onlangs ontbloot is van Tygerberg met multi miljoene se bedrog, is dit heel moontlik dat hul nie eers die bearings vervang het nie....net invoice uitgemaak

Ek sou raai hulle het wel aan die goed gewerk.  As hulle nie het nie, sou die probleem waarskynlik nie ontstaan het nie- net my mening😞

RichardJ wrote:

Dennis as per my info, we have an Exclusive, 2015 model that did not run for 3 years.

I am learning about mechanical and electrical issues in my retirement years. Was a 'bean counter', 'das draer' during my working career, so don 't see myself servicing the bearings, but your advice no doubt can be useful to other readers, thanks.

I doubt that your hubs are worned according your caravan model.

The worn out situation for the hubs are mostly common on oldish Vans - 80's to early 90's.

Therefore, that was bad workmanship by the person done work to your Van.

Fred wrote:

Ek sou raai hulle het wel aan die goed gewerk.  As hulle nie het nie, sou die probleem waarskynlik nie ontstaan het nie- net my mening😞

Ook waar