Busted trailer bearing?

Ouch! Haven't had the boat for a week and the bearing is busted on the right side. My hunch says it happened on the way home from lewisville and a nice fella hopped out of his car at a busy stop light to tell me it was smoking about halfway home. Never really got up to a high speed on the way home either so I think I'm clear of any extensive damage such as the bearing melting and welding itself. My lovely wife brought me a grease gun and I pumped it about 45 times, not even enough to pop the seal. No smoking or leaking the rest of the way home. I'll pop the wheels off this weekend and replace the bearings and pack em with new grease and hope that's all I see that's needed when I do so. Just glad it was caught early! And I am thankful for the guy doing me a solid and letting me know about the smoking!!! Whew!

If it was smoking, I wouldnt exactly say you caught it early. Good luck on it.

If spindle has grooves & is blued from heat you should replace it. Hopefully when you pull old seals & bearings off you can use some emery cloth to "dress" spindle up:smooth it up, clean. Then put new packed bearings & seals in hub & be on your way. Check the others for play too.

I say early because the inside of the rim had a few fresh drip spots (maybe from sitting at the ramp parking) and fresh splatter from the wheel spinning. It's all dried up now so it had to have happened that day. Once the grease is expelled it wouldn't take long to smoke and it certainly wouldn't take long to heat up enough to cause real damage that even I would have noticed on my own while pulling.

Wow, sorry about your trouble there HT. O'Reillys has trailer hubs for about $30 each for a full hub. I carry two in my tow vehicle now just in case. One night I was coming home with four kids under 10 in the car and had one go. Luckily I was able to drag it 5mph for 4 miles off the highway to the nearest auto parts store and change it in the alley. Not sure if I spent more time changing the hub or swatting the skeeters. They were the size of lawn darts. Not fun at all.

Might want to change out the Races also....

Races, spindle, even bearings were in good shape. Just looks like the seal was unseated. Went ahead and replaced the bearings and seals and packed it all with new grease. Good as new! A tire is out of round though so gonna have to replace that! Lol

good deal. Glad you got it going again.

I was taught to replace races every time I put in bearings. If they got hot I surely would.

Before each season jack up each tire and spin it as fast as you can by hand and listen to the hub, if there is something amiss inside you will be able to hear it.

Yep, once a wear pattern is established, it cannot be copied. It will accelerate the wear on the new bearing when they are not replaced together.

The racers were in perfect condition.

Let me guess you had a micrometer and measured them right?

Go with these hubs.

[img]http://www.trailerpartsdepot.com/p-3838-trailer-hub-1-3-8-tie-down-vortex-81022-5-lug.aspx[/img]

Have them!

Is that the model/style that failed?

Nothing failed, per se. The bearing seal just apparently got unseated. No damage to anything. Hubs are fine.

6yr., 100K warranty.

Good to know. Thanks!