Bearings and tire durability on a long tow, your opinion and experience wanted

[JimS123]

Discount Tire can still get Carlisle... you have to have them ordered and they avoid that, so they usually won't tell you about it. you have to ask for it.

Carlisle makes several different models of tires. Only 1 is USA made. If you read the reviews their USATrail is the worst of the lot. I got set of them on a new trailer - one failed the first trip and the other the second year.

I have read good reviews on LoadStar tires, and ended up buying 2 sets in the past few years. They seem to be as good as Goodyear was back in the old day - so far...

 

[H20Rat]

I always disassemble everything, clean, and repackaged before a long trip.

Not saying your maintenance schedule is bad, but... Really? I've repacked maybe 3 sets of bearings in 20+ years, and I often tow trailers on 6 to 8 hour 1 way trips. Repacking really isn't nearly as important as actually having grease in the bearing! Bearing buddies seem to get a bad rap here, but I've never repacked a trailer with bearing buddies, ever. Just keep grease in it without popping the seal and it will last a long, long time.

 

[JimS123]

Not saying your maintenance schedule is bad, but... Really? I've repacked maybe 3 sets of bearings in 20+ years, and I often tow trailers on 6 to 8 hour 1 way trips. Repacking really isn't nearly as important as actually having grease in the bearing! Bearing buddies seem to get a bad rap here, but I've never repacked a trailer with bearing buddies, ever. Just keep grease in it without popping the seal and it will last a long, long time.

I used to repack annually. Always saw a few drops of water. Then I put on Bearing Buddies. Nine years later I repacked, based on comments on this forum saying I should. Boy was I mad....I found there was no need to repack.....the grease was still green!!

 

[WIMUSKY]

Not saying your maintenance schedule is bad, but... Really? I've repacked maybe 3 sets of bearings in 20+ years, and I often tow trailers on 6 to 8 hour 1 way trips. Repacking really isn't nearly as important as actually having grease in the bearing! Bearing buddies seem to get a bad rap here, but I've never repacked a trailer with bearing buddies, ever. Just keep grease in it without popping the seal and it will last a long, long time.

That's probably 2 more times than I've repacked. I'm a firm believer in Buddies.....

 

[bigdee]

The only difference between the wheel bearings on your trailer and an automobile is yours get submerged and water can enter hubs. Bearing Buddies will prevent that.

 

[fishin98]

I tow my boats from Central Fl to east central TN twice a year, been doing so for the last 25 years. I repack the bearings, every couple of years, I use bearing buddies. I replace the tires very 3 years or at the 1st sign of weather cracking, especially in the tread, never had a issue. I carry 2 spare tires, spare hub/bearings and a grease gun. This past summer I purchased a boat in WI with the intention of bringing it home to Central Fl. 1st things done were to replace all the tires and wheels(Carlisle) install new preassembled hubs/bearing kit's, new bearing buddies. Made the 1700 mile trip home @70-75mph with no issues. Until recently I was a OTR truck driver, I was constantly amazed at the number of boats, including high end fishing rigs, sitting on the side of the road with the tires blown or hubs missing, because the owners were to cheap to have decent or spare tires on the trailer or too lazy to perform proper maintenance.

 

[StarTed]

I've also seen quite a few boats on trailers along side the road with tire/bearing problems. I guess they don't do maintenance or drive like mad.

I pulled my home made trailer (at that time a single axle flat bed) way overloaded with old weather checked tires to Alaska from Washington. Due to the weight in it I tried to drive around 55 but sometimes caught myself going faster. I carried 1 spare under it but had no tire problems. or any other type either. In fact I pulled that trailer to Alaska and back twice before the tires started to leak through all the cracks. The only flat I had was during a local drive.

The hubs are old Chrysler products so the tire shop that replaced the tires couldn't get one wheel off until I suggested that maybe they should consider left hand thread. The young guy had never heard of such a thing. Maybe he's a little wiser now.

By the way, the tires were over inflated for the Alaska trip because they bagged so much under the load. 2500 miles one way with long days driving.

I'd say you have nothing to be concerned about your tires and bearings if you keep them inflated to the maximum and bearings greased.