How often should you repack the wheel bearings on a pop-up camper?

Answered by RV Parts Giant · Upland, CA · October 3, 2026

Short answer: Once a year, regardless of miles. Pop-ups and A-frames sit for months and then do a long trip loaded, so the calendar runs out long before the odometer does. Before you order parts, read the numbers stamped on the old cones: most pop-ups run a 2,000 lb or 3,500 lb axle, and the two take different bearings.

Once a year, whatever the odometer says

A pop-up does few miles, so it is easy to assume the bearings can wait. They cannot. Pop-ups and A-frames spend most of the year parked, then do one long trip fully loaded, and the running gear is the last thing anyone looks at. That pattern is exactly why the interval is yearly, regardless of miles. Do it in spring, before the first trip, not after the camper has sat all season on old grease.

Repack straight away, whatever the date, if a hub ran hot or you bought the camper without a service history. Our answer on how often to service trailer bearings and brakes covers those early triggers.

Know which bearings you have first

Small campers run one of a few spindle classes, and the pop-up's brand does not tell you which. The axle plate does, or the numbers stamped on the small face of the old cones.

Axle	Drum or hub	Inner	Outer	Seal
2,000 lb	Idler hub, often no drum	L44649 / L44610	L44649 / L44610	1.50 in ID
3,500 lb	10-inch drum	L68149 / L68111	L44649 / L44610	10-19

Most A-frames and pop-ups are on one of these two. For the 3,500 lb axle, our 10-inch Timken kit covers one hub: both cones, their races and the seal. For the 2,000 lb axle, where inner and outer are the same L44649 bearing, we do not stock a matching kit; the 10-inch kit shares only the outer. Send us the numbers and we will tell you straight. Hubs with no axle at all are covered in our Timbren axle-less hub lookup.

While the hub is off

Fit a new cotter pin on every hub, and a sealing hubcap if the old one is loose or dented.
Look behind the hub. A plate with four bolt holes around the spindle is a brake flange. Many 2,000 lb axles on light campers were built without brakes. If yours has electric drum brakes, they are sized by drum diameter and handed left and right, and a matched pair replaces one axle.
Follow the full procedure, including setting preload, in our Timken repack guide.

Carry one hub's worth

A pop-up that sits and then goes far should carry one hub's worth of bearings and seals, a cotter pin and a hubcap. Send us the axle plate or a photo of the stamped cone numbers and we will confirm the kit. Everything ships from Upland, California.