Maverick Campers Operations Manual 2021
W H E E L B E A R I N G S
Call it nostalgia if you like, but wheel bearings are still front and centre for the maintenance of your camper. These are
designed to keep the wheels rolling smoothly on the axles, over corrugations, through water, deep dust, in baking heat
and freezing cold, crawling along a narrow track or at 110kmh along the motorway. They cop a fair bit and so need to be
looked after.
For those who do a series of small trips up or down the coast, out to your favourite camp ground a few hundred
kilometres away from home, then they need to be looked at about once a year. Pick a quiet time of year, when you’re
unlikely to be camping, and do it then. Try to choose some regularly recurring event – a birthday, holiday, anniversary –
that will trigger your memory and work to get it done about then.
If you’re off on one of those dream trips that you will remember for the rest of your life and will involve 10,000km or
more then give them a look over before you go, and then after you get home do it again. It may seem a nuisance but it’s
got to be better than kneeling in the dirt on the side of a track with dust blowing around trying to keep things clean and
dealing with solvents, grease and tools.
The process isn’t onerous, as long as you can stand having grease on your hands and requires only about an hour per
side and basic tools – screwdriver, hammer, pliers, large shifter spanner, old paint brush and bowl and a solvent and
replacement split pins, unless you find a damaged bearing in the process. If the latter occurs, then simply grab one from
the spare pair of bearings which you, as a well-equipped camper owner, carry at all times.
If you’re uncertain of the process, there are a number of how-to videos on YouTube or similar.
As an ongoing theme, every time you stop on a trip, whether to look at the landscape, get some fuel or buy a coffee,
walk past the camper, and place the palm of your hand lightly on the hub at the centre of the wheel. Expect it to feel
warm to the touch, but not so hot that you can’t touch it. If the latter, then you have a serious problem that needs fixing
before the whole bearing goes into meltdown and welds itself to the axle.
PLEASE NOTE – IF YOU KNOW THE BEARINGS ARE
,
OR
ARE BECOMING,
VERY HOT,
STOP-
YOU WILL CAUSE
EXTRA DAMAGE WITH ANY FURTHER TRAVEL. YOU WILL ALSO JE
OPARDISE
YOUR AND
OTHERS
SAFETY.
SEEK I
MMEDIATE
ASSISTANCE AND THEN GET IT REPAIRED.
S H O C K A B S O R B E R S
A scarce item on early camper trailers, but now to be found on them all, shock absorbers are one item that cops a tough
item. They are pummelled by stones, heated beyond endurance on long stretches of corrugations (the constant
hammering generates intense internal heat) and have their mounting bushes pushed to collapse.
There is no specific schedule of maintenance here, but before any major trip get underneath and take a good look. Signs
of oozing fluid down the sides, dented outer bodies and any ability to be able to shake or rattle the upper or lower
mounting points (which means the bushes are worn out) means a fix is due. And if they were okay to start a major trip,
check them after you get home to see how they’ve done.
Even if you’re not going away on any major journeys make it part of that annual maintenance, when doing the bearings,
to give them a thorough check over. Don’t imagine that worn shock absorbers are something you can live with.
