Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

[hray]

Just blew out a wheel bearing (inner). Luckily no real harm done. Would like to replace before this ever happens again, but not sure how many miles to expect from a set of bearing before changing. Any thoughts?

 

[wifisher]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

Bearing failure is almost always from improper maintenance, or overloading. If a bearing is properly greased, has the correct preload, and is not extremely overloaded, It will out-last the trailer.

 

[JB]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

What wifisher said. You also need to keep water out of the bearings.

 

[Blue2Green]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

Bearing failure is almost always from improper maintenance, or overloading. If a bearing is properly greased, has the correct preload, and is not extremely overloaded, It will out-last the trailer.

I agree, I have pulled maintenance on old Military Trailers and through the history have found trailers with 20 yo bearings. Just have to keep up the PM.

 

[bigdee]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

Occasionally you can get a bad bearing from the get-go or sometimes the cone can be out of spec. or in most cases over-tightened when installed. The bearing and cone will have tell-tale signs that may clue you into what happened. I agree with wifisher....properly maintained bearings should last a lifetime.

 

[Randy J]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

i R & R em every 3 years of, course keep em greased wth with bearing buddies and lube about 6 times a year heck no worries and get out of house when the honey do's start lolo

 

[Bamaman1]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

I'm also a believer in Bearing Buddies. I'm experienced in bearing failures--all my fault. I still like to manually pull the bearings yearly and physically inspect them. It doesn't hurt to take your hand and feel the spindles when you stop for gas, etc., as they'll heat up if the bearings are problems.

 

[sw33ttooth]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

yah, bearing buddies are the way to go you should at least check bearings and seals every few years and might as well replace em, there pretty cheap. i check my bearing buddies every month or so and pump them up rather spend a buck or 2 in grease then a day of labor and maybe a new axle and hub also i did a bearing job 2 months ago on my uncles tri-axle trailer bearings that were in it were 20+ years old and still great so i packd them back up and installed[of course it is not a boat trailer, he uses it for the front end loader]

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

Bearings/seals properly maintained will last forever

 

[444]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

Keep them greased frequently and if the wheels still spin okay and the wheels/hubs don't move around when you jack up the trailer and grab the tires, don't worry about it. If you replace them all now, you will probably never have to worry about them again if you keep them greased.

 

[90stingray]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

I bought my stingray a few years back... she's 20+ years old and trailer too. When I did the bearings I could tell they had never been out before. But cleaned the grease, inspected, and repacked. Trailer has bearing buddies... the only way to go I plan on pulling bearings out every other year to clean and inspect.

 

[bigdee]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

Absolutely agree with bearing buddies. The concept is simple.....positive pressure created by the spring keeps water from entering and it works.

 

[paultjohnson]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

One thing Ive been told, that kind of makes sense to me is this... When you drop warm/hot bearings/hubs underwater, the heat actually make the hub area and grease somewhat hydroscopic. It will want to pull water into the assembly. Somewhat the same idea as sweating copper pipes with solder and a torch. Its hard not to do tho... if you just got off the freeway on a hot day and the ramp is open, your gonna use it. But not dunkin' warm bearings would help in the long run, I believe.

 

[bigdee]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

One thing Ive been told, that kind of makes sense to me is this... When you drop warm/hot bearings/hubs underwater, the heat actually make the hub area and grease somewhat hydrostatic. It will want to pull water into the assembly. Somewhat the same idea as sweating copper pipes with solder and a torch. Its hard not to do tho... if you just got off the freeway on a hot day and the ramp is open, your gonna use it. But not dunkin' warm bearings would help in the long run, I believe.

Your absolutely correct.....warm hubs create a negative (vacuum) when cooled by submerging them in water which will suck in water,even with good seals. Bearing buddies have a spring loaded piston that pushes against the grease so that vacuum cannot happen.

 

[The Famous Grouse]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

In theory, under ideal conditions, and with proper maintainance bearings should last a long time and even forever.

OK, now let's talk about reality.

A boat trailer is about as far from "ideal conditions" as you can get. The #1 issue is that the bearings get imersed in water and can therefore easily become comtaminated with particle matter and begin corroding because of the water intrusion without this fact being readily visible.

I'm a big fan of Bearing Buddies and I firmly believe that for the average user they help greatly in extending the life of bearings. If you're paying attention, they also provide an easy way to know if your inner seal is shot.

But even with Bearing Buddies, I change out all my trailer bearings every 3 years regardless of mileage. I have never have a bearing failure in tens of thousands of miles of towing and currently own 3 boats/trailers.

When I clean up and inspect the old bearings that I've removed (I never re-install a bearing), even after 3 years, there are almost always 1 or more bearings showing major wear, pitting, or other flaws that would eventually become fatal. Now maybe they would have gone 2 more years, maybe not, but for peace of mind I think it's worth it.

Grouse

 

[Sixmark]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

1977 Dilly trailer, Dad bought it new, bearings got repacked the beginning of every season.

We finally had to put a new set in back about 2005.

Maintenance pays!!!!

 

[laker2]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

bearing buddies are good but they also give people a false sense of security, remove clean and inspect bearing annually and you should never have a problem.

 

[Snowfish]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

bearing buddies are good but they also give people a false sense of security, remove clean and inspect bearing annually and you should never have a problem.

New Seals too. Cheap insurance. Bearing Buddies are good for filling your drums with grease or turning the rims black.

I like bearing buddies. They bring me a lot of business.

 

[paultjohnson]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

My experience is that the inner seal failing causes as much wheel bearing failure as lack of grease and improper adjustment. As the spindle starts to rust, the rust gets closer and closer to the seal. Especially on a boat trailer that is dunked, then parked, over and over. Then the seal spins on a rusted spindle causing abrasion to the rubber, then water and dirt gets in bearing. Then you are on the side of the road, muttering 4 letter nuances....

 

[wifisher]

Re: Wheel Bearings, How many miles?

My experience is that the inner seal failing causes as much wheel bearing failure as lack of grease and improper adjustment. As the spindle starts to rust, the rust gets closer and closer to the seal. Especially on a boat trailer that is dunked, then parked, over and over. Then the seal spins on a rusted spindle causing abrasion to the rubber, then water and dirt gets in bearing. Then you are on the side of the road, muttering 4 letter nuances....

I would agree, however, the bearing is failing from lack of grease. The lack of grease was caused by the bad seal.