I did that on my boat trailer instead of replacing all the bearings , race etc . But the ones I bought still needed to be packed, which I liked , I knew they were done right
For those who know trailer wheel bearings
- Thread starter Evan B
- Start date
I did that on my boat trailer instead of replacing all the bearings , race etc . But the ones I bought still needed to be packed, which I liked , I knew they were done right
What up2nogood said.
If you do use Bearing Buddies always and I mean always, use a cap. It helps to form an outside seal to the bearings, race and inside seal. Done properly you’ll really have to reef on the cap when warm to pull them off…suction due to grease expanding when warm.
When checking the buddy seal you see grease being thrown there’s too much grease, which can be as bad as too little.
It’s the American male way: if a little is good a shitload is better! NOT.
When you get to the ramp, especially after a long drive, be patient, don’t dunk your boat without hand checking the hub for extreme heat by hand. Nothing good happens when dropping a hot hub in cold water.
I deliver boats ranging up to 30’ from Maine to the Gulf Coast and most new higher end trailer manufacturers use sealed hubs with torsion bar axles. I dunk some for sea trials, drop and leave, or dry offload but always hand check the bearings.
Every stop, day or night, rain or shine.
Ditto on the Lucas Red. Best I’ve found, a little harder to work with, but handles the heat very very well.
up2nogood, you mean I’ve got this grayish black indelible stain in my left palm when after all these years of hand packing bearings I could have spent a 20 and had hands like a new born?
Just sayin, I’ve used those packers for quite some time and they are gold if you’re into doing it right.
Gentlemen, and ladies, prepare to get your hands dirty!
I couldn't tell you how many bearings I have packed with that packer ,now not sure what you mean doing it right . I can only guess which position you have the bearing inside the packer , seems self explanatory to me . Have never tried them one way or the other ,I always position them the same way in the packer , not sure if there is any instructions on how to use them, I would have to think there is . It's been too long to remember . But It's obvious when using the packer ,and seeing the grease push out, from inside , as that happens there is as much grease as you possibly can get in a bearing. Also it will tell you as soon as that grease starts to push out how well you cleaned that bearing ,you will see the old grease push out.
I know there are probably many that think hand packing is the only way, I was certainly one ,until an old guy years ago told me about them, had no idea. You couldn't get me to hand pack a bearing now . Proof is always in the pudding . I have packed car haulers ,fifth wheels ,many boat trailers ,utility trailers , box trailers , not a bearing failure in the bunch .
Preload is important on tapered roller wheel bearings, I could get into the real sophisticated way using a torque wrench , preload to a certain value ,back off retorque to a certain value ,but not sure how many do that. I have always snugged them up while turning the hub ,and then backing them off , and retightening to a feel , with no play. Don't know how many times I have been caught in-between what I like , and not being able to get the cotter pin in . I usually error on the side of a bit more loose than tight , just depends on whether it creates any slop . If there is I will go a bit tight , then run them to see how warm they get .
What I found over the years ,use a quality grease ,inspect the bearings ,and race for any issues , new seals , and pack ,and preload properly , and you are good to go . Thats why that video is terrible, and hopefully no one follows that . I have seen some YouTube videos that were bad ,and that one ranks right among the top ones .
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I may have typed a phrase incorrectly but you are spot on. The packers are a great tool. I was referencing the dark ages method whereby you load a handful of grease in your off hand and press the bearing into the grease while watching 2 episodes of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, and drinking 3 or 4 warm PBRs. To reiterate the packers are “gold” along with your info and sorry for any confusion; time to get to work.
No worries ,just didn't quite know what you meant . Hopefully some have gotten a little better idea on packing wheel bearings . It's actually a pretty simple task.
Perhaps I missed it somewhere but what is the frequency that you use to repack bearings? Miles? Once a year?
Knock on wood, I have bearing buddies on my pram trailer. When I got the trailer, it had been sitting for a decade so I did clean the bearings and repack (by hand) and then pumped the bearing buddy zert until the plate started to move. That's when I became aware of the "cavity" between the back and front bearings - seems like a waste of good marine grease that serves no purpose (other than maybe not a resrvoir for water if water were to get into the bearings and that cavity).
Thanks in advance./Patrick
Old school here. I only have 2 wheels on my trailer to deal with, hardly worth the effort of getting out a bearing packer. The packer can waste a lot of grease and has to be kept dust and dirt free after use-again, hardly worth the effort. If I was doing production packing I would use a packer but for a single trailer hand packing is plenty good enough.
The Bearing Buddy seems to lend itself to overfilling with the grease eventually finding it's way out as the temperature rises. It seems like a lot of guys idea of bearing maintenance with the Buddies is to just squirt a little more grease in every spring and call it good enough. There is no substitute for doing it right to begin with, fresh rear seals are critical and high quality BTG (boat trailer grease) is essential.
I think the bulk of trailer bearing failures are a result of over tightening, not necessarily poor lubrication. Error on the side of loose rather than worry about a tiny bit of slack.
When servicing bearings-which is rare-I start with new seals and then clean the entire hub of any existing grease and wash out the bearings and check for pitting or corrosion. I clean bearings with mineral spirits then rinse any residue with denatured alcohol. This eliminates any surface residue from the mineral spirits and provides a better surface for the grease to adhere to. My current trailer hasn't had bearing service in about 12 years but the hubs are seldom in the water. The one thing I always do is check the hubs every time I stop the truck, I have never felt one be even warm and until I do I'm leaving it alone.
The Bearing Buddy seems to lend itself to overfilling with the grease eventually finding it's way out as the temperature rises. It seems like a lot of guys idea of bearing maintenance with the Buddies is to just squirt a little more grease in every spring and call it good enough. There is no substitute for doing it right to begin with, fresh rear seals are critical and high quality BTG (boat trailer grease) is essential.
I think the bulk of trailer bearing failures are a result of over tightening, not necessarily poor lubrication. Error on the side of loose rather than worry about a tiny bit of slack.
When servicing bearings-which is rare-I start with new seals and then clean the entire hub of any existing grease and wash out the bearings and check for pitting or corrosion. I clean bearings with mineral spirits then rinse any residue with denatured alcohol. This eliminates any surface residue from the mineral spirits and provides a better surface for the grease to adhere to. My current trailer hasn't had bearing service in about 12 years but the hubs are seldom in the water. The one thing I always do is check the hubs every time I stop the truck, I have never felt one be even warm and until I do I'm leaving it alone.
Not having a great amount of experience with boat trailers , but I would think if the tires are getting in the water up to the hubs , and frequently like a few days a week or weekly I’d probably keep an eye on them to make sure they are not getting too warm , check every time I used the trailer . I checked my little 1 axle pontoon trailer on the way to Montana this summer in 90-100 degrees, and they were no warmer then if they were sitting . But they don’t get in the water when I back down to put the pontoon in .
I’d be curious to see how often say a fishing guide who puts his trailer in the water many times a week how often they get done . As said I’d be checking them every time out , at least feeling them . IMO some obviously get neglected, and others get it done probably more often than needed . I hear once a year on bearings from some , I don’t belong to that group, but I don’t do a lot of miles either . IMO is comes down to a usage thing , once a year may be needed for some.
My fifth wheel doesn’t get a lot of miles, I’ll do them every 3-4 years , but like on all my trailers they get checked pretty frequently when traveling, plus the fifth wheel has the pressure , and temperature monitors on them .
Well we belong to the same school, but for the use of the bearing packer , as often as I use it , it gets used whether it’s one bearing or a dozen. I’m pretty old school at nearly 75 years old .
Once the first bearing is done , not much waste , not that I’m concerned , the cavity is full , and I use the grease that comes out of the bearing to put on the spindles and a bit around the bearings once they are in place . I don’t get any old grease coming out when I’m thru cleaning a bearing .
I did get a kick out of your cleaning that packer , never gave it a thought
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Thanks for sharing your experience. Most of my trips are an hour or maybe a tad longer but I do make an annual round trip to BC that's about seven hours each way. I check the hubs when I stop, so far so good each and every time. For the hour plus "local" trips, the trailer wheels get submerged; if I was a younger, bigger, stronger person, I suppose I could stop short and carry the boat to the water but that's why it's on a trailer in the first place because I can't lift and carry the boat by myself.
A related question, maybe. We obsess about our trailer bearings, but I have never given the bearings on my car a single thought. Why aren’t we doing our car bearings every so often? Is it just the water, but then why are folks wound up about other kinds of trailer bearings?
Car bearings are often done professionally whereas trailer bearings are usually done by DIY'rs, shade tree mechanics and rank amateurs. If you watch some of the how-to vids on YouTube you will quickly realize that there is a ton of bullshit information out there. Some of those cretins making videos don't know their ass from a hot rock. So be careful about the advice you get online, if it doesn't seem right it probably isn't.
That being said there are some very good tutorials out there that can save a ton of frustration and make the job much simpler. Just beware of grubby guys using beat up or improper tools for the job. Any bearing work demands absolute cleanliness, any contamination will shorten the life of the bearing.
That being said there are some very good tutorials out there that can save a ton of frustration and make the job much simpler. Just beware of grubby guys using beat up or improper tools for the job. Any bearing work demands absolute cleanliness, any contamination will shorten the life of the bearing.
Many vehicle bearings are sealed assemblies these days.
Per up2nogood:
I’d be curious to see how often say a fishing guide who puts his trailer in the water many times a week how often they get done . As said I’d be checking them every time out , at least feeling them . IMO some obviously get neglected, and others get it done probably more often than needed . I hear once a year on bearings from some , I don’t belong to that group, but I don’t do a lot of miles either . IMO is comes down to a usage thing , once a year may be needed for some.
Boat trailers are a lot like your body or your best canine friend. Given regular exercise and regular checks they will do what they were designed to do, carry a proper size load safely to the destination and back. I have no basis to figure out how many people use their trailers on a regular basis, weekly, monthly, three times a year but some I see are a clusterfxxk waiting to happen. Lights not working, soft tires, tread/cord separation, vessel not secured properly are indicators of a possible life changing experience at 55 mph. When I see that insidious 150 foot tire drag to the edge of the highway if figure that some one or family had a shitty weekend. Hope is not a good business model, neither is “hope we get there I’ll check it when we get back.”
Most of the guides I know that trailer their vessels to water have minimal issues with their trailers as they are used frequently and get exercised. I know quite a few people tho, that have their vessels in marinas for many and sometime all the months of the year that forget to take the pressure off the surge brake mechanism and have their cylinders, calipers/brake pads chemically merged with their brake discs after not rinsing them well, chocking the trailer wheels and pulling ahead before releasing the hitch from the ball. Out of sight…..out of mind.
I have a mental, along with hard copy, check list that I adhere to when pulling any trailer, mine or the manufacturer.
I also do the pre-trip myself, no help.
Nothing good can come of not maintaining a towed vehicle. I look at it as you and your family’s life depend on me being responsible for my vehichle(s).
I’d be curious to see how often say a fishing guide who puts his trailer in the water many times a week how often they get done . As said I’d be checking them every time out , at least feeling them . IMO some obviously get neglected, and others get it done probably more often than needed . I hear once a year on bearings from some , I don’t belong to that group, but I don’t do a lot of miles either . IMO is comes down to a usage thing , once a year may be needed for some.
Boat trailers are a lot like your body or your best canine friend. Given regular exercise and regular checks they will do what they were designed to do, carry a proper size load safely to the destination and back. I have no basis to figure out how many people use their trailers on a regular basis, weekly, monthly, three times a year but some I see are a clusterfxxk waiting to happen. Lights not working, soft tires, tread/cord separation, vessel not secured properly are indicators of a possible life changing experience at 55 mph. When I see that insidious 150 foot tire drag to the edge of the highway if figure that some one or family had a shitty weekend. Hope is not a good business model, neither is “hope we get there I’ll check it when we get back.”
Most of the guides I know that trailer their vessels to water have minimal issues with their trailers as they are used frequently and get exercised. I know quite a few people tho, that have their vessels in marinas for many and sometime all the months of the year that forget to take the pressure off the surge brake mechanism and have their cylinders, calipers/brake pads chemically merged with their brake discs after not rinsing them well, chocking the trailer wheels and pulling ahead before releasing the hitch from the ball. Out of sight…..out of mind.
I have a mental, along with hard copy, check list that I adhere to when pulling any trailer, mine or the manufacturer.
I also do the pre-trip myself, no help.
Nothing good can come of not maintaining a towed vehicle. I look at it as you and your family’s life depend on me being responsible for my vehichle(s).
Since we are talking safety and maintenance issues here, let's touch on tires for a minute. Since many trailers sit idle for most of the year and are often stored outdoors the rubber degrades with age while not showing much actual wear. Standard advice is to replace tires after about 6 years regardless of wear and never run a tire that is 10 years old. We have all seen trailers parked beside the road with a wheel off or a blown tire, many times that can be attributed to an old tire that still looked fairly new but had exceeded it's functional life. The standard observation that "It has plenty of tread left" doesn't apply,
The build date is clearly stamped on all tires giving us the opportunity at a glance to see how old our tires actually are. I recently replaced trailer tires that were 8 years old although they showed little wear. Although the trailer was stored outside, it was always under cover so no sun damage occurred but sitting in one spot most of the time in below zero temps in winter and 100+ temps in summer had incurred enough thermal cycles that I didn't want to risk a failure at speed somewhere.
Check your own trailer tires by reading the DOT 4 digit number stamped on the tire. The first 2 digits denote the week of the year the tire was built and the second 2 digits are the year it was built. My own tires bear the number 2119 indicating that the tires were built in May of 2019. While you are checking the date on your tires also look for any checking on the rubber-a sure sign that tires need replacing.
Edit: I should add that the time to replace tires is before a failure occurs, not right after!
The build date is clearly stamped on all tires giving us the opportunity at a glance to see how old our tires actually are. I recently replaced trailer tires that were 8 years old although they showed little wear. Although the trailer was stored outside, it was always under cover so no sun damage occurred but sitting in one spot most of the time in below zero temps in winter and 100+ temps in summer had incurred enough thermal cycles that I didn't want to risk a failure at speed somewhere.
Check your own trailer tires by reading the DOT 4 digit number stamped on the tire. The first 2 digits denote the week of the year the tire was built and the second 2 digits are the year it was built. My own tires bear the number 2119 indicating that the tires were built in May of 2019. While you are checking the date on your tires also look for any checking on the rubber-a sure sign that tires need replacing.
Edit: I should add that the time to replace tires is before a failure occurs, not right after!
Ive - this is a great reminder and something I need to look at on my boat trailer as I think the tires are six years old (I couldn't find thebuild date stamp on them). Taking it one step further: spare tires. When I bought the trailer for my pram, I did replace the tires, just not the spare and it sits mounted on the trailer with no relieve from the sun. With your sublte Ive'ish reminder, I'll go get a new spare tire this week.
Pat, the DOT code for date of manufacture was initiated in 2000. If your spare tire has no DOT date it is damned old! In dog years over a hundred years old...
On the last three vehicles I've checked - a travel trailer and two pickups - the date stamps on all tires were facing towards the inside of the vehicle. Inconvenient but easy enough to check with by crawling under with a piece of cardboard and a smartphone flashlight! Using the phone to take a picture of the date stamp is convenient for those of us who increasingly "optically challenged"!
Ken
Optically challenged: that describes me to a "T".
Half the stuff I buy has the directions in such small print that I take a photo of them so I can blow it up and read them. The trick for me is getting a picture of the ones that are in English.
