By Dustin Simpson
I wanted to share this as a reminder if you own a towable unit to check and see if you have wet bolts or grease Zerks on your RV suspension.
How often should your RV suspension be lubricated? Well, if your unit is so equipped, you should be lubricating the Zerk every 6 months or 6,000 miles. Keep in mind that there is a total of 14 grease Zerks, 7 on each side of a towable chassis with a MORryde CRE3000 system.
There is a total of 16 grease Zerks, 8 on each side of a towable chassis with a Dexter E-Z Flex system.
Bushing installation video.
Typically, when a bolt won’t take grease, you can remedy the situation by jacking up the trailer by the frame, which unloads the axle, springs and bushing. Then, it should take grease pretty easily. I have one bolt on my unit that I always need to grease with this method. You may have to rotate the position of the bolt until it will take grease.
All of you with new trailers and 5th wheels that come with the wet bolts should immediately try to grease up the wet bolts before your first trip. If a bolt doesn’t take grease, you can rotate the bolt by turning it in the tightening direction.
Hopefully, this gives you some basic understanding and a quick reminder to lube your towable suspension.
Here are some related tools and products to help for the DIY crew:
• Grease Gun with Heavy Duty Pistol Grip and 18-inch flex hose.
• All Purpose Grease, 2-Pack 14 Oz. tubes.
• Grease Gun Coupler locks onto Zerk fittings.
• 8-Piece Quick Connect Greasing Accessory Kit.
• Grease Buster, this cleans and flushes out old dried grease from fittings, pins, shafts, bushings, and joints.
• CRC BRAKLEEN Brake Parts Cleaner
• Shop Towels Red Rags, 50 Pack
• MORryde UO12-016 Heavy Duty Shackle Upgrade Kit, CRE3000 Tandem Axle
• Heavy Duty Shackle Upgrade Kit for CRE3000, Stock and Equaflex 2.25″ Shackles
More from Dustin
Read more of Dustin’s articles here.
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RVDT2690
First thing anyone who buys any trailer needs to do is take it to a reputable alignment shop and have the axles checked for alignment and proper camber, along with upgrading all the shackles and bolts. You won’t be sorry as long as you grease the wet bolts with a good quality grease like Lucas Red & Tacky. Also if you have a powered grease gun…keep it away from trailer hubs…unless you want to buy new brakes. Hand grease only.
Thank you, Dustin! Those zerk-fitting coupler locks look like a great thing for those instances where one cannot get both hands into an area to hold the grease gun on the fitting. Have a great day and safe travels!
Dustin, on your comment “If a bolt doesn’t take grease, you can rotate the bolt by turning it in the tightening direction”. Some wet bolts have a short knurled area next to the head that is drawn into the fixed point (hangers & shackles) to keep them from rotating. You have to remove the nut and back the bolt out about 3/8″ turn it. My CRE3000 is an example of this. fyi
I have a 2024 Tandara with the CRE3000 suspension without wet bolts. What’s up with that? Your article implies that the CRS3000 have wet bolts. Did I get an inferior version??