Dexter Nev-R LubeTM Bearings – Will bearing replacement be necessary on the road?

[jd1923]

8 hours ago, Patriot said:

At the time of my swap out, I believe there were over 200 trailers sold with the Neverlube bearings. None the less still always an inspection items along with the brake system.

We can only hope these never lube bearings are never fail. 😊

David, what you wrote is usually my frame of mind. I am generally more of a care-free person vs. being the worrier. I do required maintenance, but if they say annually for me it's going to be every two years.

Oliver has had a 3-year history with these bearings. And yes, I imagine it's a good 200 trailers and likely 300 by now. This is a small sample and Oliver owners tow less miles per year than commercial trailers. There are many forums citing failures like the Airstream owner I quoted above. Being safe, conservative and preventive, I would not count on your last sentence always being true.

It could be said that a 7K LB Oliver will run much longer without failure on a bearing designed to support much heavier trailers. Installing these axles is over-engineering and they should work as designed for years, even longer on our relatively light and aerodynamic Olivers.

At a minimum, I suggest Oliver Owners with Nev-R Lube bearings should get online with RockAuto, Summit (links above) or another auto parts store and spend <$100 for 2 replacement bearings to have onboard. The secondary parts, snap-rings and washer will be reusable except in rare cases and investment in tools is another step. Each of us will decide on the amount of protection, where we feel comfortable.

A few parts and perhaps tools is a small amount of insurance so that one day, on some future cross-country trip, we are not stuck somewhere waiting days without having this critical part on-hand. What Don wrote above is seriously true, though many of us carry extra water pumps too! 🤣

On 8/20/2025 at 9:38 PM, dhaig said:

Failure of wheel bearings is among the few potentially disabling items on the trailer.  Failure of other items, such as water pumps may be inconvenient, but not likely to prevent returning home.

Edited August 22, 2025 by jd1923

[Patriot]

I can’t think of a report on here or the FB Oliver page where an Oliver owner has even had a standard wheel bearing failure.
That said, it never hurts to carry spares when practical and do regular maintenance.
Anything to help owners sleep better and not be left flapping. 

Long live the Neverlubes! 😄

Edited August 22, 2025 by Patriot

[jd1923]

On 8/20/2025 at 8:44 AM, T-Oliver said:

Any suggestions for the size of the snap ring pliers?

Sorry for not posting this sooner. An Oliver friend was at Harbor Freight today asking me the same question, so I went out to my garage and measured.

The large snap ring has holes 0.11" ID and they are 1 1/4" apart. The snap-ring pliers I used for this has pins 0.07" OD and has a reach of about 1 1/2".

The very small snap ring has holes about 0.05" and are only 1/4" apart. The snap-ring pliers I used for this has pins 0.04" OD.

These are the tools I used. Zoom in to see tool part numbers.

Edited September 26, 2025 by jd1923
Added pic

[Geronimo John]

JD:
Thank you for taking the time to summarize in detail what is needed for a Never-Lube axle bearing change.  

At my vintage, I would like the long time benefit of the Never-Lube bearings and the larger brakes too.  Not to mention saving the time, grease and seals I use every year on my OEM's.  

I also feel the need to check in on the brake system.  Doing annual service on the bearings allowed me to do that.  If I went with the 5200's and Never-lube I would still want to look in on the Drum Brakes occasionally.

If so, do we need all the above tools for just physically checking the drum brakes?

thanks

GJ

[jd1923]

On 11/27/2025 at 2:36 PM, Geronimo John said:

If so, do we need all the above tools for just physically checking the drum brakes?

You’d need the smaller snap-ring pliers, a 1 7/16” socket and breaker bar to service the brakes. Then a torque wrench at 150# to reinstall. Dexter via Alcan replied the spindle nuts are reusable. Easy job, no grease to mess with! 😎

Edited December 3, 2025 by jd1923
The larger snap-ring pliers is only needed when pulling the bearing.

[Geronimo John]

5 hours ago, jd1923 said:

You’d need the smaller snap-ring pliers, a 1 7/16” socket and breaker bar to service the brakes. Then a torque wrench at 150# to reinstall. Dexter via Alcan replied the spindle nuts are reusable. Easy job, no grease to mess with! 😎

Music to my ears! Add to that the 20V Impact tool and lug nut socket for off/on of the wheels... Gosh, I already have the kit on board. 

thanks

GJ  

[DanielBoondock]

The TrailerSmith has a video on the Dexter Nev-R-Lube, notes

• He's only seen these in the case that the bearing cartridge has failed, nobody brings them in for inspection (big surprise)
• It truly is a zero maintenance drum, you can't perform any maintenance 
• Read the owners manual - you have to inspect it every 12k miles or annually
  • Jack the trailer and check for end play (wiggle the tire and spin, if you can wiggle it that's end play)
  • If there's any end play, the cartridge needs to be replaced
• Assuming no premature failure (e.g. end play) it should perform just fine for ...
• It has a five year, 100k warranty
  • Therefore, replace the cartridge and possibly the entire drum before every five years (or 100k) regardless of the end play
• "I will tell you, if the bearing cartridge keeps its grease and is maintained properly, you will get all your years of service out of it ... pretty much guaranteed"
• "The problem is, people don't do their service checks, even if you haven't driven it much, maybe some moisture has gotten in there, check it annually"
• A failure most common with these is with horse trailers which are heavy. If you overuse the brakes the heat transmits through the hub and can boil out the grease. If you see the paint peeling off or heat damaged, pop the cap, if you see grease then you have boiled it out and the cartridge needs replacing
• Unfortunately OTT doesn't have Dexter manuals in the university, but here's the flyer for Nev-R-Lube where it makes clear the maintenance free (not inspection free!) five year 100k service life. 

My take: as long as you're doing the regular maintenance (end play check) you should be fine on the road. Bringing along a tool kit is definitely 'belt and suspenders', but instead I'll just do the maintenance checks and replace in five years. 

 

 

Edited April 20 by DanielBoondock

[jd1923]

On 8/21/2025 at 3:27 PM, Rolind said:

Thanks so much for the write up.  It taught me a lot. I also learned I need to upgrade my annual inspection process.  

Thanks again for your positive feedback! 🤗
I since wrote another thread on a complete 10-step maintenance process.

However, I also received feedback stating OTT had claimed in 200+ installations there had been no reported Nev-R Lube bearing failures. I'd say the conservative/prepared approach is preferred to believing this won't happen to you. 😎

Recently, @Boudicca908 spent a few days with us in troubleshooting a trailer brake error code. First step was to jack up the hitched Ollie using the rear jacks and removing all 4 wheels. It was a good time to do regular maintenance was well, like grease the Zerks!

I spun each drum to feel/hear if the shoes had been adjusting properly, there should be a slight shoe drag on each drum. Three of four where fine. When I spun the front-left wheel, considerable material fell out on the ground below. The material was coarse (see pic), not like the usual fine brake dust from normal brake use. BTW, this is the same wheel that locked up a couple days before causing a 30 ft burnt-rubber skid on the road! 

So, we decided to remove the drum/hub assembly to inspect the brakes inside. The shoes were a little more worn than expected but the brake shoe-spring assembly was working as it should. What was truly abnormal was the contact plane for the brake magnet on the drum. It has deep wear either side of a tall circular ridge which is quite apparent in the picture. I suspect the coarse material to be from the magnet and the contact plane on the drum!

But that wasn't all. The Nev-R Lube bearing was surrounded by excessive grease, which had oozed out, grease that should stay inside the "Nev-R Lube bearing." One part of the 2-part inner bearing race could be pulled out and pushed back in a good 1/8" easily with one finger. I checked a new hub, where the play was >1mm not near 3mm! I would define this as a FAILED bearing, but if not yet, it will be squealing at some point.

This is a 2022 hull with just under 25K towing miles (the TV has a reading for miles towed). These bearings have a 5-year, 100K miles warranty. IMHO, I believe the bearing wear/play created a wobble in the drum, causing the magnet to vibrate on the contact plane resulting in all this damage and burning rubber incident which could repeat.

The Nev-Lube bearing is still under warranty. I wiped off the excess grease, blew all the brake dust and other particles out with compressed air, reinstalled the drum, torqued the spindle nut to 155 ft-lbs and we finished our other work.

Last year, I had received damaged D52 axles from Dexter. They replaced my custom order and allowed me to keep the damaged axles, for my inconvenience, with a lot of good parts in the bargain! I loaned @Boudicca908 a complete left-side braking plate assembly and hub/drum/bearing assembly in case of need on a long road trip! Hopefully Dexter will replace these parts under warranty.

On another subject, the OEM Dexter 1750 LB leaf springs didn't look so great either! One of 4 was flat on one end. All four had spacing between the leaves which we know is an indicator of near-future leaf failure. It just so happens; I had a spare set of PR4B springs which I also sent along with @Boudicca908. I had purchased a set of these prior to our Alcan upgrade so don't need them anymore! 😎 With Alcan Springs I do not believe a backup set is necessary. Safe travels to our friend @Boudicca908!