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Hi Folks - thought I'd pass along some information from a recent service on my 2016 179. The brakes were acting up a bit, so I asked my local shop (The Spring Works - an outstanding trailer and off-road shop) to check things over, including the bearings while they had things torn down.
I know that the EZ Lube vs conventional bearing repack is an oft-contenious topic here; I don't want to weigh in on that, but do want to pass along information garnered from the business owner. They've been at it for 30 yrs and are highly regarded in the region.
He found that both brakes were contaminated with grease, and while the bearings were ok, they went ahead a manually repacked them. I should add that until now, I had been changing the grease by forcing out the old, dirty grease using the EZ fitting and very carefully cleaning as I went along.
As I was checking out, I asked him for his take on this topic, and what he recommended that I do from this point forward. His view is that the only effective way to keep your bearings properly greased was the traditional way, and that he would be happy to debate a Dexter rep on the subject. Apparently they see this all the time - that no matter how careful you are with the EZ lube process, over time some of the grease is going to find its way onto surfaces where it doesnt belong, because more grease than is needed is introduced into the system. They are a very busy shop - it took me almost a month to get an appointment - so they don't need to business, I just got the impression that he'd much rather not see this problem on trailers coming in for service.
So his advice? Once every other year, unless you are logging lots of miles on your trailer have the bearings properly repacked. In my case, it cost me around $150, but I know that many of you can do your own.
Just thougt that pass this along, in the FWIW category. They also found a loose wire inside one of the brakes, which would only be found by pulling and visually inspecting, which would not have been found otherwise.
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