greasing trailer bearings

M

mjgates

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
May 5, 2010
Messages
97
This is usually done at the shop, they do it during winterization for free since I have grease fittings. However, the hub cover with fitting fell off on my way home last week. I bought a new hub cover and grease gun. It was a multi purpose grease, but had a picture of a boat on it, so I used it. I packed around the hub by hand, then put what I dealt was a good amount of grease in the fitting after putting the hub cover on. How do I know if enough is in it. It was getting harder and harder to pump, but no grease came out the fitting at all. Did I do everything I need to do to be safe when taking my boat to the lake?

This is a double axel trailer with brakes.
 
Y

Yellow Yota

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 23, 2009
Messages
122
Re: greasing trailer bearings

The best way to know for sure would be to disassemble the hubs and pack the bearings. Either by hand or with a bearing packer.

Then put it all back together and have a good time. Pump a couple of shots of grease into the quick-lubes a couple of times a year.
 
N

northernmerc

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
401
Re: greasing trailer bearings

I also like Bearing Buddies (or the NAPA equivalent). Even with Bearing Buddies, however, it's a good idea to disassemble everything and repack by hand once in a while. Otherwise, one has no way of knowing if a bearing is wearing badly or something else has gone wrong in there.

One other thing, I'm curious to know how long it takes for grease to find its way from the grease zerk in the Bearing Buddy to the inner bearing area. The Bearing Buddy does a great job of protecting the outer bearing area from water intrusion, but water still can enter through the rear seal, unless the grease actually fills the entire hub cavity and exerts positive pressure from inside on the seal.

I have various grease guns, including one dedicated to only greasing bearing buddies on the trailers. It's not a good idea to mix types or brands of grease in wheel bearings. And only use wheel bearing grease, or marine wheel bearing grease, on trailer bearings. Stay away from MOLY greases for this type of bearing.
 
JaseBosto

JaseBosto

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
389
Re: greasing trailer bearings

I'm surprised bond-o hasn't chimed in on this one yet.....
 
redone4x4

redone4x4

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Feb 28, 2009
Messages
1,548
Re: greasing trailer bearings

Dave Abrahamson said:
Bingo! That's exactly what they do.(or supposed to do)
Click to expand...

yep. I fill ALL the air voids around the axle and between the bearings too. Air will attract and hold the water, so you want 100% grease and no air in there. Then after all the voids are filled with grease, install the buddy and top it off. Thats the way i do it, anyways. :D
 
R

rentprop1

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Aug 30, 2008
Messages
358
Re: greasing trailer bearings

northernmerc said:
One other thing, I'm curious to know how long it takes for grease to find its way from the grease zerk in the Bearing Buddy to the inner bearing area. The Bearing Buddy does a great job of protecting the outer bearing area from water intrusion, but water still can enter through the rear seal, unless the grease actually fills the entire hub cavity and exerts positive pressure from inside on the seal.
.
Click to expand...

I'm not totally convinced it ever fills it, I pumped in what I thought was a metric button of grease only to find it only filled the outer cavity, after traveling about 40 miles I checked them and noticed the inside of the buddy was full but not the voids around the axle.....

the way I think about it the grease heats up and by centrifugal force gets slung to the outer part of the axle area, then has no where to go but out through the outer bearing, but there isn't much force to push it back through the outer bearing back into the center axle area.......:confused:

anyone know more about how the grease moves around in there when it gets warmed up ???
 
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