Trailer hub grease discussion

He raises some good points. I run buddy bearings on my boats and always have. I do my own service on the bearings/grease and have never had a failure (knock on wood). I typically don’t get in my boat from say August till maybe the middle of February. Before my first trip out in the spring I will jack the tire off the ground and spin it listening for noise, grant it I know what to listen for. Check for excessive slack. Look to see in the seal is leaking behind the inner bearing. Lastly I will add grease, if needed. That I feel, is just a good practice. Pending, I've never ran Vault or oil bath hubs. When I hear noise 99% of the time water has gotten in and it’s time for a rebuild. New Timken bearings/races, new seal and grease of course. For those that don’t know how to mess with it Id recommend bringing it in to a trailer place if you hear a bearing making noise when you jack it up and spin it, see grease slung on the inside your wheel or your hubs are hot to the touch after a tow. Warm is good. Hot means your nut is to tight, your low on grease or have had water intrusion. I try to stay on top of this as I don’t want to be the guy on the side of the road with a failure. I’ve went save friends with failures, it ain’t fun. Majority of the time when you have a failure your spindle gets damaged too. Then even if you have a emergency hub kit the bearings won’t slide on due to burs and gouging on the spindle.

Stay on top of it, baws.

I just bought a used boat trailer about 4 months ago that has oil bath bearings on it. Frist time ever messing with them and like them so far. I changed the oil as soon as I got it with fresh 90W oil. Took about 15 minutes total for both sides. The only bad thing I have heard about them is if the seal gives out, then you are F'd because all of the oil drains out where as grease will at least not 100% leave the bearing as soon as the seal gives out. I'll probably try to change the oil every 6 months or so just to stay on top of it.

Get vortex. They're expensive but worth it.

Very good advice. I use grease and feel my hubs whenever I stop. They start to feel hot you got problems brewing. I tend to repack mine every 2-3 years.

Nothing worse than being on the side of the road with shot bearings.

Never understood why people call Bearing Buddies buddy bearings. Are that many people dyslexic?

y’all gots any tips on how to prevent bearing buddies from oozing out all over my wheels while filling them?

I use a temp gun.

Got a baseline after I just repacked them.

Then I gun them periodically after a I haul for a couple hours.

Right before I repacked I checked temp to see how hot they were getting then try to keep them between those two points to see if they are going bad.

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Overfilling them

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just pump grease until the disc starts to move.

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Likely my problem. I pump way after it begins to move outwards.

My trailer is 22 years old and Ive never had a bearing go out. It's made many trips to Toledo Bend and to lakes around my house. It has Bearing Buddies that I don't think have ever worked correctly. I just pump grease in twice a year until the indicator starts moving out. Any time I stop or when I get to the lake I check for heat and shake my tires for slop in bearings. My inside seals have leaked for years but I haven't had a problem yet.