bearing buddies

[Mr.Stuart]

I rebuilt my boat trailer and installed bearing buddies, I've never used them before (new boater) I packed the bearings with a bearing packer before I installed them in the hubs, I put the hubs on the axle, then I installed the bearing buddies and put the grease gun to them to finish packing them, after about 5 or 6 pumps, it just stopped, I couldn't squeeze another drop of grease. it was the same for both sides of the trailer, is that normal? or did the zirk plug up or something?

 

[akwalker]

Re: bearing buddies

They are full,,,,,, the inner cap is against the snap ring.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: bearing buddies

You have enough in there.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: bearing buddies

There is bound to be a little air inside the hub. It will eventually work its way out and you will see the zerk fitting recessed more into the buddy. Then you can fit in more grease.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: bearing buddies

You add grease until the plate the grease zerk is in just moves. You don't need more grease than that. Adding too much will likely pop the rear seal.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: bearing buddies

ok, thanks, I was thinking I had enough in there, I'll run the trailer back and forth to work a couple of days this week and work those bearings and see if I can get any more grease in them. every things new, so I should probably drag it around a Little bit so the suspension parts, bearings and grease settle in, then check everything to make sure it's going to stay together.

Stuart

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: bearing buddies

Pump just enogh in there to where you see it start to move and stop as has been said.
You can and will push the inner or back seal out if you pump too much in there, don't ask.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: bearing buddies

I pulled the trailer to work and back yesterday, it was my first chance to run the trailer since the rebuild, I noticed when I got it back home last night that there was a little play in the hubs, like maybe I could turn the castle nut just one more notch and re-insert the cotter pin, I figured I?d try putting some more grease in the hub first, and see if that tightens it up a little more.

here's some pictures of the trailer, I still need to finish it up, I got the rollers on it, but still trying to figure out how I'm going to do the bunks

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: bearing buddies

You can see in this next picture how I put a couple of 4x4's under the corners of the boat to level it out, I've been looking online for bunk hardware and have yet to see anything that will work with this trailer, either that, or I'm just not understanding how the bunks are supposed to be mounted, so I'm still working to figure the bunks out, I want to go with something that looks good on the trailer, I don't want it looking like a ....well, a back yard job

The trailer was originally made by "Sterling" and the model is a "Scout" I tried doing a search for them on the net and found nothing, I have no idea how old it is, my guess at this point is maybe out of the 70's? And I'm judging that by the condition the trailer was in when I got it.

 

[byacey]

Re: bearing buddies

Don't over-tighten the bearings. On tapered roller bearings there should be a tiny bit of slop that you can feel rocking the tire when lifted off the ground.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: bearing buddies

that's what I got, just a tiny bit on each side, I greased them again today, I just need to use it more, get that boat out nd go fishing

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: bearing buddies

What are you towing with ????

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: bearing buddies

What are you towing with ????

you mean what’s my tow rig? It’s a Jeep grand Cherokee, or are you talking about the trailer? that's a Sterling, it's the Scout model, but that's about all I can tell you about it, I can't find anything anywhere about the Sterling trailers, don't know when they made them or when they went out of business, it's got a really low serial number though, so my guess is they wern't around very long, they came from Salem Ohio, or at least as I recall, that's what the name plate says.

the trailer looks nothing like it did when I got it, it looked like it had been modified many times over the years to fit different boats, I took everything off it, the winch post was welded to it at about the middle of the trailer a couple of feet in front of the axle, I ground off some bad welds, tore it down to nothing and started over, when I got it, the feners were welded on it, and they sat about a foot and a half above the tires, they looked really ugly, it also had a few different shades of greens and blues on it, it probably had at least 3 or 4 different paint jobs on it in it's life, I stripped it down to bare metal and started over

 

[ezmobee]

Re: bearing buddies

That trailer looks really nice. I need to redo mine and I'm dreading the task. My axel and springs are really rusty so I'm probably going to try to just buy a whole new unit to pop on.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: bearing buddies

That trailer looks really nice. I need to redo mine and I'm dreading the task. My axel and springs are really rusty so I'm probably going to try to just buy a whole new unit to pop on.

your starcraft looks like mine, I've got a 78 Holiday 18.

the little red trailer was pretty bad to, lots of grinding and sanding, and it finally started to look like something again.