Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

[korygrandy]

Does anyone know what is causeing this? I am new to boating but my driver side trailer wheel is spotless...however i clean up the passenger side wheel only to get a mess again.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

The dust cap is not sealing properly. Have you recently done the bearings?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

Is that a bearing buddy on there? Hard to tell since the pictures are so dark.

 

[searay3]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

That does look like a bearing buddy. Whats happeneing is excess grease or the zirk leaking is allowing the grease to spatter around the wheel. They sell caps for those, acouple of bucks and it will keep your wheels clean.

 

[robert graham]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

Yea, they call them bearing buddy bras, help keep the grease from slinging out all over your wheels, buy them at Northern Tool, Tractor Supply, or similar.

 

[korygrandy]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

Thanks guys. I will get this bearing buddy bras. Odd that it does it only on the one tire. In an unrelated issue the tread is ripping off around the outer side of that same tire. I brought it to my tire guy and he recommended I get the trailer aligned.

 

[Reel Kahuna]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

You also may want to check the seal. If it is the seal, the bearings may be going out.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

You also may want to check the seal. If it is the seal, the bearings may be going out.

Maybe you didn't notice but the grease is on the front of the rim...grease seal is near the backside of the rim.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

Looks sort of like he's got a Sure Lube type hub there, the one's with the grommet and the grease fitting on the end of the spindle.
If the grease is pushing out past the grommet, then maybe it's just over greased?
Or you have a bad grommet and maybe even some water got in which is pushing out the grease. I'd be pulling that wheel and taking a better look at the bearings if it were mine.
A new set of grommets wouldn't hurt either.

I added some light to his original pics, it makes the bearing cap a bit clearer:

 

[korygrandy]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

Here are some closeups if this helps. This is an EZ Loader trailer

 

[craze1cars]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

Those are not bearing buddies. BobVT and Reelfishin got it right. And it is pretty clear to me that the rubber cap on the one that's spewing grease is not seated properly. Therefore it's spraying grease on your wheels at speed.

Take the cap off, clean the excess grease off so you can see how it fits, and if the rubber cap/grommet is not damaged, just put it back on properly. 2 minutes and a screwdriver (or maybe just your fingers) with a few rags should solve this problem. Or a buck or two to buy a new rubber cap.

Agree it's probably also time for a full disassembly/inspect/repack. This should be annual maintenance, so if you don't know when it was last done...it is now time. FYI buying bearing buddy bras will not help you here since you don't have bearing buddies. Don't buy them.

And if your tire is actually shredding it should be easy to identify the cause by someone who knows what they're looking for. My first suspicion would be a bent fender that's cutting the tire on bumps?? Or a bent axle...

I presume you bought this rig used? It seems your trailer needs a bit of service.

 

[korygrandy]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

I will do some inspections. This is my first trailer so there is a lot to learn. I did just buy it...it's a 2003 and the boat only had 100hrs so I'm assuming the trailer had much less since the guy took it close to his home everytime but you never know.

 

[Utahboatnut]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

I have the sure lubes as well and if the rubber end cap isn't on just right this happens. Take it off clean and inspect real well and put back on. The tire could be a few things not saying its not alignment , but that usually scrubbs the tred of real fast rather than chunking it out like that. As mentioned have a look at the fender edge could be cutting into the tire on a bigger bump etc. Or the boat could have been parked in such a way that side was exposed to sun all day but the other side wasn't, and now its starting to come apart. How does the rest of the tire look?

 

[robert graham]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

Yep,same exact set-up as mine, that little cap may be cracked or not seated properly, causing grease to leak out, the bearing buddy bras protect the rubber caps from UV sunlight and give you a double protection from water or grease leaks.

 

[Low dsrt jon]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

You have a bad bearing seal. Have it replaced as soon as possible or keep cleaning up the mess and pumping a waste of good bearing grease into the hub. LDJ :redface::redface::redface:

 

[Utahboatnut]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

As said before a bad seal deposits grease on the BACK side of the rim not the outside..

 

[korygrandy]

Re: Bearing lube everywhere on 1 tire

Utah...you were dead on. I took that black seal off cleaned everything up and put it back on the correct way in the grooves properly. The tire was sitting and is warped...if I spin the wheel the rubber is clearly warped in one spot up as I spin it it's high on one spot probably where it was sitting.

Thanks for the help guys!