DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

[stopher]

has anyone drilled their trailer hubs near the inner race and added zerks ?

i am thinking of doing this to minimize the frequency of annual hub rebuilds on my dual axle boat trailer.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

just put bearing buddies on it

 

[rte592]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

just put bearing buddies on it

^^^^^^ This in a nut shell
No need to rethink the wheel

The bearing buddies have a spring loaded center and add grease when needed.

 

[BlueLightSpecial]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

Just what smoke said, put some bearing buddies on. They are spring loaded, so you always have fresh grease "pushed" through the bearings. I have put them on all my trailers, some of which see some miles, never had a bearing failure.

 

[Bamaman1]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

+1 on the bearing buddies. It's unanimous.

 

[bigdee]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

has anyone drilled their trailer hubs near the inner race and added zerks ?

i am thinking of doing this to minimize the frequency of annual hub rebuilds on my dual axle boat trailer.

I have built several utility trailers with hubs that already had the zerks in them and it is convenient but you would have to completely disassemble your hubs to drill them.....since a boat trailer gets immersed I would prefer the buddy Bearings

 

[Snowfish]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

I'm amazed at how many people think bearings buddies grease the bearings.:facepalm:

 

[JimS123]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

I'm amazed at how many people think bearings buddies grease the bearings.:facepalm:

semantics

 

[Bondo]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

I'm amazed at how many people think bearings buddies grease the bearings.:facepalm:

Ayuh,... Just as amazing as those who think the entire hub cavity is supposed to be full of grease...

 

[Snowfish]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

Ayuh,... Just as amazing as those who think the entire hub cavity is supposed to be full of grease...

Kind of tough not to if you have EZ Lube axles. Which, IMO, is the most correct answer. BTW, bearing buddys grease the castle nut.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

Bearing buddies dont grease anything--bearings or castle nuts. You pack the bearings and hubs before installation. After installation, the bearing buddies keep internal pressure in the hub (assuming the seals are good) and keep water from infiltrating when warm hubs are immersed in cold water. Eventually, any air that was left in the hub at packing time will work its way out and the hub will be completely filled with grease under slight pressure. Semantics.

Back to the question: Why bother with the fuss of drilling, then cleaning the hubs and installing new seals and zerk fittings? Like everyone else---get bearing buddies or generic equivalent.

And Bondo: I wholeheartedly agree! The entire front wheel hub cavity of my S10 is not and never has been filled with grease. In fact, the inside of the hub between the bearings is bone dry. It came from the factory with only the bearings greased and has stayed that way for 120,000 miles and bearings are still good. Of course, it never gets dunked in water. However, with bearing buddies, the constant pressure will eventually force out all the air and the entire hub will be filled with grease--whether or not it needs to be. It would surprise some to know how little grease a roller or ball bearing needs in order to last--given no contamination.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

Bearing buddies keep contaminates out of the grease in the hub. If the grease is kept from getting contaminated it should least at least 100,000 miles.... How many seasons would it take to get that many miles on YOUR boat trailer?... would take about 20 years for me.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

has anyone drilled their trailer hubs near the inner race and added zerks ?

i am thinking of doing this to minimize the frequency of annual hub rebuilds on my dual axle boat trailer.

Yes you can but would be very hard to do unless you have the right equipment to keep it centered, like a magnetic drill press and depending on the size of spindle. It would be very very hard to do with a hand drill because it will run off center, however thier are 2 companies that make that sort of axle. Dexter and EZ Lube I personally have the dexters and it works great, I would suggest you replace the axles and hubs, or go to the Bearing Buddies.

 

[Bondo]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

Bearing buddies dont grease anything--bearings or castle nuts. You pack the bearings and hubs before installation. After installation, the bearing buddies keep internal pressure in the hub (assuming the seals are good) and keep water from infiltrating when warm hubs are immersed in cold water. Eventually, any air that was left in the hub at packing time will work its way out and the hub will be completely filled with grease under slight pressure. Semantics.

Back to the question: Why bother with the fuss of drilling, then cleaning the hubs and installing new seals and zerk fittings? Like everyone else---get bearing buddies or generic equivalent.

And Bondo: I wholeheartedly agree! The entire front wheel hub cavity of my S10 is not and never has been filled with grease. In fact, the inside of the hub between the bearings is bone dry. It came from the factory with only the bearings greased and has stayed that way for 120,000 miles and bearings are still good. Of course, it never gets dunked in water. However, with bearing buddies, the constant pressure will eventually force out all the air and the entire hub will be filled with grease--whether or not it needs to be. It would surprise some to know how little grease a roller or ball bearing needs in order to last--given no contamination.

Ayuh,... Yer Right,... That's my whole point...

I've tried to point that out, Several times in here, only to be belittled, 'n beaten up over it...

Btw,... In My Opinion anyways,.....
If yer hubs are packed Solid from the bit of grease, 'n pressure from Bearing Buddies,....
Yer Waayyy past due to pull the hubs, 'n clean the bearings for Inspection.....
'n yer probably Over-greasin' 'em to boot...

 

[BlueLightSpecial]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

I personally pull the hub.s once a year, clean and repack. The bearing buddies are an avenue to keep everyt.hing good to go during the year in between

 

[stopher]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

my boat trailer is a dual axle. repacking 4 hubs every year is lots of work that i despise doing.
bearing buddies are clearly good investments, but i always like alternatives...so:

i won't be burning off the axles and replacing my hubs, so EZLube is out.
good feedback on the magnetic drill, but i think a drill press would work fine.
the best part of drilling the hubs and using zerks is that i won't overfill the hubs and i won't blow out the double lipped seals; and i won't spend a fotune on buddies that will likely fall off on the road.


ive observed that it is the inner races are fail because they typically are the ones sucking in water..rust...and fail.

so a zerk on the hub feeding the inner race looks good to me.

expected cost:: labor:4 repacked hubs labor, 1 hour of hub drilling, $2 zerks.

i have to repack it annually anyway, so i might as well add the zerks.

 

[JimS123]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

Ayuh,... Yer Right,... That's my whole point...

I've tried to point that out, Several times in here, only to be belittled, 'n beaten up over it...

Btw,... In My Opinion anyways,.....
If yer hubs are packed Solid from the bit of grease, 'n pressure from Bearing Buddies,....
Yer Waayyy past due to pull the hubs, 'n clean the bearings for Inspection.....
'n yer probably Over-greasin' 'em to boot...

If any grease is better than no grease, what's wrong with grease everywhere?

How can you "over-grease"? I mean - the cavity will take only so much. If over-greasing means it will blow out the rear seal, then i agree with you.

When I re-pack I do the bearings, then fill the cavity up completely. Push her on the shaft and some comes out to replace the volume of the shaft. I fill the Bearing Buddy up full on the backside as well, and when I pound her on the spring is already compressed without the need to add to the zerk.

If ever the spring goes down I pump a few times with the grease gun.

Last Spring I took off my tandem's hubs after 9 years (fresh water). The hubs were full (visually), the grease was still the original blue color (no signs of contamination) and no signs of water. The bearings were like new. I was actually mad that I went to all the effort of removing them.

Prior to using BBs, I repacked every year and almost always had some water in the hub.

 

[cyclops2]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

Well I check the wheel bearings every 2 years. Funny thing about coating EVERYTHING all surface you do not want water to rust. If they are coated correctly. No water touches the metal. The grease may get water in it. But rust never gets started.
My 1000# trailer is all original repack & has no rust on any metal. Funny how that can happen with heavy wheel bearing grease. 33 years & no repacks or replaced parts.

Probably fail next year, after bragging.

 

[bigdee]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

The zerks are not a bad idea...I use them on new hubs for the initial greasing (I still hand pack the bearings) but beyond that they don't really serve a purpose. I think re-packing bearings is overkill,especially if you use the BBs. A good trick is to use aluminum complex white food grade grease. It is expensive but will out perform any other grease you can buy. It will prevent rust and corrosion if water does does get in.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: DIY drill hubs and add zerks - advice sought

If ever the spring goes down I pump a few times with the grease gun.

Last Spring I took off my tandem's hubs after 9 years (fresh water). The hubs were full (visually), the grease was still the original blue color (no signs of contamination) and no signs of water. The bearings were like new. I was actually mad that I went to all the effort of removing them.

Prior to using BBs, I repacked every year and almost always had some water in the hub.

THIS! hard to argue with success.... or you could drill n stuff.... Keep in mind tho.... no ez lube or homebrew version of same will stop water intrusion like the BB's will.... drive down the road and bearings get warm creating positive pressure and seeking to leak air past seal and hub cap.... dunk em in cold water and a vacuum is created which wants to pull water in... The bearing buddy keeps positive pressure at all times so water is never pulled in