our salesman on our new boat wants us to upgrade our trailer to a prestige trailer with oil bath hubs and led lighting. its another $1000 but he says the hubs will be maintanence free for at least the next 10 years. is he pulling my leg or is that possible, that would be a huge peace of mind not worrying about bearings every year or 2.
I am changing over this spring to the oil bath hubs, as for being maintenance free nothing really is. 
You will still need to change the oil and check your oil levels and it’s condition. There are great though.
LED light are great also. 
For 1000 dollars though I would tell him to kiss my 
LED light for the rear of the trailer $60
Side marker $7 each
Oil Bath Hubs installed by a authorized dealer $200
The other trailer must be really nice for that price.
You do the math
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our salesman on our new boat wants us to upgrade our trailer to a prestige trailer with oil bath hubs and led lighting. its another $1000 but he says the hubs will be maintanence free for at least the next 10 years. is he pulling my leg or is that possible, that would be a huge peace of mind not worrying about bearings every year or 2.
No way 4 $1000 
Use it 4 gas
You can probably get a discount on the oil bath hubs next week at the sportsmans show in the twin cities. I am pretty sure the guy will be there. If I remember right they were around $150 (I think)
Chippee, Maybe clairify this for me; is the $1000 to upgrade to a Prestige that has the oil bath hubs from something like a Shorelander?
I believe that the Prestige is a custom built trailer made for a specific hull where Shorelander trailers are built so the rollers/bunks can be adjusted to fit several different hulls. Also, I only use Shorelander as an example as one of the average trailers on the market, nothing against them.
You could get Liqua-Lube for a whole lot less than $1000 that would do the same as the oil bath hubs.
I just put a set on my Jon boat trailer. Awesome. Way less than $1k.
the $1000 is a total price upgrade from a shorelander to a prestige I guess I wasnt clear on that so it is not only the hubs, but the extra bunks and custom built trailer as well
Is the prestige trailer galvanized? If not I would look at a galvanized trailer and upgrade to a larger load capacity than than what the trailer is that comes with the boat now. A galvanized trailer will be one more thing that will be less maintains to worry about.
I have been running the oil bath hubs for 4 years now on my Eazy Loader. They have been great. No problems of any sort. Just keep a eye on the level and change oil when manual suggest’s too.
Steve you really do not want to put a trailer that is rated for more weight than your boat actually weighs loaded. The reason behind this is that the stiffer suspension could cause damage to the bottom of your boat. When you hit road divits or potholes the jarring action delivers the full force to the bottom of your boat sometimes denting the hull. Believe it or not it happens even on bunk trailor’s. Stay within the weight of your boat and you should have no problems. 
chippee
Me personally unless I was a tournamnet guy or did a ton of miles to fish and I am talking 15,000 or better the regular bearing hub and Bearing Buddies is the way I would go. I have never had a bearing burn out in my 35 plus years of hauling boats. It dosen`t matter what type of bearing is on the trailer if mantanence isn`t done they will all go bad.
Now the galvinized trailer is a must in my book that is the one thing I would anty up for.
LED lights are another great thing to have on a trailer deffinatly worth the cost in my book.
To me I want a longer tongue on my trailer makes loading and unloading much easier on many landings, and I get to open and close my tailgate without worrying about hitting the trailer. Depending on storage space a swing tongue can be just a real usefull investment.
Antying up for the custom trailer over the shorelander or ? trailer. That`s a personal preference but I beleive for the average guy any well built GALVINIZED trailer will work very well as long as the trailer is not to light for the boat.
EDITED to add ….DON`T FORGET A SPARE TIRE
Couldn’t agree with Tom more. I could find many other things to spend my money on.
Believe it or not, almost all roller and thrust bearings are designed for infinite life. Problem is they have to be used properly to perform forever 
. That means they are properly loaded and kept clean. Thats impossible.
Oil bath bearings are good for 2 basic scenarios:1) Long continuous run times. And very few high speed thrust applications. In heavy loading low viscosity lubes are one of the main reasons of failure, next to overloading the bearing. The low viscosity lubes used in the oil bath bearings can cause fialure in the bearing and race itself by getting into the materials voids causing a bubbling of the surfaces in contact. Once that happens the, the bearing is done even if its still surrounded in lube.
So to call an oil bath bearing maintenance free is a false sense of security. Roller thrust bearings are more effective in terms of load when higher viscosity lubricants are used. And when loaded and kept clean properly, are more cost effective and efficient. I sure wouldn’t want to pay to replace a set of oil bath bearings, Which is why more industrial applications are relying more on other hydrodynamic bearing styles.
Another noteworthy aspect of bearing in general is that failure is typically from improper loading, not lack of lube. Most people don’t notice a failed bearing until its smoking on the side of the interstate and the lubricant has cavitated to nonexistence. Lets just say that these days, a 2500# axle doesn’t always jive with a 2500# bearing. In short, good bearings are spendy for dealers. Next time you buy an axle, never be afraid to go overkill.
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Me personally unless I was a tournamnet guy or did a ton of miles to fish and I am talking 15,000 or better the regular bearing hub and Bearing Buddies is the way I would go.
I’d further quantify that statement by adding it depends on 1.) Total weight and 2.) Trailer brakes. If you have a heavy load, often in conjunction with a trailer that has brakes, you can’t beat liquid lubes. Heavy load and brakes create a lot of heat, liquid ludes dissapate the heat better than capped greese. It you have a 16 footer with a 40 hp motor, regular greese bearings are not a problem.
-J.
I’ve had the LiquiLubes on my Shorelander for 5 years now.
I don’t foresee changing back to grease anytime soon.
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Trailer brakes. If you have a heavy load, often in conjunction with a trailer that has brakes, you can’t beat liquid lubes
It`s not that I don`t agree with you Jon. Horse trailers with liveing quarters and hauling 4 horses is more weight ( average 9,000 – 13,000 # )then 90% of the boats on the road and 95% of those regular grease and race bearings and breaks on each axle. So I don`t beleive our boats are going to hurt a properly maintained bearing.
True. But we don’t back horse trailer into the water.
Properly maintained means different things to different people. I think you can get away with longer maint intervals with liquid lubes.
-J.
I have a Prestige trailer, oil hubs are great, but their paint job isn’t. Mine is 5 months old, and I already have rock chips and rust spots showing up all over.
Nothing against oil bath hubs, they do work. However, if the oil bath plastic gets broken, oil is no longer present, bearing fails. If you don’t notice it, it will leave you stranded. If you do notice it, you’ll have to leave the trailer there and find a new hub cover, that is, if you can find one when you are on vacation. This has happened to folks.
At least with a bearing buddy getting knocked off, there is some grease in the bearing and you can get to where you are going.
I have the oil bath and was wondering that as well…also how do i check them properly just look in on the outside and make sure there is still lube in there or what?
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I have a Prestige trailer, oil hubs are great, but their paint job isn’t. Mine is 5 months old, and I already have rock chips and rust spots showing up all over.
That is exactly why I will never buy a painted boat trailer again, my next one will be galvanized.
It is a pure waste of money.
If the oil bath hubs were “the thing of the future”.
Then cars would have them on the front hubs with their “hot brakes”.
All cars would have them…….how many times do car bearings go out? We drive in rain, grit, grime, dust.
The reason grease bearings go out is primarily due to design and lack of proper maintenance and ALSO lack of ability for a “fisherman” to replace the bearings correctly.
It was stated that oil bath is better than grease because of water. Grease is “water resistent” too.
CORRECT!!!!!!!
Oil bath is in a plastic housing that once broken, you are stranded. Bearing caps and bearing buddies have you covered.
99.99% of the people who have Bearing Buddys have failure because they “overpump” grease into their bearings, breaking the seal.
All of your bearing problems can be resolved IF you ensure your seal is always in good shape.
If the seal is in good shape, then no water will enter.
LED LIGHTS? What? You using these LED lights to drive??? What the heck do you need them for? Because you neighbor has them???
All a good marketing ploy to make a buck! $1,000,000 idea that once again, I didn’t invent! 
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Steve you really do not want to put a trailer that is rated for more weight than your boat actually weighs loaded. The reason behind this is that the stiffer suspension could cause damage to the bottom of your boat. When you hit road divits or potholes the jarring action delivers the full force to the bottom of your boat sometimes denting the hull. Believe it or not it happens even on bunk trailor’s. Stay within the weight of your boat and you should have no problems.
Thanks for the info John I had never heard that before, I have always heard not to skimp on the trailer.
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I have the oil bath and was wondering that as well…also how do i check them properly just look in on the outside and make sure there is still lube in there or what?
Some manufacturers have a fill mark on the plastic housing at the end of the hub. Roll the wheel until the marking is at the correct position and then see how much oil is in there.
Liquilube covers don’t have a mark. Just make sure they are half full, or half empty, whichever your pleasure might be. It’s a 200 mile ride when I head north, and my hubs are just as cool to the touch when I get there as they were before I started. I’ll stick with the liquilube.
By the way, they sell an aluminum cap for the plastic covers that attach to the wheel using the lug nuts.
I travel all over fishing and had nothing but problems with buddy bearings Now that i have liqua lube bearings for the last 6 yrs I have never had a problem with them. I change the oil once a year and the bearing are still good. I will never go back to gease. You can buy the kit and put it on yourself not hard to do. 
All the types of bearing styles your talking about work fine. The bottom line is if you do not do preventative maintanence you are running a risk to bearing failure. I have had all but the liqui-lube style. I have worked on the majority of major brand trailers out their today. The Prestiege trailer is a custom built trailer for the boat. The price difference is just the basic price of the trailer. Their are other brands of trailer’s that use oil bath and led lighting. Mine for example is a EZloader roller tandem trailer. It is not the fancy Tourney trailer that they offer but the normal typical style they sell. I like it because it has 13 inch tires and I can load and unload in very low water conditions. The led lights and oil bath hubs are just a bonus. No more worrying about burning lights out when backing into the water. The hubs are really cool to the touch when trailering long distance. This does equivalate to less wear and tear. Less heat means, less friction and longer bearing life. Heat is the biggest killer to bearing life. My trailer must have close to 15,000 miles on it now. Yes I would buy another one in a heartbeat.
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