Trailer Maintenance

I know everyone is getting geared up for another season of

fishing. Along with rigging boats, don’t neglect your trailer.

I had two trailers in my shop last week – both with ruined

bearings and one with a ruined spindle. All due to lack of

proper maintenance. Unless your spindles are drilled through

to inner bearing, “bearing buddies” do little to properly lube

bearings. There is no substitute for once a year cleaning,

inspecting, and hand packing wheel bearings. Also, spend

the few dollars it costs to replace seals – cheap insurance

against water getting into the hubs.

Thought I’d bring this back up – had a guy come in yesterday concerned about wobbling trailer wheel. Wobble was because bearings had completely disintegrated and hub was riding on the spindle – ruined both. 10 year old trailer – kept very good care of appearance – paint all touched up – lights all working – never used anything but bearing buddies since it was new – OOPS

It helps too to have a “high grade”, non melting, water resistant grease, high temkin rating, grease that will stay put… inside your bearing seals. And especially when your seals are already shot… Good grease pays for itself many times over. Buy the best, go to the Auto parts store and ask for the best not “standard” wheel bearing grease. Or, find an AMSOL dealer and use a synthetic-blend made espically for wheel bearings. Go ahead and get an extra grease gun loaded with your boat bearing grease… and set it to the side for that use only. The extra bucks you spend actually means NO downtime…. on the road.

Hawger

Very well put Hawger!

I have a couple of questions for Big Dad. The first is where is your shop located? (In case I am ever in need of service) The second question is have you had any experience with the liqualube product, it sounds like a great product but I would some input from people with real world experience.

I have the LiquaLube product on my trailer. No problems, no more greasing or grease changing, no more replaceing bearings. Worry free.

http://www.liqualube.com.

I checked out their website but didn’t see prices. Does anyone have a ballpark figure for the cost of the LiquiLube product?

And how is it worry free? What prevents a seal failure and dirt getting in? Sorry, you won’t sell me on never checking a bearing – you can’t substuitute an occaisonal visual inspection with anything

Usually the guys that “think” they have worry free bearings are the same ones you see along the road with a trailer wheel all crooked. I won’t risk a ruined fishing trip to some companys miracle claims. Besides, they are just so easy to check, and repack.

i agree. you need to inspect and pack wheel bearing no matter if you run bearing buddies or not. Loads eaiser to do that in th garage than on the side of the road.

I don’t know if you can get the stuff at an auto parts store but we use Mobil EP on our hydraulic chucks at work and it works great on wheel bearings. All major oil companies make the same sort of stuff. It’s no secret though you have to check them little fell’as often. EP means extra pressure I guess.

Ok guys, sorry to sound like an idiot…but how do you repack your wheel bearings? I think I have an idea, but what exactly does it entail? I just have a smaller trailer, with the bearing buddies, to cart around a 14ft Lund. Thanks!

I thought the ‘net would be full of info on this… a little hunting turned up this article. It looks to be in-line with what I do.

One additional thing that I do, and it’s probably just paranoia, is use cloth rags – no paper towels. I have just always figured that the lint from the paper would be a poor addition to the bearing.

Hey Gianni, My Dad always said the same thing about cloth rags. He is also the guy who would spend one day of a week long trip to MN. packing the bearings on my Grandpas boat trailer. Grandpa shared none of our paranoia and thought nothing of pulling the rig 10 hrs without packing the bearings since last year. He would mention this about the time the boat was in the water for the week and the trailer was parked under a shade tree. My dad would shake his head and start looking for a coffee can, gas, rags and grease(this was in the early 70s when you still used gas for a cleaner) It must have been hard to be the responsible one for the whole family,LOL!!

I read the article Gianni posted – they have it right. A very

good summary of what you should do – particularily the part about a careful inspection. This is the true “preventative” part of the maintenance procedure – it’s all about catching failures before they happen.

Big dad, different people have different priorities. I travel on paved roads to my launch site and dont have to worry about dust. I do continually check the fluid level and color and replace it every 2nd year and at my age its a lot simpler than degreasing, repacking, worrying if I put too much grease in or not enough, etc. It fits my needs.

Its not a miracle claim as Bob suggests. Its been on the market close to 10 years and I did research it before buying it. LiquaLube was discussed recently on WalleyeCentral. Nothing but glowing reports by fishermen who use it, including Steve Fellegy. a tounement pro. But just in case, I also belong to the Trailer Club of Boat/US. I’m a firm believer in Murph’s Law.

Hey thanks for the link and advice guys. It’s much appreciated! Looks like I have a little side project for the weekend.

Hey Leo, I should have checked the website before I made the “miracle claim” comment. I thought it was just another type of lube, but I see it is more than that. Anything that keeps water out and lube in is a good thing!

Bob, I did do a lot of research on this product and was impressed by replies I received from people who have it on their trailer. Its a lifesaver for me. I’m just too damn old and overweight to do the necessary maintanance on a conventional greased trailer.