I was expecting to remove the wheel bearings on my landscape trailer and grease them. I took off the rubber cover and found a grease fitting. Is it satisfactory to add some grease or do I still need to dismantle and pack the bearings?
Trailer maintenance
- Thread starter gzecc
- Start date
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Most people over-service their trailer bearings.
The last trailer i bought had bearing buddies on it, The seals had been pushed out the back of the hubs and the brakes were covered in grease.I got rid of the bearing buddies and cleaned the mess up.Installed new brakes packed the bearings and have been using the trailer since. That was 15 yrs ago and i haven't repacked the bearings since.
Every time i pull a trailer i stop and check the temp of the wheel bearings,on both the trailer and truck.If there is an issue starting the bearings will heat up.If they are running normal they are fine.
Don't know if you are old enough to remember when cars were mostly rear wheel drive,but most people never serviced their front wheel bearings and cars would run tens of thousands of miles with no issues.
A simple mechanical device that doesn't require much maintenance.
The last trailer i bought had bearing buddies on it, The seals had been pushed out the back of the hubs and the brakes were covered in grease.I got rid of the bearing buddies and cleaned the mess up.Installed new brakes packed the bearings and have been using the trailer since. That was 15 yrs ago and i haven't repacked the bearings since.
Every time i pull a trailer i stop and check the temp of the wheel bearings,on both the trailer and truck.If there is an issue starting the bearings will heat up.If they are running normal they are fine.
Don't know if you are old enough to remember when cars were mostly rear wheel drive,but most people never serviced their front wheel bearings and cars would run tens of thousands of miles with no issues.
A simple mechanical device that doesn't require much maintenance.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
We’ve debated this before. You are doing a disservice to imply that one of the best and most popular devices for bearing maintenance is bad, just because the person who owned that trailer before you was a moron who over-charged their bearing keepers. Bearings run better with fresh grease, not dried out soap, which means applying it on some schedule, annual, biennial schedule, or whatever that may be.
To the OP, if what you have is a cylinder with a compression spring inside, and a zerk in the middle of that, you have Bearing Buddies. As Jags said, apply grease just enough to move the inner plate a bit, not drive it completely to full spring compression. Following this procedure, you will never have the issues that salecker likes to discuss.
Different trailers require different maintenance. When you frequently dunk the trailer in a body of water you risk the health of your bearings. I'm not going to suggest you go out and repack boat trailer bearings every year, just suggest you're aware of adverse operating conditions.
Repacking bearings isn't hard. Don't try to stay clean doing it though. Your nose is guaranteed to itch.
Repacking bearings isn't hard. Don't try to stay clean doing it though. Your nose is guaranteed to itch.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
I don’t think I’ve ever been without at least a few trailers in my life, and I’ve always owned at least one boat. Yes, jacking up a trailer, removing the wheel, removing the hub, cleaning, hand packing, and reassembling isn’t exactly rocket science. But it does take most folks an entire afternoon to do the four wheels on a tandem-axle trailer, which is why they don’t get around to it that often.
Bearing Buddies turn all of that into a job that takes less than five minutes, literally one or two squirts of a grease gun on each hub, once per year. I’ll stick with them. I have four trailers currently, and the two for road use have them on every wheel.
Bearing Buddies turn all of that into a job that takes less than five minutes, literally one or two squirts of a grease gun on each hub, once per year. I’ll stick with them. I have four trailers currently, and the two for road use have them on every wheel.
Back in high school I had a friend who had a boat with a trailer that he would offer to take out on occasion. It had smaller diameter wheels and I expect the boat was bit large for it. About 1 time out of 3, there would be issue with the wheel bearings. His dad would use it in salt water and didn't believe in repacking the bearings. We ended up on the side of the road on a Sunday afternoon a couple of times trying to chase around for odd ball bearings. After a couple of years of that I showed him how to repack the bearings and he started to do it every spring and the failed bearing incidents went way down.
I am convinced that the bearings on my boat trailer have survived this long for one reason...Positive pressure of grease. That is what the bearing buddies do. With positive pressure you don’t even allow water to enter the bearing area. Also - there is no void in the grease bath of the bearings. They are always in contact with grease. Yep - I am a fan.
Boat trailer bearings or other bearings that get submerged are a completely different story.
One of my customers tried the oil bath bearings on one of their boat trailers,after 4 yrs they are the same as the grease type.They let water in and the bearings fail.
Their biggest problem is they don't have time to let the bearings cool before putting them in the water.They pull their trailers to the lakes with their clients.When they get there after a 3 hr drive they just want to go fishing so into the drink the warm bearing assembly goes.Hits the cold water,contracts and sucks water in.
When we gold mined our 4x4's were constantly crossing creeks and rivers to get to our mine,the front wheel bearings needed service every year,or they destroyed them selves the second year of service.Even tried synthetic grease hoping for a different outcome,same story.
Bearing Buddies are like any other tool,great if you know how to use them.If you lend/rent out your trailer sometimes the person you rent/loan to may think that they are being helpful by greasing your bearing buddies...
One of my customers tried the oil bath bearings on one of their boat trailers,after 4 yrs they are the same as the grease type.They let water in and the bearings fail.
Their biggest problem is they don't have time to let the bearings cool before putting them in the water.They pull their trailers to the lakes with their clients.When they get there after a 3 hr drive they just want to go fishing so into the drink the warm bearing assembly goes.Hits the cold water,contracts and sucks water in.
When we gold mined our 4x4's were constantly crossing creeks and rivers to get to our mine,the front wheel bearings needed service every year,or they destroyed them selves the second year of service.Even tried synthetic grease hoping for a different outcome,same story.
Bearing Buddies are like any other tool,great if you know how to use them.If you lend/rent out your trailer sometimes the person you rent/loan to may think that they are being helpful by greasing your bearing buddies...
blacktail
Minister of Fire
It would be easy to jack the trailer up and do a down and dirty check. Spin the wheels and listen for any noise, then give them a wiggle and see if there' any play. If they seem ok from that, give a little grease via the bearing buddies and go.
