While riding in NC in October we noticed that the rear end felt loose so we stopped. After diagnosing it we felt that the rear wheel bearing was out of it. We towed it, now we were in Highlands NC and it had to be towed to Seneca SC. It goes without saying that being on the road and having any trouble is challenging.

Given that we had 26.5K miles on it I was surprised that the bearing burned up and ended up taking the hub with it. I am not trying to throw the dealer under the bus but to learn something here. We had the rear tire replaced at 19k and I feel that the bearing could have been starting to show wear at that point but I wasn't there. After talking to the dealer in Seneca it sounded as if sometimes the roll test doesn't show a bad bearing, and although they didn't say it, they did indicate it was unusual to have one fail at this mileage but not so out of the norm that it was a concern.

After we had the issue I saw threads of folks indicating that you should change them whenever the tire is changed or every other time depending on the mileage, now my question is, anyone else seeing this issue? When talking to my LD friends, most of them stated that sealed bearings just do not have enough grease in them from the factory.

Most of the miles are two-up and pulling the can-am 622 trailer.

Looking back I believe we saw signs but didn't know or understand what they could mean:

1) In May I noticed that if I put any pressure on the hitch I would get a squeak or crunch sound, at the time I felt it was just the hitch and didn't pay any additional attention other than to confirm that the hitch was secure. I do not recall hearing it prior to May, however we did have the tired replaced in April. After having the bearings replaced, this squeak or crunch is no longer present.
2) After a long ride when disconnecting the trailer I would get a quick whiff of hot grease - given that we just road somewhere between 300 - 500 miles I didn't think anything of it especially given I didn't see any leaking or evidence of it on the wheel. After the bearing was replaced we haven't ridden enough to see if this smell still continues.

I am sharing the above just in case it helps someone, frustrating as it may have been, we consider ourselves pretty luck that we didn't have a major accident given we were running around on the mountain roads of NC.