Here is another.02 worth about grease in hubs. If they are inspected, cleaaned and repacked by hand once a year with new seals you should never have a problem. Two things will make grease leak out. To much preasure from being over greased. And water getting past the seal. If water gets inside the hub and heats up it creates preasure that will force grease past the seal. The secret is not to over grease and make sure that your seals are good. Should be replaced every time you pull a hub. A couple of bucks for a seal is a lot better than having your trailer on the side of the road with a bare axle while you run to get bearings replaced.

Not sure about this, but will the heat from driving really deform hardened steel? Your hubs should never be too hot to touch after driving, if they are then you got a problem before you ever put it in the water.

Some water is bound to penetrate the seals anyway. The spindle looks & feels smooth but under a microscope it'd look like the rocky mountains. Thing is, grease can absorb a bit of water without breaking down. If you continually submerged your truck hubs they wouldn't last forever either - it's different from getting rained on or driving through puddles where the centrifugal force throws water off.

Bearing buddies use grease under pressure to help keep water out, as mentioned, just don't overfill. They also also let you add grease to the hub if you discover a leaky seal after you get to the lake - don't let trailer maintenance interfere with your fishing!

Never reuse a rear seal.
Never install new bearings into old races - replace both or neither.
If you reuse, keep the bearings & races together - they mate for life.
Any discoloration or pitting on the spindle will interfere with a good seal - polish it with emory cloth until it's completely clean.

True that is not a far trip but I would add a little bit about every 5 trips. Itis no where near the work you will have if one of the bearings locks up on the side of the highway. It is no fun and that is from experience. Just make sure the bra covers are tight. I have never been able to find the right size for my boat so they throw grease all over the rims. Finally I had to zip tie them.

Wow, can't believe this post is still alive and well. I posted this question originally last year. Guess it was a good one... Go Post! Go Post! Good info from everyone, thanks again!!!!!!!!

"previously jtc30"
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Well since you started this, you could at least tell us what you found out in all this time...
Just how often ,do you grease those buddies...

Any one know anyone around the DFW area that repacks and does these? Any ballpark on what they charge? I haven't done any of this stuff before and really dont have much time or a place to do this at. Any info would be appreciated.

I asked North Texas Fiberglass about this and he referred me to Lakeview Marina.

I had my neighbor show me how to replace and repack the bearings on my trailer. It IS easy, but there is no way in Hades I could have done it with out his help the first time.

It's a real good idea NOT to use a high pressure grease gun (like what you'll find at most service facilities)...like they're sayin', keep a hand operated grease gun close by, and avoid blowing out the rear seal(s).

Crappie Terrorist- be VERY careful having your bearings packed in a shop. Always keep in mind that your average joe mechanic went through an 8 week certification course where they were taught to pack bearings in a cone shaped vise with a high pressure gun. Make sure the bearings are hand packed by someone who knows what they are doing. In my experience, you have to find a mechanic who is either out of the military, or who has been around for at least 20 years. Those are the only ones that have been taught properly.

Bearing buddy or not, with proper routine maintenance your bearings should not offer any problems. Don't wait for a problem to look at your bearings.

Check out this site, best I've seen on wheel bearings.
http://users.westco.net/~tandjlm/berring.htm

Crappie Head...that is an awsome post ( the wheel bearing site) Thanks for doing the homework!

Leonardo...Your welcome. I found that site several years ago and was impressed by the detail of everything you wanted to know about wheel bearings.
I have followed his instructions several times. Several years ago my buddy and I were going camping/fishing at Lake Whitney. We lost a trailer wheel on a bridge near Cleburne at 8:00 at night. Don't want to do that again.

Is it normal for it to have no flat washer between the outer bearing and the axle nut when bearing buddies are used?

I just moved from Texarkana to Waxahachie. I got to Rockwall and sparks were coming from my passenger side boat trailer tire. Those sparks were my spindle and bearings going out and getting chewed up. The hub was glowing red hot. Good thing I stopped when I did, otherwise I would have lost that tire. I am a newbie to boating and just thought I would wait until I got to the DFW area and get someone to help me repack the bearings and show me the ropes. Needless to say , I didn't make it. I had to get a guy to come out and put new bearings and race back on the hub.

I am afraid I may have to buy a new axle as well.
Terrible lessoned learned.

So point is, if you can repack or buy bearing buddies, go for it. A little trouble now is worth it, trust me. I would do it at least three times a year.

Doesn't the latest issue of Bassmaster's have a complete guide to trailer bearings in it? Did I dream I read that yesterday? I can't seem ti find the magazine right now.


I have to agree with the "hand pack 'em" crowd. Bearing buddies do place a positive pressure on the seal. When you tow the trailer, the grease within the seals does heat up and expand. If you overpump the buddies, there's no room for any expansion and you blow the seals. The result is you have grease spun all over the backside of the wheel and you have to pump more grease every trip to keep them full. The upside to that is you're keeping fresh grease in the system. The downside to that is you're setting yourself up for a failure.


Not everyone is mechanically-inclined so I don't judge anyone based on how they grease their bearings. For myself, I fully endorse the hand packing method the way my dad taught me when I was about 10 years old. Towing back and forth into Canada every summer, and not the first problem. I figure he either had the right idea, or he was one lucky fella. If you don't know how to do it, take it to a reputable marine shop and ask them to let you watch as they do it. Most likely, the shop mechanic will be thrilled you're interested in learning and for once you're not looking down at him like he ain't worth your time. We can all learn a lot from each other if we just bury our pride from time to time.

Nope.

What Mike Halfmann says for sure!

Just my .02 having a 90 model Skeeter with trailer with old style bearing buddies:

Once a year, take it to the wheel shop and have them pull, inspect, and hand pack bearings. After that about every third trip (approx 100 miles in my case) add grease just until the buddy hub moves out a tad. Anything more is a waste.

The big deal with it is that the bearings heat up during the tow. When you back down into water that may be as much as 40 degrees cooler, the bearings contract pulling in water. The bearing buddies keep positive pressure on bearings that keep water out. Thats a big deal. Grease is cheap insurance. Don't over do it but keep it just a tad overloaded.

Again, just my .02

What happens when hot metal is hit with water........steam baby steam.

So your driving in the summer with the tarmac @ ~ 110-120 degrees F, or more, stop, get the boat ready and then plunge the trailer into the water. If you don't keep the hubs full of grease that will move the water out/protect the spindle/bearings/races you will be in a pile of trouble.

Probably left a few steps out but it's late.

I shoot my buddies with a little insurance grease about every other month. I've seen too many horse/cattle/boat trailers on the side of the road to not keep this a high priority.



Dan

Hubs should never get too hot to touch. If they're hot enough to produce steam when it's 120º, they'd burn the [censored] out of you on a 50º day - it'll take more than a little grease to solve your problems.

Waiting 15 minutes usually isn't a problem. There is usually that long of a wait in line at the boat ramp. Waiting makes sense.

I think you kind of have to look at the quality of your trailer to begin with. If you have a n older or lower quality trailer you may have to do more maintenance. My first trailer didn't have bearing buddies, so I just gave them a couple of slow pumps until I felt pressure every 3 months or so and never had any problems for 8 years.

The only boat trailer I've ever had problems with had a set of bearing buddies that I kept pumped up. The rear seals had blown out (due to my filling them all the time) and that caused problems.

That was 15 years ago and I've never used a grease gun since. Not one bearing related failure and I've pulled all kinds of trailers. I have mine serviced annually and leave them alone. No reason to pump grease in if grease hasn't come out. It doesn't melt or otherwise go anywhere, so adding grease only displaces grease. That is the cause of most problems. I inspect mine during and after each trip. If I see grease on the inside of a wheel, I've blown a seal and have it serviced. If not, I run it a full season and do nothing other than inspect it.

Another topic along the same lines is going on here:

http://bbcboards.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=158967

Rick Pierce of BassCat Boats is the responder "BCB".

I posted in another section yesterday about trailer bearings before reading this, and now have another question. Bear with me, first time boat owner and first time on the maintenance.

My trailer has bearing buddies on them. At one time, there was a black "cover" over them and one cover fell off on the left/driver's side. I looked at the bearing buddies website and it seems that this may have just been a "bearing buddy bra." If so, would the bearing buddies being exposed cause any problems, or is that normal? The website states that the cover is there just to help keep grease from getting on the tires and trailer.

And secondly, I haven't put grease in the bearing buddies and need to. Would a grease gun kit at Wal-Mart from the sporting goods/marine section work fine, or do I need something special?

Arsonal-no, not having the bra on the bearing buddy is not a problem. They are mainly there to keep crud off the BB.

A grease gun from WalMart will work fine. Make sure you gat calcium grease instead of lithium grease. Lithium grease is white where calcium grease looks like motor oil.

just curious....what is wrong with lithium grease?

never had one go bad. I grease 'em about twice a year, make about 25 trips of about 150 mi. each per year. use marine grade grease and keep them full.