Trailer Bearing/Hub question

I have never experienced something so needlessly complicated as buying parts for a trailer. It's like some of those companies came up with their own units of measurement.

Yes, I would take it to a trailer shop and have them suggest a more permanent solution, though the inner seals throwing grease isn't the end of the world. It actually allows grease to pass all the way through the hub, and its very common because bearing buddies put extra pressure on the inside seal. If it's not double lipped, cleaned perfectly, and exactly the right size it will leak, but leaking out is better than leaking in.

Have you looked into oil bath hubs? I know some people hate them but I have had very good luck with mine. Before I sold my last skiff the trailer had 10k miles on the hubs with zero service.

Might be something worth looking into if you're looking for a change.

Buying new hubs and bearings ready to go already and replacing it all, is what I'm doing now. I hate a fricking boat trailer.

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I agree except the plunger in the BB is constantly being sucked all of the way in. And according to their videos, this is when you add grease

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You're doing what you're supposed to, it just shouldn't be happening in the first place.

The bearing buddy has caused the inside seal to fail because the inside seal likely wasn't designed for use with bearing buddies and the pressure they create. Either that or it was filled with too much grease, it wasn't cleaned well, or it's just the wrong size.

The entire point of BBs is they create pressure, via the plunger, inside the hub so that water can't enter. A hub that's hot from riding will be quenched when you back it into the water, inducing a vacuum and sucking the water into the hub to ruin the grease and eventually your bearings. The pressure exerted by the BB prevents this. If the inside seal is leaking badly, and the plunger is all the way down, it's doing no good and water is gonna come in. That said, if the leak isn't that bad and the plunger remains compressed even after driving, the BB is still doing it's job even with a little grease seeping from the inside seal. In fact this acts as a half arse purge for the spent grease, assuming your zerk is on the outside and you keep it topped off.

Like I said earlier, a leaking inside seal isn't the end of the world, but you need to have a trailer shop look at it and come up with a permanent solution you won't have to baby.

When we got our cargo trailer, the guy told us to only grease them once or twice a year. He also said to just use a little bit of grease, because if you over-grease them, it will spew out as you are rolling. Hope this helps.

Hubs that will never be put under water are much easier to maintain and have a different set of rules. The whole issue with boat trailer hubs is what I explained above, them getting warm and then being quenched quickly by submerging in water, combined with just the pressure of the water, creates a pressure difference that forces water into the hub. Utility trailers are fine just being packed once every few years.

Well timmken bearings have fallen off imo.

Find a local industrial supply and get some American made.

If you want a good second the NSK from Japan are jam up bearings.

I quit buying timmken for my mechanically intensive packaging qleuipment in one of our units in our plant. Our supplier reps NSK . I can attest that hold up well in caustic. MRC are also good and hold up well in our caustic service.