Greasing trailer hubs.

[Jigger]

How often do you all grease your trailer hubs? What's your advice?

[keithdog]

Good question Jigger and I'm waitting for some advice as well. Thanks for posting. I don't have the clear Bearing Buddies so I can't see if my hubs are ok or not.

[bassinbob]

There was a tutorial in an issue of Bass awhile ago. If I find it I'll post what they reccommend.

[walkeraviator]

we tend to check em and pack em if they need it every spring before we hit Ky lake in March...

[Captmikestarrett]

Depending on how hot it is OR if you drive and splash real quick I would say each month. But at least twice a year hit it with the grease gun. I how ever eat a tire or two each year so my schedule is every three months. I have discoved some new grease that works pretty darn good so far. Green waterproof.



Capt Mike

[nofearengineer]

I bought some of that too, Cap'n Mike.

Despite having the word "green" in it, which repels my consumer dollars like water on well,....grease, I took a chance and tried it. We'll see how it does at my next inspection.

[Abbeysdad]

The wheels on my EZ Loader trailer have zerk fittings similar to breaker buddies. The manual says to lube them after each time in the water! My boat dealer said that was way overkill and I should do it about twice a season. I've been ultra conservative and 'serviced' them with several pumps of fresh grease every 2-3 times out. In this case, it's easy enough and a few pumps of fresh grease is worth the peace of mind. I could likely cut back as so far, I haven't seen any negative signs in the grease that gets pushed out (e.g. it doesn't look like water has gotten in there and the grease looks 'good'). Now I suppose if I had to pull and repack wheel bearings, I might opt for twice a season or so, depending on use, both miles on the road and times in the water.

[walkeraviator]

Liek I said we have to take ours apart and pack em... but every year we check and it seems as though there is zero sign of moisture in the grease, and we seimply repack to raplce what is lost while checking the bearings then put it all back together.. then after 2 trips to the lake i clean all teh pink grease off the chrome wheels...

[nofearengineer]

I have seen V-8 engines torn down that have 100,000 miles on them, and you wouldn't know they had 10,000 by looking at the main bearings. And crankshafts spin around 3,4, or more times for every time the wheels turn around.

If you take good care of your wheel bearings by keeping them well-lubed, you may never need to replace them.

[Abbeysdad]

Assuming there's a good seal to prevent water intrusion, I'd think the bearings should hold up pretty well w/o a need for routine repacking... (I have a fair number miles on my SUV and haven't repacked a one). The trouble may be dipping hot wheels in cold water, which may lead to a seal failure...water intrusion and grease breakdown???
(just "spit-balling" here)

[twigass]

hey guys I bought a ranger boat with matching trailer and i was wondering if you knew if there was a way to grease this without having to tear it apart, it's not a self contained bearing, and there is not enough room to put a bearing buddy on, so is tearing it apart the only option

[bassfisher]

I got into the habit of touching my wheels/bearing area when I use to trailer my motorcycles once a month a few years ago, and always had my grease gun with me. IF they felt warm, I shoot them a few pumps of grease, if they were cold, I'd leave them alone. Plus I'd repack them once a year. That trailer is now 10 years old, and never had to replace the bearings. (True it never got put into water like our boat trailers, but still) On my newer boat, one grease cup was bent, and taking on water, so I just replaced the cup, and removed all the grease from that hub, and it was fine, I just regreased it. I clean the old grease out yearly with a flat tip screwdriver and regrease them untill I see new grease and stop. (Now I use my boat at least once a week, sometimes twice, 45 to 75 miles oneway) Try to get into the habit of touching them rims every time ya stop, and you'll be fine, me think.

[CMorg]

Thanks for bringing this up. I went out and greased my trailer hubs , and noticed that the right side has a tear in the rubber cap that covers my grease port. I noticed all spring that my truck had grease splatters on it when I got done towing my boat , I just assumed it was too full of grease. Now , how do I fix this ? BTW , the grease was really low on that side. Hopefully no damage has been done.

[bassfisher]

Just go got another rubber seal.

With me, I lucked out, the dealer had one seal, and one seal with a new bearing cap. (I wanted new seals, so I bought the cap and seal, it wasn't that much different in price) Got home and THAT's when I notice the cap had been bent and letting water in around the seal. I pried it off, and used a 5lb hammer, a 4x4 block of wood, and my stepson, and we tipped it back into place. I also used a little below water marine sealant on the hub to make sure it didn't leak around it. (It might have been an overkill on the sealant, but it's working)

[Rebbasser]

Pop the cap off and it will reveal the grease fitting and show if there is grease in it. If it needs grease just attach a grease gun to the fitting and add what you need. I usually check every few trips and replace/repack the bearings every other year. If you can use them bearing buddies are the way to go, The grease fitting is on the outside which makes it much easier to service them. Replacing/repacking bearings is not hard. I've found that replacing the whole hub is not much more expensive that

[Rebbasser]

Pop the cap off and it will reveal the grease fitting and show if there is grease in it. If it needs grease just attach a grease gun to the fitting and add what you need. I usually check every few trips and replace/repack the bearings every other year. If you can use them bearing buddies are the way to go, The grease fitting is on the outside which makes it much easier to service them.