I gotta throw in my 2cents on this one. I went through this twenty five years ago! Lube is the key. Most bearings are make by Temkin Co. Temkin Co. provides a test for grease called the temkin load test. A regular wheele bearing grease that you re-pak with that you get from the automotive shop or Co-op, is of about 5 to 10 temkin load carring ability. That means 5 to 10 thousand pounds per sq. inch film stringth before metal to metal wear hapens. Regular wheel bearing greases that come in most stores, will do for most trailers….. most do not have that much per. sq. in. “load”on the bearings . Most trailers will never have so much load that the lubricant would ever fail and score bearings. However, with your boat loaded heavy, with a kicker, and the xtra gear and add an axle nut that may be too tight… you may excede the temkin load of the grease. This starts to cook your grease at a steady low temp. Cheap grease that “cooks up” has a tendancy to melt. When it melts and becomes a liquid it is spun off the bearing at high road speeds. This allows the bearing to run hoter, and every time you cool the melted grease down, it goes back to a simi-solid at a different color and viscosity (thickness). This “harder” when cool grease that has been cooked up will not move out of the way when you try to purge it with a softer grease! The softer grease goes right arround it and out any hole in the seal or out the front of the bearing buddy. Result, even though you erease you are not adding new grease where it is needed at the race. Soon you are running hot because of lubricant failure and the buddy bearings are showing full! Or, if you have a poor seal you will be using more and more grease. In this case you’ll see grease that has melted and is slung out, on the inside of the wheel. This ruins your trailer brakes!
I suggest an Aluminum Oxide, non-melting, 100 temkin load grease that won’t splatter even if you hit it with a hammer! This stays put. It never melts. It provides many times the lubricant value. And you’ll never have to add grease to a bearing even with a poor seal. I re-paked my 17ft alumacraft when I got it new and I used “my old puddle jumper” for six years, never added any grease. The buddies were full. And when I did do a bearing inspection, there was no “track” on the spindle from where the bearing race sat! No wear at all on the bearings at all. You could not tell them from new.
Steelco Lubricants from ValPraiso, ILL (or Ind.?) makes this grease. I think it is a SG 400 but check with them. Non-melting and 100 temkin is the key to ask for from any company. And I am sure any company that makes high temkin load synthetic or blends will have something like it.
Non-melting means that it will not get hot and sling out of a seal that leaks. Grease can be tested by placing a “dob” on a nail and lighting it with a match. If it burns and does not drip, it is non-melting. If it drips and burns this is not what you want. Aluminum Oxide grease will burn, but not drip. When it burns it look to “charcoal” on the outside. After it cools, it forms no solids and and the “charcoal” looking crust breaks down to the origional viscosity forming no solids. Not affected by heat.
Oh well, py point is get a better grease. To set your wheel bearings is simple. Pull the cotter pin on the axle and tighten the wheel bearing retainer nut (with the tire still on), till it starts to show any resistance when you try to spin the tire (while jacked up). Then back off 1/4 of a turn on the nut and re-install the cotter pin. Done deal, now put the bearing buddies back on.
Hope this helped sonmeone, it has me . I have and never will loose a bearing since I switched. Hoggie Hoggard
