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Anyone know the price for a set of Liqua-Lube’s or similar products?
Northern Tool sells a version. I looked at them last year but decided to stick with my old-school hubs. They’re $40-$50 a hub depending upon size. They’re listed as “Turbo Lube” hubs.
Thanks Mr. Wiggum! 
No problem. In hind sight, I wish I had just spent the extra money and tried them being that I was already replacing the hubs 
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While on the subject..I own the grease baths on my trailer..how often they say to change them? Yet to do it myself just in the shop….
Its a breeze, Erick.
LiquaLube and Ranger CoolHub designes are very similar. Just take out the allen screw, drain the old lube and refill.
I did a video of the maintenance – Click Here
-J.
Need to repack mine also. Where can I get the correct replacement seals and how will I will I know the size or part number?
Question for those with oil-bath hubs. Do you get oil leaking out of the seals, or is it non-existent to minimal? Is it the same type of seal as a traditional grease hub?
I dont even understand what some of you are saying. I have 25 years of towing experience and never had an issue. I use bearing buddies. (Multiple trailers) I have gradually reduced tearing them down to several years apart after wasting my time so many times.
I know what I see and how I will continue to service my hubs.
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Need to repack mine also. Where can I get the correct replacement seals and how will I will I know the size or part number?
Most all places that sells automotive parts will have them.
Since I do not know what sized trailer you have, take the inner and outer bearings, and the old seals with you to the parts house and they will get you the correct size.
I would think about the oil bath ones but I have never had once ounce of trouble with the BB I have now.
I get what you are saying with the grease going past the bearing and then possiblty through the seal but I just don’t have that issue.
I am going to do my bearings this aft and I got under the trailer and looked at the back side and there is no grease past the seal.
Might be that I have no issues as I watch them closely and either change them or repack them every spring.
When on the road and I stop for gas, I always walk back and feel my hubs too to make sure they are not hot.
Probably what causes the most problems for people with bearing buddies is when they pump to much grease in. (that’s for people who actually have problems with them)
This did actually happen to me quite a few years back.
Many boat trailers come with bearing buddies already on them.
I don’t think anyone is saying that you should get rid of them and I certainly don’t see any reason why you would need to.
Service you bearings on a regular basis, don’t pump multiple squirts of grease in them (which creates the pressure that damages the back seal) and you will be just fine.
Anyone want to talk about replacing the races while your replacing the bearings and seals? 
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I don’t think anyone is saying that you should get rid of them and I certainly don’t see any reason why you would need to.
Sorry Joel, I highly recommend taking a hammer to them, knock them off and tapping on regular dust caps! 
One good reason – do it before they fall off and smash through someone’s windshield! Don’t ask how I know….
-J.
I believe you hit the nail on the head Joel.
If one did pump too much grease in, you would more than likely have issues.
That would stink to catch one in the windshield for sure.
I wonder why many of the new trailers come with them?
Darn good discussion.
Funny how when I pump grease in them the excess comes out the front and not the rear seal. I think that is just an indication your seal was bad to begin with. Again I have filled these a hundred times without issue.
A good friend of mine had a trailer with regular dust caps under his pro-v several yrs back. For about 4-5 yrs running, he blew at least 2-3 bearings per year, every yr. He finally put on a set of bearing buddies and ran that trailer for the next 4 yrs without incident….. He religiously checked them and gave them a shot of grease whenever needed – but didn’t over-grease them. After witnessing that, you would have a tough time convincing him (or me) that the $20 set of bearing buddies were a waste of money.
T
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Sorry Joel, I highly recommend taking a hammer to them, knock them off and tapping on regular dust caps!
One good reason – do it before they fall off and smash through someone’s windshield! Don’t ask how I know….
-J.
Glad I’m not the only one who’s experienced this. No windshield smashing thankfully. However you do see we spent time trying to find it so we could get back on the road. FYI, carry a backup. Another FYI, a pop can works as a dust cap and can be water tight with enough duct tape. 
Great tip Wade.
I do believe I will put a roll of duct tape in the boat compartment along with a pop can that fits.
I check them to make sure they are tight but as I can see, one never knows.
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I don’t think anyone is saying that you should get rid of them and I certainly don’t see any reason why you would need to.
Sorry Joel, I highly recommend taking a hammer to them, knock them off and tapping on regular dust caps!
One good reason – do it before they fall off and smash through someone’s windshield! Don’t ask how I know….
-J.
I had never heard of this happening before. And yet it has happened to two different people involved in this discussion.
Great fix by the way Wade! I’ll definitely remember that should I ever end up in a similar situation.
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Funny how when I pump grease in them the excess comes out the front and not the rear seal. I think that is just an indication your seal was bad to begin with. Again I have filled these a hundred times without issue.
Mike – if I had experienced the same kind of performance from my bearing buddies, I would certainly feel the same way.
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A good friend of mine had a trailer with regular dust caps under his pro-v several yrs back. For about 4-5 yrs running, he blew at least 2-3 bearings per year, every yr. He finally put on a set of bearing buddies and ran that trailer for the next 4 yrs without incident….. He religiously checked them and gave them a shot of grease whenever needed – but didn’t over-grease them. After witnessing that, you would have a tough time convincing him (or me) that the $20 set of bearing buddies were a waste of money.
T
This doesn’t make any sense to me at all. I’m not arguing whether it happened as I have no doubt that it did. But I do find it hard to believe that there wasn’t another root cause to his original problem.
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A good friend of mine had a trailer with regular dust caps under his pro-v several yrs back. For about 4-5 yrs running, he blew at least 2-3 bearings per year, every yr. He finally put on a set of bearing buddies and ran that trailer for the next 4 yrs without incident….. He religiously checked them and gave them a shot of grease whenever needed – but didn’t over-grease them. After witnessing that, you would have a tough time convincing him (or me) that the $20 set of bearing buddies were a waste of money.
T
This doesn’t make any sense to me at all. I’m not arguing whether it happened as I have no doubt that it did. But I do find it hard to believe that there wasn’t another root cause to his original problem.
It does not make sense to me either, but the only thing we can positively ID that he did differently was to change from dust caps to bb’s. I was physically there several times when he’d blow a bearing and change it on the side of the road, so I can vouch for his woes. I know there was at least 10 incidents of bearing failure in the first 4-5 yrs of use….. After the switch to bb’s, he ran that trailer for 4 more yrs w/o issue.
I know that I had a similar yr boat and ran it for 8 yrs of high mileage…8-10k miles of trailering per year (back in the single days….lol) and never once had an issue of bearing failure with bearing buddies…….but then again, I packed them every year and may have been just fine with std dust caps……
Tim
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It does not make sense to me either, but the only thing we can positively ID that he did differently was to change from dust caps to bb’s. I was physically there several times when he’d blow a bearing and change it on the side of the road, so I can vouch for his woes. I know there was at least 10 incidents of bearing failure in the first 4-5 yrs of use….. After the switch to bb’s, he ran that trailer for 4 more yrs w/o issue.
I’ll bet a bottle of your favorite 
there was some user error. Top of the list > he probably seated the bearings wrong. Tightend them too much and didn’t loosen them up. That or he did not properly re-pack or clean the bearing when he serviced them. I’ve seen some crazy stupid stuff people do. Like using soap and water to get to old greese out… 
My guess, after 10 failures, he got help.
-J.
Jon – very well could be some user error in there. I am not denying that. I just know that when he switched to bb’s, he never blew another. It wasn’t his first boat trailer – it was his first with std dust caps. That happened to coincide with his first major issues with bearings……
I don’t understand how grease can be forced “around” a bearing that is seated in a race without actually getting inside the bearing….
The concept of bb’s as I understand it is to keep something like 3lbs of positive pressure inside the hub to prevent water from being allowed in when backed into the water. A hub full of grease under a little positive pressure should keep water out…..sure seems plausible to me.
T
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Yes, I do try to be very careful to not do that.
I’ve had BB’s since early 1980 or late 1970, can’t remember, been a long time anyway and I have never had a bearing go out, I have found out that light pumps on a grease gun do wonders to keep grease supplied to all the bearing surfaces.
And using a air operated grease gun or a little to much enthusiasm with a manual gun will blow the rear seal out, but adding grease till the plate the sert is on is almost out as far as it can go seems to do the trick.
Which one should you use, oil or the BB’s?
Looks like which ever one you happen to favor, installed correctly and maintained, both will give you miles and miles of good service.
I have always believed that sumerging a hot bearing assembly into water is a good way to suck water into the bearing assembly, and the BB’s being under slight pressure help prevent that. fwiw
But whatever works…:)
Al
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Anyone want to talk about replacing the races while your replacing the bearings and seals?
I professionally build and re-build high speed industrial equipment and would never consider replacing just the tapered roller bearings. Generally by the time the bearings need to be replaced, the condition of the race is more then likely degraded and in need of replacement as well.Whether in an oil bath or greased. I repack my bearings every fall and pull them apart before any long trips and repack them again even though I have bearing buddies stock from shorelander. Just don’t trust what I cannot see.
Art
I have never replaced the bearings without also replacing the races. They could have small pits that ones eye does not see.
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Anyone want to talk about replacing the races while your replacing the bearings and seals?
I professionally build and re-build high speed industrial equipment and would never consider replacing just the tapered roller bearings. Generally by the time the bearings need to be replaced, the condition of the race is more then likely degraded and in need of replacement as well.Whether in an oil bath or greased. I repack my bearings every fall and pull them apart before any long trips and repack them again even though I have bearing buddies stock from shorelander. Just don’t trust what I cannot see.
Art
Thank you Art.
I’ve never replaced just my bearings & seals. It’s always the entire package (bearings, seals & races) so that they seat together & wear together properly. One without the other is a temporary fix at best.
Hi Brian, I never said that BB do not get grease to the back bearing, I said I never have blown out a seal because of a BB. I do like my BB and considering my trailer is 35 years old and has about 45,000 miles on it I think it says something for BB and proper maintenance. This trailer has only seen one new set of bearings about 10 years ago when a seal wore out. At that time I changed everything just to be on the safe side. So if used properly with maintenance I feel they work. I have to admit I am intrigued by the liquid lube style and will consider that for my next boat and trailer, but for now I will stick with what I have, it has served my family well and has never failed us. Thats a pretty good record.
Took both my hubs off this am and everything looked very good and no grease past the seal at all.
I will be replacing everything but I doubt that I needed too.
Bearings seemed fine and the races looked like new yet. No scrathes or pitting even looking at them with a magnifing glass.
I could have repacked them but every 2 years I put new parts in the hub. One never knows and I have never or do I ever want any issues on the road.
But by replacing them I will have peace of mind.
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