A PCS move is the hardest tow most trailers ever do. The date is fixed, the route is long, the trailer is loaded heavier than ever, and more often than not it has sat on one spot at a storage lot for two or three years since the last set of orders.
The advice that ranks for this search is thin. The most visible article for military families moving with a travel trailer covers FamCamp eligibility, base access, a paperwork binder, insurance, weight limits and tires. It never mentions bearings, brakes, the breakaway system or the batteries, and those are what strand people on I-40.
Start four weeks out, not four days
Everything below has a parts lead time attached. Four weeks gives you time to pull a hub, find out what you actually have, order the right part and still fit it before the truck comes.
1. Bearings, repacked with fresh seals
This is the most common cause of a trailer sitting on the shoulder. A bearing that has sat unturned for two years has grease that has separated and a seal that has taken a set.
Pull each hub. Clean everything out, inspect the races for pitting, brinelling or bluing, pack each bearing by hand until grease comes through the wide side, and fit a new seal and a new cotter pin. Never top up over old grease or mix greases. If a race looks marked at all, replace the set. Our repack and replace walkthrough has the full sequence.
We stock Timken kits in two sizes: small bearings for 10 inch drums and big bearings for 12 inch drums. Match the numbers stamped on your old cones and cups before ordering, and use the kit-by-axle-rating guide if you are unsure.
2. Brake shoes and magnets
The hubs are already off, so look at the brakes while you are in there.
Check lining thickness and that both sides wore evenly. Check the magnet face for grooves, flat spots or exposed windings, because a worn magnet will grab or fade. Check the magnet wiring where it flexes at the backing plate, which is where it chafes through. Grease on the lining means the inner seal failed and the assembly is finished.
Replace brakes in axle pairs, never one side. Our electric trailer brake pair is the complete assembly with the magnet, and the brake drum hub ships fully greased with two bearings if the drum is scored. If the brakes feel wrong on the road, our weak or grabbing brakes guide has the causes.
3. The breakaway switch and its battery
Almost everyone skips this, and it is the part a roadside inspection will find.
The breakaway battery is a small sealed lead-acid cell on the A-frame, trickle charged from the auxiliary 12 volt circuit while you tow. After two years in storage with no charge it is usually dead, and nothing on the dash tells you so.
Test it before you leave. Pull the pin with the trailer chocked and the tow vehicle disconnected, then check the magnets are drawing current. A test light on the pin only proves the switch closed, not that the battery can hold the brakes on. Our breakaway test procedure is the version to follow.
If it will not hold a charge, replace the kit rather than the cell. The CURT 12V breakaway kit comes with the battery and an LED test light, and the battery care guide covers the next storage period.
4. Tires, and their age
Tread depth is the least important thing about a stored trailer tire. Age and flat-spotting are what matter.
Read the DOT code on the sidewall: the last four digits are the week and year of manufacture, so 2721 is the 27th week of 2021. Common industry guidance is to replace trailer tires at five to seven years old regardless of tread, and a tire that has carried a loaded trailer on one spot for two years has been working the whole time. Check the inner sidewall as well as the outer for cracking, and inflate cold to the trailer's placard pressure, not the number molded on the tire. Check the spare too. It is the one nobody inflates. Our trailer tire buying guide covers load range and speed rating.
5. Lights and the 7-pin
Name the circuits by what they do. On a US round 7-pin connector, ground is white, tail and running lights are brown, left turn and brake is yellow, right turn and brake is green, electric brakes are blue, the auxiliary 12 volt feed is black, and reverse is purple.
Have someone walk the trailer while you work the truck: running lights, left, right, brake, reverse. Check the brake circuit with the controller, and check the auxiliary feed is live, because that is what charges the breakaway battery. Corrosion in the plug is the usual fault after storage, and it shows up as lights that work until you hit a bump. Our 7-pin troubleshooting guide covers intermittents, and a 7-way plug cord with junction box is a cheap fix for a corroded one.
6. Coupler, chains and hitch
Check the coupler latch closes fully on the ball and locks, and that the ball size stamped on the coupler matches the truck's ball. Grease the ball. Check the safety chains for stretched links, worn hooks and missing latches, and that they are rated for the loaded trailer weight. Cross them under the coupler so they cradle it. Check the A-frame welds and coupler bolts while you are down there.
7. Weight and tongue weight
Read the placard for GVWR, then weigh the loaded trailer at a public scale. A PCS load is not a camping load, and household goods put people over the axle rating without noticing.
Tongue weight changes handling. The usual guidance for a conventional ball-coupler trailer is 10 to 15 percent of the loaded weight on the ball, and too little is what starts a sway. If you put heavy items behind the axle to lighten the tongue, move them forward.
What to carry as spares
- A bearing and seal set for your size, cotter pins, and a tub of the grease you packed with.
- An inflated spare, a lug wrench that fits the trailer's lug nuts, and a jack rated for the trailer.
- Spare bulbs or LED units, a length of wire and crimps.
- A spare breakaway battery or the complete kit.
- A torque wrench, and the habit of retorquing the lug nuts after the first 50 miles.
Our spares list for off-road campers covers the wider kit.
Charging a lithium trailer battery on a long tow
Do not expect the truck's 7-pin to charge a lithium trailer battery on the way. The auxiliary 12 volt circuit is fused low, the wire run is long, and a lithium battery sits at a voltage close to whatever reaches it, so the current falls to almost nothing. That circuit was designed to keep a breakaway battery and a lead-acid house battery topped up.
A DC-DC charger near the trailer battery fixes it. It boosts whatever the truck delivers, charges the lithium properly, and isolates the trailer so a flat battery cannot pull the truck's battery down overnight. The Orion XS lets you set the input limit below the truck's fuse, a SmartShunt shows what is going in, and the battery end needs a proper fuse such as a MEGA fuse. Our 7-pin lithium charging guide has the full explanation, truck by truck.
Military discount
MILITARY10 gives 10 percent off, and it covers RV parts and accessories but not Victron products.
Before you hitch up
Walk it once more: lug nuts torqued, hubs cool after the first stop, brake controller tested at low speed, breakaway pin secured to the truck and not to the safety chains, chains crossed, plug seated, spare inflated.
Send us the drum size, the lug pattern and your departure date, and we will tell you what to order and whether it lands in time. Everything ships from Upland, California.