Re:Moto's Bug out or Dig in post

living out in the country we've got stock trailers all over the place. no one even thinks twice when you see them in the driveway, front yard, lane running past the barn. One can get literally tons of stuff into a dual axle 18 foot trailer. including the hay eating backup vehicle.

 

"If you've never done it this way before then your old ways need to change. I was trained by my Dad who was not only a Farm boy but a trained WWll Jeep Mechanic.
HK"

How to Repack Your Wheel Bearings
Auto Repair For Dummies, 2nd Edition

By Deanna Sclar

If you have disc brakes, repacking wheel bearings isn’t a difficult job. It’s just that you may not get the calipers back on right, which could cause your brakes to malfunction. If you have drum brakes, go right ahead and repack the bearings yourself. Follow these steps to repack the wheel bearings for drum brakes:


1 Jack up the car and remove a wheel.
Use jack stands for safety!


2 If you have a hubbed drum, pry the grease cap off the end of the hub, remove the cotter pin, and slide the castellated nut or nut-lock-and-nut combination off the spindle.
Skip this step if you have a floating drum.


3 Slide the outer bearing, with the washer in front of it, off the spindle.
As you can see here, the bearings are usually tapered roller bearings, not ball bearings.

4 Check the grease in the spaces between the bearings. Don’t wipe off the grease!
If the grease has sparkly silver particles in it, or if the rollers are pitted or chipped, you must replace the bearings. If the outer bearings are damaged, the inner bearings probably are, too.

5 Clean the outer bearings thoroughly in solvent or kerosene with an old paintbrush.
Don’t smoke when cleaning the bearings! Get rid of all the old grease to inspect the bearings properly. Also, when you repack the bearings with fresh grease, you don’t want any old grease spoiling the new stuff.

6 When the bearings are shiny and clean, rinse them off with water and dry them, or use brake cleaner to remove the solvent.
If you pack new grease over the solvent, the grease will dissolve and you’ll ruin your bearings.

7 When the bearings are clean and dry, look at the rollers for signs of wear.
If the rollers are gouged or bluish in color, or if you can almost slip the rollers out of their place, replace the bearing and its race, which is pressed into the hub.


8 Take a gob of wheel-bearing grease and place it in the palm of your left hand.
You may want to invest in some thin, disposable plastic gloves for this job.


9 Press the bearing into the gob of grease with the heel of your other hand as shown here.
This forces the grease into the bearing and out the other end. Make sure that you work the grease into every gap in the bearing. You want it to be nice and yucky. Then put your bearing down on your clean rag.

Your inner wheel bearings lay in the center hole of the drum or disc. At this time, you have to decide whether you’re going to remove the inner bearings to check and pack them. Generally speaking, if the outer bearings look okay, the inner ones are okay, too. If you’re not planning to repack the inner bearings, don’t attempt to take them out of their seat in the drum.

10 If you are repacking the inner bearings, slide the brake drum toward you, with the inner bearings still in place.
Don’t slide the drum completely off the spindle. Instead, screw the adjusting nut back in again, pull the drum toward you, and push it back. The adjusting nut should catch the inner bearing and its grease seal and free them from inside the hub.

11 Clean and pack the inner bearings.
Use the technique described for cleaning and packing your outer bearings. Wipe out the hole in the hub of the drum where the inner bearing was; then take a gob of grease and smooth it into the hole.

Be sure that the grease fills the races inside the hub where the bearing fits. Wipe off excess grease around the outside of the hole so that it doesn’t fly around when the car’s in motion, possibly damaging your brakes.

12 Insert the inner bearing into the hub with the small end first and spread a film of grease around the sealing end (the flat, smooth side).
To fit the new grease seal into place properly, slide it in evenly; otherwise, it will bend or break and you’ll lose your grease.

Find a hollow pipe or a large socket from a socket wrench set that has roughly the same diameter as the seal. With the flat, smooth side of the seal toward you, place the seal in the hub opening, and use the pipe or socket to move it into the hub gently and evenly. The new seal should end up flush with the outside of the hub or slightly inside it.

13 Carefully reassemble everything in reverse order.
Use the diagram in Step 3 to help you get everything back on correctly.

 

Health matters mean I bug-in, period. No becoming a refugee for me. If necessary, I die in place. My choice.

 

Those Chinese bearings in the utility trailers nowdays are only covered with grease, This results in premature failure, I would rather sling a little grease than have bearing failure on the road, But then again I plan to have minimal failures

 

When I buy a new used trailer, I just replace it all. bearings, races, seals. Then every spring on the high use and heavy trailers I repack the bearings and replace the seals. light use trailers get inspected but may not get repacked. if I had a boat trailer that saw water .. it would probably be a couple times a season.

just think of how many accidents and abandoned trailers on the side of the road .. typically not due to tires .. but bearing failure. I carry spare bearing assemblies, seals, grease, a punch, a hammer and an oak board when travelling with the horse trailer in the summer.

I once made 200 bucks replacing a burned out bearing set on a mal-maintained horse trailer on the side of the freeway one early fall day. that was the highest paying 45 minutes I've ever had.

 

True the grease on a new packaged bearing is not enough for road service and was never meant to be. Only enough lube is there to prevent rust and all new bearings need washed in solvent and greased with quality grease. Due to higher temps of disc breaks a higher rated quality grease must be used than with drum breaks. Now trailer grease depends on use such as a water proof type.

Most trailer bearings fail due to incorrect tightening of the retainer nut.

 

The gunk that is on the bearing when shipped over from china is only corrosion preventive compound, like cosmoline.
It seems to lack the extreme pressure and anti wear additives that gives bearings a long life.

 

My current BOL thought is a place where I can flee to in order to stitch myself back up, get a few hot meals, and rearm so I can go back and kill the sunzabiches that ran me out of my house. Thinking about burying a shipping container in the side of a hill so it blends in and then obscuring the entry and air vent with vegetation or something that looks like you don't want to go there.

EDIT: Oh, almost forgot - MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone and good will to men!*

* "men" in the context of man as a species and not as a sexual identity, real, made up, or identified as such.

 

Now my place is not in camo and it appears to some to be a big easy target.
But I have no desire to live in a cage, but a place of warmth and comfort until I retreat to my last stand.
So many would consider they don't want to go to my place as it has little to offer and if need I'll burn it myself.

Those who live in a fortress should consider what the are projecting.

Just a planned move all should consider.

 

I want to thank you all for your thoughts and replies.

Years ago when I lived in Colorado with my ex and my daughters the plan was to hook up and head up to the property I had which was about 3 1/2 hrs away from where we lived. At that time there were no out buildings or a home on that site. I was to hook the 28' RV up to the 1 ton welding truck and the ex was to take the 18' flat bed with the quads and the totes of supplies. Looks good on paper.
The RV was kept fully stocked with everything but fresh water and perishable foods. I could have the RV hooked up fresh water tanks filled and the fridge/freezer filled in 30 minutes. That gave us roughly 30 days worth of food (not counting foodstuffs in totes loaded onto the other trailer) 65 gals of fresh water in the tanks plus the 15 gals stored in containers under the sleeper couch. 60 lbs of propane in the two main tanks and a dozen 1lb bottles in the cargo area
While I was doing that the girls were to be hooking up the flatbed, loading the quads, gas cans and the totes of supplies into the ex's truck and onto the trailer. When I finished my load out I went to help with the other. Best time was just under 2hrs for both rigs loaded secured and ready to pull out. That sounds pretty good and it is but..
That was all hands helping-no security
Summertime
Day time
Not one time did I get to load everything I wanted/planned on being able to take.

Bugging out with your own home on wheels seems like a great idea, and can be but it presents it's own problems.
Biggest issue with any BOT and RV's in particular is ground clearance especially most bumper pull type RV's. Load the shit outta the thing and it becomes more of an issue. Newer RV's have better ground clearance with the 5th wheel type having the most as a rule. What happens if I whatever is gridlocked and you're in the middle? Not much of a chance to bail off the side of the interstate if you're dragging a bigassed RV. Start trying to side hill up and you're likely to roll the whole thing. If you're ahead of the sheep no problem, but if not for any reason and that house on wheels could quickly become an albatross. Same for any large trailer.
The best answer I've found is to build and install my own "lift kit" for the RV. This helps on secondary roads and taking it off road. Speaking of, a person should have as many alt routes as possible already mapped out and loaded into your GPS if you have one.

For Sass and I nowadays @HK_User came the closest to what we do. The H3 will pull a modified (by me) M1101 trailer. These are(IMHO) one of if not the best option for many folks or a good starting place to build your own BOT to fit your needs. My trusty 1 ton welding truck will either pull the other modified BOT or the RV, depending on what and where we are bailing from/to.
The best BOT is just a trailer if it ain't ready when you need it. If a Dig In guy like me is forced out of his hole, then seconds will most likely count. Having the BOT's loaded and ready as possible before hand will make the most of those seconds.
I've been asked several times why I insist on using my welding rig as one of the BOV's and the answer is simple. That truck fully fueled and loaded is just under 20k lbs. Not a real advantage unless I gotta ram through something like a road block maybe? The main reason is because it has everything tool wise I'm likely to need to build or repair something. The welder generates 10k of power as well. So before ya ask, that's why.

These are just some of my thoughts and opinions formed through personal experiences
and are worth exactly what you paid for them

 

@Motomom34
You should check any number of 'made my car into a camper' pieces found on the net - like this:
How to: Turn Your Car Into a Camper

I went one better by just buying a Class B MH (VW Camper) mostly for the pop-top, standup space offered.
If needed, I can use a tow dolly

and pull the VW camper like a trailer. This will give us a second vehicle while 'parked'.

 

Some thoughts on trailers ,
1. trailers that sit, die. when wheels don't move the grease settled and the seal drys out and cracks moisture gets in and does its thing.
2. trailers that get used are the most reliable .
3. A little trailer is better than no trailer.
I have never seen and excuse actually work for not doing what one could have done .
Remember while driving, that a trailer IS going to cut the corner every time ,you mirrors are not for decoration.
When delivering a customers boat only job , I often took my infrared thermometer and would stop from time to time and walk around checking bearings even the carrier bearing on the drive line and U joints and trailer bearings and brakes .
Practice with backing a trailer is a significant skill that cannot be taken for granted .
My truck Has spare parts even spare alternator water pump, fuel pump wheel bearings ,gasket sets ,snow chains 2 spare tires, master brake cylinder and shoes, amongst other things.
It has already paid off big while on the road moving to a new location.
I have seen new vehicles fail over simple things ,but if one is ignorant of the device it becomes a liability not an asset.

I'd like to get a new camper for my truck , but I may end up building it the way I want .
I have several trailers but the one I'll likely take is my shop trailer. seeing barter for skills goes further than good looks .

 

Long term storage works well if you prop the trailer up on blocks so the wheel bearings are faintly loaded, then at least once a year, unload the tire completely and spin it a couple turns. (Then go clean the mouse nest out from the back of the rim.) This unloading is especially important IF there is heavy traffic on your street because there will be vibration transmitted to the bearing and cause fretting by squeezing the grease from between the bearings and races. Guaranteed to cause a failure when you least need it (as in higher speeds and loaded.) Periodic rotation will also help keep the seals lively

 

Shoot, I pack a grease gun,Couple of shots each hub then hit the road Jack!