Another trailer bearing question

The other day I was trailering the boat through town. I gave waved me down and said my trailer tire was squeaking and grinding. He was right. Got home and jacked it up and took off the tire and the bearing buddy. About half a cup of water came out. There was grease in it. It was pretty black. My neighbor is smarter than me with this stuff took a look. There was no play when the tire was wiggled. It looked like the brake pad in the surge brake was in 2 pieces. I don’t know much about them. I put the boat on the lift. Filled the bearing up with grease and took it to the Goodyear shop in Brainerd. I couldn’t hear the noise on the way down. I pulled into Holiday about 12 miles down the road. It wasn’t hot at all when I touched. Long story. What do you think they will find? The trailer is 3 years old. I probably trailer it 1-2x a week for a 60 mile round trip. Thanks for any ideas.

Because there was water in the hub the seal is shot and the bearing and race should also be replaced. The other side should be inspected and repacked or replaced if needed. With out seeing the brakes I could only guess.

Redo the bearings and brakes on both sides. Get rid of the bearing buddies.

-J.

Lucky you got home.

On a side note – I did have a brake pad/assembly come undone in there. Dropped down between the wheel and axle. Locked up that tire at 70 MPH ! What a mess. You got lucky everything stayed in place.

Go with regular dust cap over the bearing buddies. Do annual bearing maint and call it good. Had too many problems with BB. Not worth it!

-J.

ssaamm wrote:

What do you think they will find?

A stuck brake pad or rusted shoe broke loose.

I would never have a trailer without bearing buddies. Have towed 10s of thousands of miles with never a bearing issue using buddies. I can’t picture what kind of issues people are having with such a simple device.

Just picked it up. They repacked the bearing on both sides. They said there was a broken brake pad that they thought was causing the sudden noise. My first trailer with surge brakes. I guess stuff wears out. I do have bearing buddies. I imagine they help. Thanks for the ideas

I might just pay a little for piece of mind. I understand the Fall before you put it away is the most important time to service them, correct?

ssaamm wrote:

I do have bearing buddies. I imagine they help. Thanks for the ideas

The only problem with bearing buddies is operator error. People think they have to add grease when all they are doing is pushing it out the rear seal and ruining the seal. If the cap with the zerk will rock you have enough grease in them. If you add grease until the spring is fully compressed you’re just wasting grease and blowing out seals. Others put a little squirt in before every trip, this is more grease than the hub needs and causes more damage than good.

Thanks for the info. I just add a bit to see the plate move a bit couple times a season.

Bearing Buddies do not mean you can skip yearly bearing maintenance.
I see and deal with enough people who think a few squirts of grease and your good to go.I see those types along the road frequently.
I agree Jon ditch the BB and go with dust caps.

That’s my point. Do yearly maintenance and how can bearing buddies hurt? They came with the trailer. They can’t be that bad of a deal. Must be some benefit.

ssaamm wrote:

…how can bearing buddies hurt?

I’ve lost one. I’d imagine it’d hurt whoever was behind me at the time.

ssaamm wrote:

Must be some benefit.

In my experience, Bearing Buddied do exactly what the maker claims. Ask anyone who claims bearing buddies don’t work to explain to you what they think bearing buddies do. Generally their explanation will be wrong compared to what the manufacturer states.

I don’t do yearly “bearing maintenance”. I use the bearing buddies exactly as the manufacturer instructs and I replace bearings every 3 years.

I have towed tens of thousands of miles with all manner of trailers using this formula. I’ve never had a bearing issue. Whether or not this is partially due to bearing buddies doesn’t matter to me. I’m not about to mess with success considering the small cost of a set of bearing buddies.

I have also had them come flying off on the highway. A BB bouncing down the road at 60 MPH could easily crash through a windshield.

The problem with BB is they fail at keeping water out of the hub. Users fail to apply the correct amount of grease or too much grease blowing out the rear seal. (Making a greasy mess on the inside of the tire rim) The rubber cap fails to keep water out. Especially if you are launching into sub 40 degree water. Remember, it’s not the number of mile on a boat trailer that matters. It’s the number of time you put the trailer into the water. If you never backed a boat trailer into the water, you could run it 100k miles no problem. Put your boat in 100 times in 100 miles and you probably need to do bearing maint .

Install and apply the correct amount of grease and tap on a steel dust cap with some silicone sealant around the seam. Done. Not a drop of water will get into the hub.

The worst thing you can do is put the boat away in the fall and let water sit in the hub for several months. Rust never sleeps!

-J.

I wish they all did what Triton does. Grease zert under dust cap that pushes grease from behind the bearings forward. Its the next best thing to liquid oil immersible hubs.

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Karavan trailers do this same thing, the grease zerk is on the end of the spindle and pushes the grease out the front.

suzuki wrote:

I wish they all did what Triton does. Grease zert under dust cap that pushes grease from behind the bearings forward. Its the next best thing to liquid oil immiscible hubs.

I have EZ Lube hubs on my trailer, too.

Did they replace the brake pad also? I would like to know how the water got into there with the BB? They are supposed keep 3 lb of pressure on the grease in the hub to keep water out. Did they say they checked the real seals?

They replaced the brake pads. They said they inspected the bearings and repacked them. I might stop in and verify the seal situation. The water present in the one wheel concerns me, too.

For your peace of mind stop in and verify the seal situation.
The shops that have repacked bearings for me have always replaced the seal as a standard part of the job.

Seals were replaced. Thanks for the replies.

WHAT JON SAID.

Suzuki i have seen some like that,still have to do yearly maintenance on boat trailers.There is still the water issue.

Every year inspect and fill with grease, you should be good for 10 more years.

Both the bearing buddies fell off. I noticed after I pulled the boat out of the lake. Grease was dark. The crown nut with the cotter pin were out in the open. Frustrating. I assume find the right size Bearing Buddy and get new ones. The hub was warm when I got home. Not hot or glowing orange. Do I need to get them repacked or just new Bearings Buddies and grease? Thanks for putting up with me.

Jon Jordan wrote:

tap on a steel dust cap with some silicone sealant around the seam. Done.

-J.

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I agree with Jon just wack some caps on it and be done.

Thanks. I’ll be quiet on this topic. I’m tired of it, too.