Packing wheel bearings on a trailer...

[gregintenn]

...

If you can find someone dumb enough to do this for you, pay them! That is all.

[Omega]

It's really not that hard, did mine in 30 minutes or so, and that was packing the grease in by hand.  Those little gizmos like from harbor freight and other places can make it less messy.  And bearing buddies are worth their weight in gold IMHO. 

[bersaguy]

22 minutes ago, Omega said:

It's really not that hard, did mine in 30 minutes or so, and that was packing the grease in by hand.  Those little gizmos like from harbor freight and other places can make it less messy.  And bearing buddies are worth their weight in gold IMHO. 

Everyone can have opinions and I have mine about Hub Buddies. I use to pack my boat trailer beariings every year in the Spring. Taking my time and done in an hour and replacing the grease seals with a new ones.

I will say this about Hub Buddy's/ Bearing Buddies. I had to have my boat and trailer hauled to my house twice on a flat bed wrecker because the Bearing buddies were greasing the outer bearings but not the inner bearings and I had two bearings seize to the spindle and lock up.  Nothing better than getting your hands covered in grease and knowing it's done right.

[Omega]

Never had that issue, but I suppose it's possible.  I would normally squirt grease into them until a bunch would come out the backside, about once a year I'd repack them though.  Now that I don't use the trailer as much, it's longer intervals but will do it if taking it on a longish trip.

[gregintenn]

I can't get it all apart and properly cleaned and inspected in 30 minutes. That's about how long it takes to go get the seals fon r the rear bearings. If you can do all that on a 4 wheel utility trailer in 30 minutes, you're my hero!

It isn't a difficult job, but took me about all afternoon.

Edited October 28, 2018 by gregintenn

[Omega]

54 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

I can't get it all apart and properly cleaned and inspected in 30 minutes. That's about how long it takes to go get the seals fon r the rear bearings. If you can do all that on a 4 wheel utility trailer in 30 minutes, you're my hero!

It isn't a difficult job, but took me about all afternoon.

It's a single axle, and in a fully equipped garage, I thought it would be more difficult,  but it turned out to be quite simple.   If it has been sometime between maintenance, or as in the case of my first boat trailer, years of salt water use, it can be rather difficult, though.

[gregintenn]

My younger son didn't want to deer hunt this morning (too lazy to roll out of bed), so this gave me something to do other than watch football. I didn't break anything, so it turned out o.k.

I'd still rather have spent the afternoon processing a nice buck.

Edited October 28, 2018 by gregintenn

[bersaguy]

14 hours ago, Omega said:

Never had that issue, but I suppose it's possible.  I would normally squirt grease into them until a bunch would come out the backside, about once a year I'd repack them though.  Now that I don't use the trailer as much, it's longer intervals but will do it if taking it on a longish trip.

Well that is where the issue comes in with me I guess. On the Boat trailer the seals on the hubs on the inside are designed to keep water out so squirting grease in a Hub Buddy the rear seal is not suppose to let water in so it should not let grease out so I could not tell the inner bearings where not getting grease from hub buddy. I guess it developed an air lock and didn't let the grease get to the inners. Anyway, learned a lesson and went back to doing it the old fashion way and that way I knew it was done right. 

[gregintenn]

I need to do this to my boat trailer too....if I can stand the smell.

[peejman]

Replace them with sealed bearings... 

[bersaguy]

42 minutes ago, peejman said:

Replace them with sealed bearings... 

That is actually a great idea but very expensive. I was gonna do that on my boat trailers so they would be almost maintainence free. That is until I went to get the parts and the part house informed me I would have to buy new hubs because sealed bearings won't fit standard hubs. One hub kit 97.95 and that would be times 4 as I had a tandem axle trailer at that time. $391.80 + tax. I can pack a lot of bearings by hand for that price..............

Edited October 28, 2018 by bersaguy

[peejman]

1 hour ago, bersaguy said:

That is actually a great idea but very expensive. I was gonna do that on my boat trailers so they would be almost maintainence free. That is until I went to get the parts and the part house informed me I would have to buy new hubs because sealed bearings won't fit standard hubs. One hub kit 97.95 and that would be times 4 as I had a tandem axle trailer at that time. $391.80 + tax. I can pack a lot of bearings by hand for that price..............

Don't go to the parts house, their sole job is to sell you stuff. Get a bearing catalog. Virtually all bearings are stock sizes. There's typically standard numbers on the inner or outer race that you can look up, or just measure the ID, OD, and thickness and find what you need. 

Edited October 28, 2018 by peejman

[bersaguy]

40 minutes ago, peejman said:

Don't go to the parts house, their sole job is to sell you stuff. Get a bearing catalog. Virtually all bearings are stock sizes. There's typically standard numbers on the inner or outer race that you can look up, or just measure the ID, OD, and thickness and find what you need. 

I will look into that and have my son see about ordering them on line through his shop. He buys more parts on line and gets them delivered cheaper than he can buy them locally at parts house. Really the boat trailer issue is no longer my problem. My SIL has the Skeeter Bss boat now and he is responsible for the up keep but I will look into getting the sealed bearing kits as he has been hand packing them every Spring.............

[Johnny Rotten]

There's a difference between utility axles and boat axles.

utility/ commercial axles don't have a SS L-rings where the seal runs, usually the seal is a dust lip or single lip seal, during the assembly process just the bearings are coated with grease and installed, usually they have a dust cap.

Boat axles have a SS L-rings where the seal runs, double lip seal, during the assembly process the entire cavity is full of grease, there are basically 2 types of protectors.

1) euz-the spindle is gundrilled and a zerc installed as you pump grease into the system it enters between the seal and the rear bearing as you pump the grease will come through the outer bearing, this system usually has a galv cap with a removable rubber plug.

2) Trailer Buddy, Vault, Bearing Buddy or the Walmart Chinese copycat BB photo posted above, this is the better design because its pressurized, there is constant grease pressure applied to the bearings, the pressure doesn't allow water to enter the cavity of the hub. To grease this system is a little harder, if the spindle is gundrilled then its easy same as #1, if not you'll need to install the hub, pump grease into the cavity and install the bearing, grease should come thought the bearing, install D washer, nut, retainer and cotter pin. Install protector and fill until the outer cap comes out to the front of the protector. Tip do not put it together dry and think you can pump grease to the rear bearing from the zerc on the protector, 2 things will happen the front of the protector is rated at 10+/-psi and a grease gun can generate 1000+psi if forced also the rear seal will not take much psi to damage the spring inside the seal. 

easy peesy...

[jpx2rk]

I've heard/read that using the zerk & grease gun method to grease the bearings you should jack the trailer up and slowly spin the wheel while pumping grease in to avoid blowing the rear seal(s) out.

[Johnny Rotten]

2 hours ago, jpx2rk said:

I've heard/read that using the zerk & grease gun method to grease the bearings you should jack the trailer up and slowly spin the wheel while pumping grease in to avoid blowing the rear seal(s) out.

Spinning the hub while greasing is correct, it will do nothing to avoid blowing out the rear seal.