Easy Grease Trailer Idler Hub Assembly for 3.5K Axles - 5 on 4-1/2 - Pre-Greased

Video Transcript for etrailer Trailer Idler Hub Assembly Review and Installation AKIHUB-545-35-PG-EZK

Hey guys, Randy, here at etrailer.com. Today, we're going to be taking a look at a replacement hub assembly. Now this is a five on four and a half inch bolt pattern designed for use on 3,500 pound axles. It's going to be specific to the number 84 spindle, just so you have an idea. And as far as tire size, anywhere from a 13 inch rim, up to a 17 and a half inch rim, is going to work out really well for it. The thing that kind of sets this hub apart from say, one available from Dexter is that this is going to come pre-greased.

So our inner bearing and seal are already in place. Our outer bearing is already in place and it's full of grease. So we can save all the time and energy. It takes to pack these bearings, get our old one off, put our new one on.We just won't have to deal with that mess. That's what's really going to make this one of my favorites as far as the replacement's concerned, and definitely one I'd recommend to my buddies because I don't want to have to pack their bearings for them, if they don't know how.

And if you're doing it by hand, which is the way I prefer, it kind of cramps your hands up there are bearing Packers and stuff like that out there as well. They all wind up being a mess in my opinion. I like that it's nice, straightforward, simple. This is going to be available with an easy lube in cap, like what we've got here or our grease cap or with this standard. So it doesn't matter whether you've got an easy lube or standard spindle.

We're going to have one that'll work for you. And it allows us to completely refresh everything.So other than our spindle, as long as that's in good shape, new seal, new bearings, new hub, new studs that can sometimes, if a tire wheels loosened up, they can kind of get damaged. Brand new lug nuts and a brand new cat. So everything's going to be fresh. You do the same thing on the other side, it's like having a brand new axle underneath your trailer.

So you know you can get miles and miles out of it without any issues. And when working with customers, a question I sometimes get is the wheel stud diameter. This is going to be a half inch diameter. And also the spindle, which we've kind of said that before already, but it's a number 84 spindle. And really I'm not the only one that really likes this based on some of the feedback we get from our customers, it's rated very highly other people even keep this since it is pre-greased and everything's ready as a backup for their trailer, keep it either in the trailer or in the truck, especially if you're going to go a long distance. It only takes a couple of simple tools and a Jack and you can turn what would be potentially a pretty devastating kind of thing. Kind of holds up your whole trip into something that you have done in 15, 20 minutes and get right back on the road.Then to begin our installation, of course, we're going to need our old hub removed. We want to clean it off really well, get the grease off of it. We're going to check a few points. We're going to check our outer bearing surface here. We're going to check that for any defects, any scarring, any gouging, same here on our inner bearing, where it's going to go. And then this is where the seal's going to ride. You want to make sure there's no nicks or any kind of scratches or anything in there. Also, look for signs of heat or stress fractures or cracks. Heat will give you some discoloration there. This is just kind of a low point when they cast it. That's not something to really be concerned with there any. Deep gouges in any of these areas though, it's probably going to be a candidate for replacement, but once we've confirmed that all that's in good shape. We want to grab our hub, you got a cap on the back to remove.Then we need to tilt this with this side facing up and remove the cap on the front. If we don't do that, that bearing will fall out, wind up on your shoe, and then you'll be cleaning up that mess. That's something we're trying to prevent with this. So this would just take that. We want to put our thumbs right here so that bearing can't come out and slide it right on our spindle. Push it in. Once we get that seated properly, we're going to reuse just three components from our old setup. And these are all specific to your axle. First, we have our washer. That's going to slide on, we've got our nut. Now this is a standard type, just a large hex nut, basically. Chooses a spring keeper. You generally see this with an easy lib type. If you have a standard, you may run into a castle nut that has a Cotter pin that passes through it, but tightening them down to the same is just a little bit different in how you secure it.And I'm going to take my channel locks and I want to tighten this down until it stops. And then I like to torque it. Once I torque it like that, I know I've got everything compressed properly. And then we're going to back that off. Just a touch there. We're going to back it off. So it moves nice and freely, but we're not going to back it off so much to where it moves in and out. This looks like it's really nice. And we'll take our keeper, whether that's a Cotter pin through the nut or a spring keeper like this, where you get it slid on. Move that to go down to it, snaps and it's flush up against that nut. That's going to prevent that from backing off on this. Now at that point, you'll grab your dust cap. Easy loop calf of course is going to have the rubber gap or rubber plug on the end of it. So you can get to your greaser. The standard's not going to have that. Just going to put that on. If we get it aligned really nice and square, generally they go on pretty easy, but you definitely have to put a little bit in it. All right, that started right there. Now you can see this little gap that goes around here. We want that flange all the way in flush up against their hub.Just like that. At that point, you're ready to put your tire and wheel assembly back on, get them towards down properly and you're ready to hit the road. I think you can see that's why this is one of my favorite assemblies as far as getting this replaced because the massive packing the bearings grease all over your hands. Well, there is a little bit to deal with. It's not nearly as bad as doing it the other way. So this would definitely be one of my top choices for a hub assembly replacement for my 3,500 pound axles.