wheel bearings

I was wondering when you need to replace the wheel bearings on your trailer, are there some symptoms of them going bad. How often do you need to grease them. I don’t want to be sittin road side some where if I can prevent it. thanks for the insight

From my experience with fairly light travel (a couple of 10 mile round trips to the river a week and two or three several hour trips a year) I have found bearings to be very little trouble. If you don’t have bearing buddies on your trailer all ready my advise would be to get them. It is much easier (and thus more likely to happen)to grease the bearings without having to take off the wheels, nuts and washers. I use a grease recomended for in water use about once a month; I use the same grease on the fittings on the trim and steering on my boat. If you are going on along trip you should get spare bearings for your trailer. Warning signs are hot wheels, screeching or smoke. If it gets past hot wheels you may need a new spindle. I usually check my wheels by touch (be careful) once or so during a trip. I hope this gives you some help.

Hi…
That brings back such a bad memory! I will never skimp on changing/ greasing wheel bearings! Last year my MWC partner and I were on our way to eastern Erie for a tournament. About 3 hours into the trip we pulled into a truck stop for gas. I got out of the truck and I asked her why the rear wheel on her trailer was leaning outward. It turned out that even though she and her husband had just had the wheel bearings changed and greased at a dealership, there was a mistake with how it was done, and…to make a long story shorter… we ended up being stuck in that town for three and a half days while an entire new axle had to be custom made and shipped to us. It was awful! The worst part was we missed our pre-fishing on Erie and that is such an incredibly awesome lake!!!!!!!
Anyway… ever since then I’m always checking them!!!
~Jenn

Every spring before hitting the water I always pop the bearing buddies off and pull the bearings out for a physical inspection. Making sure the bearings are in good shape before making long trips. This may be more than needs to be done. But if you’ve ever thrown a bearing on a trip, you know it is a lot less painful paking bearings in the garage than it is on the side of the road. There are a couple of ways I check to make sure the bearings are properly lubed. You can touch the hubs to see how hot they are, look at the back of the rim for grease sprayed on the rim, and pop the grease cap or bearing buddy off once a month to see if the grease is still good. I use a blue marine grease that turns gray if water gets inside the hub. If you see gray, its time to repack the bearings. If you have grease sprayed on the back of the rim, your back seal is shot and water is more than likely getting in. Repacking the bearings is a job that you can do yourself. If you find that your seal or bearing is shot, just bring the pieces down to your local automotive store and they can get you what you need. I do have one tip that took me some time to figure out, if you have bearing buddies, only pump grease in until the spring is 1/4 to 1/2 compressed. Any more than that, and you’ll blow the back seal. It took me a couple of tries to figure out that more isn’t always better.

Guys, I’ve posted on this subject here previously. Switch to the liqualube system(http://www.liqualube.com) And you wont have to worry about repacking bearings, replaceing them, replacing seals, lost Buddy Bearings, etc., etc.,etc.

I have no affiliation with them, just a satisfied user.

Those bearing buddies are crap. They only grease the front bearing and not the rear one. I check them once a year and repack them. When putting in new ones don’t forget the new races. When you change them keep the old set and put them in your boat in case you have roadside trouble those will get you somewhere to get new ones.

DB, I’ve heard that said a few times on this board about buddies not greasing the inside bearing. I just can’t see how that would be the case. Isn’t there an open space between the inside and outside bearing where grease gets pushed through? How does the grease leak out the inside seal without going through the bearing?

Just need an explanation to calm my mind.

On bearings first you have your lock nut, a washer then your outer bearing. Between your outer bearing and your inner bearing is a great big void. It would take a whole tube to fill this to get grease to the back bearing. That is if you feel you can get it back there. I think it is impossible and it is just better to do it by hand and then you can see if your seal is still water tight.

I have used buddies for years with no problems. Yes it does take a fair amount of grease to get the void filled but the grease does go through to the back bearing. When the hub get warm during a long trip this extra grease gets soft and helps relube the bearings.