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Flashback: Lyndsay's Van Life - Part 5

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

I broke down in Bozeman, was questioned by police, got towed to an auto shop and clogged their toilet, they were booked and I needed to be towed to another shop, then found out I'd been outside the other shop before the original tow. Because my life is a comedy.

Sunday Review: RV Wheel Bearings Explained - Guest Post by Dale Constantine

I previously made a post on a Sunday Review about a quick and dirty path to greasing your wheel bearings. As it turns out, I was grossly misinformed! While the "cheat" works if you are in a pinch (and got us across mountains and a couple thousand kilometres when we had no other choice), it is definitely not recommended and is very risky. I will be doing a complete service of my bearings this year before moving to my next destination. Proper wheel bearing service is a necessity for travel trailers and 5th wheels.

So here to correct me is licensed automotive technician Dale Constantine, whom you can find on LinkedIn. This post is an explanation of the wheel bearings. Next Sunday's post will explain why you should never cheat!

No Thursday Post This Week

We just hauled our setup from Vancouver Island back to Winnipeg in this midst of the pandemic. While all of our posts were ready for while we were driving, we did not have a Thursday post ready, nor enough time and energy to put one together. We hope to be back to our normal schedule on Sunday, with an article from a licensed technician explaining the problems with my previous post on wheel bearings.

Thank you.

Flashback: Lyndsay's Van Life - Part 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Lyndsay:

So now I finally had my temporary registration and it was time to head back to Winnipeg.

But this was an old vehicle. There was no computer to warn me if anything was going wrong. It had a single temperature gauge that said "hot" on one side, "cold" on the other, and a large "normal" section in the middle.

I was hauling ass through California. I made it into Nevada.

Sunday Review: Why you need a Costco membership.

"We can't store bulk groceries, why would we have a Costco membership?"

I cannot for the life of me comprehend this response when I recommend that other full timers make purchases at Costco.

Flashback: Lyndsay's Van Life - Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

Lyndsay:

So due to MPI refusing to take an electronic title I was still waiting for the paper title, spent some time as a tourist, attached pleading signs to my van in hopes of avoiding tickets and towing, waited some more, lost out on a winter job in Vancouver, still had to drive a 1976 Econoline all the way back to Winnipeg with no guarantees that engine survived, got free drinks, met Crack Dealer Tony, and finally got woken up in the middle of the night by Crack Dealer Tony.

"Lyndsay! Lyndsay! I'm drunk! Let me get you drunk too so I can rape you!"

Flashback: Lyndsay's Van Life - Part 2

Part 1

Lyndsay:

So I did all my research, bought my tickets, had my plan go haywire due to MPI incompetence before even leaving, got to California, picked up my baby, then lost a mirror in San Francisco and realized I was in the "everyone sues" country.

I immediately parked the van in the free spot where I'd spent the last night and sat with it for another night. By the way, watching the fog roll in in San Francisco is AMAZING. I made a call to the guy that was supposed to be getting the paper Title to see if it had arrived. Despite being express, it hadn't arrived, but he said it would be there the next day. I sat on the side of the beach next to the van with some chicken wings and a beer watching people swim with seals. And threw chicken bones to seagulls.

Even though there had been a bit of a SNAFU, I couldn't help but think that I was in a beautiful place.

Sunday Review: No, you don't need to repack your wheel bearings every year.

Notice: I had been doing additional reading and research well after writing this, as well as talked to some more people (these posts are usually written beforehand and then scheduled to be released). This is a very "backyard mechanic" method of maintenance. It does work, but with big caveats. If your hub rear seal is going or you pump the grease in too hard (more likely with an electric or pneumatic pump), you can blow out the rear seal and get grease on your brakes. This will ruin your brakes. If at all possible it is always best to do a full inspection on your trailer's hub and brakes with regularity, which means pulling everything apart (future post). If you have a method of tracking your trailer's mileage, it still needs to have the bearings repacked on the recommended schedule. It is especially true that a new RV should be checked properly after the first year in case of manufacturing defects (Chinesium axles), and a used RV from a private sale should be checked right away. This is all information only, based on what has worked for me. You could damage your RV if something goes wrong, and this summer I am fully pulling apart my wheel assemblies to check brake pads and replace seals. I used this method due to a difficult situation and may never use it again.

Once or twice a decade at most. (Addendum: Depending on how far you go with your trailer each year.)

How often do you get your wheel bearings repacked on your vehicle? Never, you say? Yeah, no doy.

Okay, some of you will have repacked your wheel bearings on your vehicle, but it isn't common anymore and usually you just end up buying new wheel bearings (or replacing entire knuckles). Well, the trailer is only mildly different. (Another addendum: more than mildly, they are designed differently.)

Flashback: Lyndsay's Van Life - Part 1

As I've said before, Lyndsay lived in a van and trailer for two years before we met. Her experience was very valuable helping us pick out an RV that would meet our needs. I was ready to buy a shell and do a build, but Lyndsay was insistant that we start with something liveable and useable as she'd tried to do the build path and it was quite the mess.

Let's take a trip back down memory lane a bit, to before Lyndsay and I even met. We're going back to summer of 2013. These are Lyndsay's words and her story.

Lyndsay:

Nothin' but a shell.