I bought a brand new 25 ton triple axle trailer and when I first picked it up running empty on the highway for about 45 minutes I noticed the hubs were hot. Didn't want to leave my hand on them. It was a 90 degree day. I called the dealer and they said run it. I did. about 2 weeks later I found 3 axle seals leaking one so bad that it soaked the brake pads and left oil on the mud flap. I took it back to the dealer and they replaced all seals on all 6 hubs and the brake pads on the rear axle. I am running it today with about 23000 lbs on it and I check the hubs with an infared thermometer and all hubs are about 140-150 degrees (except for the lift axle hubs they were 92 degrees) My question: is this normal? The dealer made sure no brake pads were dragging and said the drums showed no evidence of excess heat (bluing). What do you guys think?
Well 150 wouldn't worry me but It would have been interesting how hot the others were that burnt out the seals.
Preload set too tight?
What is preload?
The tightness of the bearing adjustment nut. It would be my guess as to your problem, but, if they changed the seals, they changed the preload. I hope the bearings weren't damaged, too.
How tight the bearing on set.
I ran into that pulling a brand new 8 wheel stacker to a clients gravel pit this winter. One hub I couldn't touch for more than 2 seconds. Outside temp was @ 0°F. & stacker hadn't moved in dealers yard in over a year. I carry an infared thermometer now. 150° is a safe number. Keeping in mind there is a huge heat pump right behind that hub.