Don’t be alarmed. Nothing is broken. Everything is fine. After putting on 10,000 miles since leaving Florida, plus the drive across the country and all my West Coast travel last year, it’s time to repack my trailer’s wheel bearings. Darryl and I got talking about it yesterday, and he’s guiding me through the process since I’ve never done it before.
Yesterday, on a whim, we took one of them apart. This let me read the number off the seal on the back of the hub assembly and order replacements, which will take about a week to arrive. The next time the trailer is moving anywhere is when I leave Wayne’s to head to Quartzsite, so this is perfectly fine. Plus, I have no 14-day stay limit here, nor do I need to keep the trailer mobile to comply with LTVA regulations. The grease and bearings showed minor signs of ordinary wear but no problems at all. I could order two replacement seals for $9 or four for $12, so I ordered four and will save two for next time. While I wait, I put all the internal parts in a baggie, and put another over the hub and axle to protect them from dust and weather until we finish cleaning and assembling everything once the new seals arrive.
I was a little bit intimidated doing this for the first time, but thanks to Darryl’s guidance I feel confident doing the other side myself. I’ve also decided to replace one of my tires with the spare, since it’s worn a bit more than the other side. It’s still perfectly safe, but I might as well put the better tread of the fresh tire to good use, and use the worn-but-safe one as my spare. Since it’s already off the trailer anyway, now is a good time to do it.
Sometimes DIY is not the way to go. The cover I made for my side window is already starting to come apart, probably because I take it out of the window for driving or just to see outside during the day. The covers in my back windows are still in great shape, but I leave those in all the time, so they haven’t had a chance to wear out like the side window cover. I ordered this one from Amazon. At $115 it’s not cheap, but it’s also going to work a lot better than anything I can make. The custom-fit covers I got for the windshield and front side windows are still working great, so I decided to invest in this one as well. Right now I have it facing shiny side out to reflect the hot sun away, but over winter I’ll put the black side out to collect the heat, and shiny side in to reflect the heat back inside. I may even take down my curtains for the side window if I find myself not using them, and using this cover instead.
The rest of the crew here helped with a bit of cleanup and landscaping around Wayne’s yard yesterday since the temperature cooled off quite a bit. Naturally, I got hit with a bit of extra work, so I had to do that instead of joining in (not that I’m complaining — money is good). I did pop out to help trim and saw off a few high tree branches because I could reach them and other people couldn’t. Wayne cooked up some barbecue chicken for dinner, and we all hung out until the approaching thunderstorms opened up on top of us.
Smokey Da Van 