darn i dident read crappie heads post what a wast of time on my part good going on that step by step install very good info

Until the system that you are using shows it is full.

Hey, RB, we gonna go through this every year? Once or twice a year is what I would do.

There is a tool you can pick up at Auto Zone that works great for packing the bearings quickly and easily with less mess. It looks like two funnels, the bearing goes on the inside of one and the outside of the other creating a seal, there is a screw that connects to your grease gun and has a hole that is exposed inside the bearing when its locked in between the two funnels. Just pump your grease gun until the grease starts coming out of the bearing, I usually over do it a little just to be sure, then inspect to be sure the bearing is completely packed. Works quick and distributes the grease evenly. It was well worth the investment.

My rule of thumb. Jack the boat up, spin the wheel, If you hear any noise, out comes the bearings. I have pulled my boat 3 times, 200 miles north of Toronto, Canada and back without bearing failure.......

Wow, I can't believe my post is still going 2 years later!!!! Never knew I was going to end up with the most popular post award

Your post has been here a while but one little trick to check hubs for heat during a trip is to just stop after driving the first half hour or so and touch the hub (with the back of you hand first) The rim will be much hotter than hub from breaking if things are good. If the hub is as hot as the rim it could mean hidden problems on the way. Greese them on the spot if possible. Hubs with greese inserts are the way to go. I check mine every time I stop for gas and such. Its a good habbit and you will also get to know break heat from hub heat. If you coast to a stop the rim and hub should be the same temp, but who wants to do that.

Use marine grease in the tube @ wal-mart.

Thanks to all who posted here, great info which inspired me to finally tackle this overdue job on my tandem axle boat trailer.

As a first-timer, the four wheel re-pack took me over five hours, though the the biggest time consumer was wrestling with removing and re-installing the dic brake assemblies on the rear wheels of my tandem.

I only replaced the seals as my bearings and races were in good shape.

First-timers be prepared to lose three or four good shop towels and yesterdays newspaper to clean up all of the grease goop.

Glad I finally decided to tackle this project as now I'm intimately familiar with how to tear down and re-build a trailer hub.

I'll only add two things, and this is just basically adding to what others have already said...

1) If you have room to store your boat, you have room to check and repack your bearings. There is NO excuse for not learning how to do this yourself.

2) Do not overpack the bearings!!!

3) If you have not recently used your boat (i.e., it has been in storage) for more than 6 months, check the bearings. Sitting in one spot over time can have damaging effects too.

Todd

I read most of the posts. I was wondering how you can remove th buddy bearing so that you do not damage the hub. I want to repack the bearings but I won't be able to remove the outside bearing. Is this right? Any one got any suggestions?

Get yourself a small rubber mallet ($2.99), and gently tap all around the outside of those Bearing Buddy's, and they'll start to wallow out and off of the hub.

From there, you can gently continue to pry them the rest of the way off.

If they are old and slightly corroded, you might consider tapping on a new pair of Bearing Buddy's ($25.00)

Once the BB's are off, you can access removing the cotter pin which holds your hub nut in place.

You'll want to have a few replacement cotter pins as straightenening them to remove oftentimes breaks them, no big deal as they're pretty cheap. Make sure you have the proper size cotter pins to replace as cotter pins come in all sizes and lengths.

Remove the pin, and unscrew the hub nut, voila, you can now pull the hub assembly off and get down to the messy part!

thanks fishmagnet

I have bearing buddies on my jon boat trailer. Put the grease gun on and filled them up. Noticed old grease seeping out the back side of the hubs by the axle. On one side there's a metal ring that got pushed out and grease coming out all around it.

Guess I pumped too much grease in? I thought you could pump in new grease and it was designed to push out the old...am I dead wrong?

I have one bearing buddy that is slinging grease and the grese looks gray. What to do?
The hub is not hot after towing.