We ordered one of these drums eight or so months back to replace a bad one on our trailer. My husband decided to simply rebuild the whole system so he recently ordered three more of these drums. The first drum had a glossy coating, a Lippert logo cast on the drum, and also had a specific casting design where the wheel bolts to the drum itself—small circles where the V's meet. As far as drums go, I actually found it to be rather cool looking; especially when you saw it next to one of the old drums. Anyhow, low and behold, not one of the three additional drums ordered are identical to the first. Two of them do not have Lippert information on the casting, one of them looks as though it was painted with flat black spray paint, and three of the four are cast with a different design where the wheel bolts to the drum itself— one of them has no circles, one of them has what appears to be the start of circles, and one of them has the circles but has no Lippert information on the casting.( If it hadn't been for the lack of Lippert info. cast into the drum, that particular drum would have been identical to the first drum we received.) We hope these oddities in design and finish are not a reflection on the overall product quality. That being said; all of the drums did arrive on time and in good condition, and are, according to my husband, mounting to the spindle correctly. He does however highly recommend that addition wheel bearing grease be applied to the bearings and inside the hub.(Lucas Red "N" Tacky) We have not put these drums through a road test yet, but are hoping that they perform well. We also hope they last as long as the Dexter drums that came with the trailer; that of which would now be coming up on 26 years. Not sure that we'll be around to see that, but… Hope springs eternal, or as my husband puts it, "I hope these things don't blow apart while we're motoring down a 6% grade!" OMG! It's like being married to Eeyore… Update: My husband decided to contact Lippert about the mix and match drum issue. Low and behold, after confiming the order, Mel in the Lippert CS department kindly expedited two new "matching" drums out to us — no charge. Because of this, we are bumping up our overall rating for Lippert from three stars to four stars. In our book the fourth and fifth star can only be earned by a testament to product quality, product durability, and the organizations willingness to stand behind their product if an issue with quality or durability arises. The hope is that the product received is the product expected; but then as time wears on, as does product use, that their does not become a need to contact the organization to request warranty coverage for their product. Only time will tell how well these drums hold up…but aw, what the heck, I'm going to give Lippert five stars. After all, we did receive five star customer service. And then there's my Eeyoreish husband: "Great, just great… like I don't have enough superfluous crap laying around here…!" Thank you Lippert!
