Trailer Bearings

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by Blue_Runner

I had such an aweful experience trying to get bearing buddies to stay on I finally just put grease caps on the hubs. I bought brand new bearing buddies 3 different times. Each time, I would get up to about 65 mph on the highway or interstate and see them rocketing down the road toward oncoming traffic. There goes another $40++! Grease caps are just a touch over $2 each so I just regrease the bearings & install new grease caps once every year to 2 years and good to go. If somebody knows a secret to make buddies stay on I'm all ears. I thought about gluing or 5200 the darn things in place.

I had a similar problem once.. kept throwing the bearing buddy, but only on the one side. As it turns out, it was my fault. I had changed the bearings, and when I put the hub back on I didn't tighten the wheel nut tight enough... it felt tight, it just wasn't.. so as I went down the road the wheel would move on the axel and the bearing race would press against the inside edge of bearing buddy with enough force to actually drive it out of the hub... there goes another one down the road..... When I finally figured out what was happening the fix was to tighten the nut.....who knew.. <sigh>
I like the bearing protecters you get in Wally World... they only cost $27 for a pair if I recall correctly, and they do the same job as bearing buddies... plus, they stay in the hub (as long as you tighten the wheel nut properly)..You have to pound them in with a mallet, so I figure they are there for the duration..

[RidgeRunner]

Thanks guys. I am very familiar with TA Mahoney's Ferm. They have about $5K of my $$$ already on the Wellcraft build, electronics, wire and rigging stuff. They also have the PGAC (Pretty Girl At the Counter). She knows more than most men do about boats and she loves to fish. But I digress.
This trailer only has about 3000 miles on it in the past year and a half. I will be the first to admit I ain't been too good about greasing the bearings. Twice to be exact. I have not had a bearing failure in a long time so I got lax. I think water got in there to cause the bearings to fail, then the castle nut pushed the bearing buddy off like Destroyer and Blue pointed out. I have lost dust caps without bearing failure before but never the other way around.
Time to rip into it. I will let you know shortly.

[RidgeRunner]

The spindles are junk. Both sides fried. The carnage.
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No sign of any bearings only the races left on the hubs. Grabbed the tires on the good axle and there is no preload on the bearings, too loose. On the bright side, the tire/wheel/hub assembly was easy to remove, no tools required... I was lucky not to lose a wheel. Fuzzy pic nearly captures the deep groove where the inner race was working on it.

[RidgeRunner]

Removed the axle, measured and cut the spindles off at the weld. No rust on the inside of the galvanized tubular axle. Need parts. To be continued>>

[phatdaddy]

RR, when you replace the spindles. see if you can get the kind that has a lube system that delivers the grease through the spindle to the rear between the seal & the bearing. all buddy bearings do is put grease on top of the castle nut. i believe it's called Acculube System. you can actually change grease and not take the hub assy apart.

[RidgeRunner]

I like that type also PD. Just need to find two with matching hubs. I screwed up when I purchased a new set of hubs for a different trailer. It has the grease fitting on the end of the spindle like you said but the hubs are not long enough on the inboard side for the seal to cover the hole where the grease comes out. Ask me how I discovered that. The axle was made by Tie Down Engineering and I believe they call their system "Posi Lube." Looking thru a couple of catalogs West wants a pretty penny for the galvanized hubs that Tie Down makes. That repair will need to wait for another day.
I know of a trailer manufacturer that I am hoping will ease the blowon the parts I need today.

[chumbucket]

The trick I've always used with Bearing Buddies;
Before installing the BB, take a pointed punch tool and just inside the hub where the BB will be seated, give it a whack in a couple of spots to create a burr. Now when you tap the BB into the hub, the burrs will grab and keep it in place.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by RidgeRunner

I like that type also PD. Just need to find two with matching hubs. I screwed up when I purchased a new set of hubs for a different trailer. It has the grease fitting on the end of the spindle like you said but the hubs are not long enough on the inboard side for the seal to cover the hole where the grease comes out. Ask me how I discovered that. The axle was made by Tie Down Engineering and I believe they call their system "Posi Lube." Looking thru a couple of catalogs West wants a pretty penny for the galvanized hubs that Tie Down makes. That repair will need to wait for another day.
I know of a trailer manufacturer that I am hoping will ease the blowon the parts I need today.

If you have a drill press and a tap and die set it's easy enough to just measure where you want the greese to come out of the spindle and drill a 1/16" center hole and a side hole. Enlarge and tap the end of the center hole, screw a zerk fitting in and you're good to go. You'll still have to remove the greese cap to add greese, but when you do it will be through the zerk fitting into the center void between the inner and outer races. When you see the greese coming through the front bearing you know that it's filled.