2 Trailer Bearing Questions

[Larry Harp]

?#1...I checked the bearings on my new 591 the other day. I was expecting it to be full of new grease but what I saw suprised me. It had grease in it but it was far from full. I went ahead and pumped some more it there. It took 5 or 8 pumps to start to see some movement of the old grease. On the old Tracker I would check them about every 2 or 3 trips and pump some fresh grease in there and the old would ooze out. I would glop it off with my finger and put the cap back on and never a problem. Should the whole grease compartment (for lack of a better term) be full or is it going to get full with old grease like my old boat did?



?#2....Why are wheel bearings on boat trailers such a source of trouble? I can't even count how many cars I've owned over the years...everything from Fiats to Fords...even a Corvette and a Z car a BMW, 4 VWs and I've never....NEVER had a wheel bearing problem. To the best of my knowledge I've never even had a wheel bearing on an automobile or truck serviced. Yet, one of the biggest P.I.A.'s we have on boat trailers is the wheel bearings....why? Is it the 2 or 3 minute dunk they take a couple of times a month or even a week? Surely a farm truck or even a family car lives in a wetter, dustier, and more hostile enviroment on a daily basis than a boat trailer. There's got to be something I'm missing....why don't the boat guys start buying their bearings from the car guys?



Harpo

 

[Mini]

#1 dont over fill



#2 immersion in water

 

[Jim B]

Harpo, the bearings on a trailer are pretty much borrowed directly from cars. Your older style rear drive cars and trucks with front disk brakes had the same type of tapered roller bearings you see on a trailer. And just like a trailer they need to be serviced. Most of the time they would be when you brought the car into the shop for a brake job. To turn the rotors they would yank them from the car and inspect/repack the beraings at that time and replace whatever was needed. They also can and do fail on cars, ive replaced quite a few bacm in my 4wheeling days with id sink the truck in the mud or water and trash the front bearings.



Newer cars use a different style of bearing in the front, they are much bigger ane the half shaft on front/4wd runs thru the middle of them. They are "sealed for life" and are non serviceable. I have replaced a few of these over the years in my trucks too. I dont think they would do any better ona a boat trailer then what we use today.

They look kinda like this

 

[TOMMY RICH]

Yep...H2O is the enemy here.

 

[fatrap]

Years ago (1993) when I bought my DC170 I asked the guys in the shop how often do I need to pull em and grease em. He told be to keep my @#% fingers off the bearings and keep the hubs pumped up. I'd probably mess the system up and it was designed for a continuous flow of grease through the bearings and out the relief holes on the outside of the hub. So that's what I did. Fourteen years later no problems. I check constantly for heat build up. Jack the trailer up and rock the wheel back and forth to check for looseness. Nothing still good. Everything runs cool and tight. That's a lot of miles on the trailer since then. mmmmmmmh.

fatrap

 

[joe haley]

replace your caps with bearing buddies give it alittle shot of grease each time you pull it out of water



JD

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Do you have the oil bath hubs or the old grease style?



TOXIC

 

[Larry Harp]

Grease. I don't think you get oil bath hubs until you get into the 9 series.

 

[TrepMan]

Mini - "#1 dont over fill" on the newer Nitro trailers how can you over fill them? Since the grease is pushed from the back forward and comes out? I know on the old style and the Bearing buddies if you overfill them it blows the seals out the back, but on my '99 and 2000 models the flow through (can't remember the fancy name) could never over fill???



JD - the modern Trailstair trailers do not have a standard cap and you can not replace them with Bearing Buddies, the system is great as long as you service them once a year or so (depending on use) and keep an eye on the rear seal (any grease on the inside of the rim is a sure sign).



Trep

 

[Mini]

Once the cap pushes out to the end of its travel and you put more grease in you are blowing out the seal.



Whatever the direction the grease travels once its full, its full.



Mini

 

[TOMMY RICH]

I think Trep is talking about the EZ lube system....