add grease to trailer wheel bearings? I go about 80-100miles almost every weekend.
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add grease to trailer wheel bearings? I go about 80-100miles almost every weekend.
Sure wish some one would give some information on this, I've been putting a couple shoots of grease to mine about every other month but I don't get to put as many miles on mine as you. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Racoon
Bearing buddies will tell you. Otherwise, I would give it a couple shots every other week or so. Without bearing buddies, you won't know you've greased it too much until you've blown the seal
Do mine once a year. Take it completely apart...clean with carb cleaner....check for pitting and water damage...repack and put back together with new grease.
My Triton trailer says to grease after every use. They must own stock in a grease or seal producer. The "bearing buddy" system on it is different than any other that I have had, though. The front side has a rubber plug that seals the housing. Remove that to access the zirk and the whole thing appears to be an open unit where the excess contaminated grease can flow out the front instead of blowing a seal.
Frequency really depends on your hub setup. If your seals are good so that you are not losing grease, you won't be able to add much without blowing a seal.
What Scrapper said and use the high temp green grease for those hot days.
I check mine bearing buddies every month or so than add as needed
I drive ~100 miles a month and shoot grease into it about 1/month. 3 pumps each hub. I annually take the hub apart and repack it.
I think it's a matter of preventive maintenance. You should add grease when the hubs need it. How do you know if the hubs need grease? Pull the dust cap and look for water intrusion. If you see any telltale signs of water, remove and repack the bearings with grease.
Do not fall for the "add grease when needed" bit. The space inside a hub is limited. Once you add more grease than can occupy the hub, it starts blowing out the inner seal. When that happens, you get water in the hub every time you immerse it in water, and you have to add grease everytime or risk ruining a bearing and axleshaft. And for that reason, bearing buddies do not promote proper maintenance.
i agreeQuote:
Originally Posted by Matt Smith
I have never like the bearing buddies. ( My opinion)The reason, you add grease to the bearing(outside) that supports the least amount of weight. The super lube( the one with the grease zert in the spindle) greases from the back at the inner bearing and pushes the old grease out the front into the hub cap. The thinking is you can "wash" the old grease out if you keep refreshing with new grease, all you need to do is wipe the old grease out of the hub.
The new thing is the oil bath hub, these use d gear oil like in the rear end of yout car, they haver a sight glass to see the level and color of the oil so you can tellif it needs more or needs change.
I looked at them, just didn't have the denaro to buy plus I haven't seen the oil bath brake drums yet.
I still use bearing buddies fairly faithfully.
Matt, the problem with your theory is you forgot about the spring and purge hole the BBs have. The zirc fitting is on a plate that is on a spring, which presses against the end of the bearing buddy. When you pump the grease in, the zirc moves outward against the spring. When it has reached about half it's travel, there is a purge hole, so that if you overpump, it comes out, instead of pushing on the spring and the inner seal. When driving down the road, if the grease expands, it pushes the zirc back a bit, and will extrude out the hole. And, the spring still has half its travel left to account for expansion, if for some reason it expands faster than it exits, or if it cannot exit. Then, as it cools and contracts, the spring will follow it back in, so there is no air space for water to enter. Whenever you think about it, just glance down at the level of the zirc. If cool, it is about half way in, leave it. If it is a little further than halfway in, pump a squirt or two of grease. It truly is that simple, and it works.
When I began boating some 26 years ago and towed about 130 miles one way I would take the hubs apart once a year clean, inspect, repack and replace any parts that were visually worn. If any evidence of moisture I would replace the seal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Racoon
This was a single axle trailer with 12" tires.
Now I keep a boat at home and another one at the 130 miles away place and both have dual axles and 14" tires. They don't get towed more than 20 miles at a time plus I'm a lot older thus the maintenance is practically non-existent. One of them is thirteen years old, I have taken it apart only once at 10 years. I replaced seals in all four hubs and one inner bearing. The other is five years old and I have not yet serviced it.
These days my annual trailer maintenance amounts to inspecting the tires and while viewing the inner side walls will also look for evidence of bad hub seals or grease loss. Both trailers have grease zerks but I rarely add any grease.
I guess I'm saying I do not know how often it should be done but I would suggest that if you tow often and for long distance don't chance it, perform a regular maintenance annually.
Scott
I also use the bearing buddies.
I guess I'm saying I do not know how often it should be done but I would suggest that if you tow often and for long distance don't chance it, perform a regular maintenance annually.
This is the take-home message. Don't be fooled into thinking that adding grease is a substitute for repacking bearings. In order to be effective, the grease has to enter the spaces between the bearing rollers. Even with bearing buddies, this is pretty hard to do without repacking the hubs. To make repacking easier, pick up an extra set (or two) of hubs and bearings, just replace the hub and bearing assy. and repacking the others at your leisure. I bought a bearing packer to make packing easier.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Smith
i also use the bearing buddy system and last year i pushed some grease out on the inner seal, so today i had some time and thought about replacing the seals so i called a bearing and seal distributer (applied technologies) and was told that if you do squeeze out some grease it wont hurt the seal since its soft rubber and it will seal back as if new.
I would think this would be true if the seals were not that old but if they were getting some miles and years on them then replace them. Does that make sense
with my above post i re-thought what i said and I'm wrong
I come to the conclusion that a seal should not leak, thats why they are their. to my understanding a Bearing buddy applies about 3 lbs of pressure and a seal should hold up to around 10 lbs of pressure so if they leak like mine do replace them and thats what I'm doing today. I hate it when one place says its OK and others say different