Your towing rigs and trailers

[wolfpack2]

Be extremely careful with bearing buddies on axles with brakes. They have a tendency to push grease (or at least the oil that separates from it) past the inside seal. This leads to a destroyed set of brakes and no braking capacity plus an expensive repair. Don't ask me how I now. The service center that repaired my trailer advised me to remove the bearing buddies and just service the axles annually as recommend by Dexter. They told me they see this often on travel trailers. Same thing with the easy lube axles. If you get carried away with the grease on those, it can push the grease out the back side. The bearing buddies have a spring that keeps constant pressure on the grease which in turn forces it past the seal over time.

 

[ultrarunner]

^^^ Makes sense... I run bearing buddies on just about all my trailers... only one has brakes... the other 5 don't and I never thought about getting grease on the shoes... thanks for the heads up!

 

[sixdogs]

^^^ Makes sense... I run bearing buddies on just about all my trailers... only one has brakes... the other 5 don't and I never thought about getting grease on the shoes... thanks for the heads up!

Yes, thank you. I'm going to look into this ASAP.

 

[sixdogs]

^^^ Makes sense... I run bearing buddies on just about all my trailers... only one has brakes... the other 5 don't and I never thought about getting grease on the shoes... thanks for the heads up!

Yes, thank you. I'm going to look into this ASAP.

 

[3930dave]

Be extremely careful with bearing buddies on axles with brakes. They have a tendency to push grease (or at least the oil that separates from it) past the inside seal. This leads to a destroyed set of brakes and no braking capacity plus an expensive repair. Don't ask me how I now. The service center that repaired my trailer advised me to remove the bearing buddies and just service the axles annually as recommend by Dexter. They told me they see this often on travel trailers. Same thing with the easy lube axles. If you get carried away with the grease on those, it can push the grease out the back side. The bearing buddies have a spring that keeps constant pressure on the grease which in turn forces it past the seal over time.

I replaced all 4 brakes on the old HiLo TT I bought due to exactly this problem. One or more of the previous owners had pumped way too much grease into its' bearing buddy's.

Typical seals on TT axles are not much more than basic dust seals - they can't stand up to pressurized grease. After going through all the labour involved in changing out the brakes, I left the BBs off.

It's not like repacking the bearings manually is really that hard, and my experience with old RWD cars/trucks is that any decent chassis grease does not degrade or dissipate quickly in my climate.

Rgds, D.

 

[Stanley B]

 

[Green Power]

Nice set up Stanley.

 

[woodskiff]

Yes, very nice. Can't beat a southern truck---cab corners, rockers in nice shape. I want to try towing my bh with the loader that way over the tongue.

 

[Garandman]

We have a Ford Transit T250, regular wheelbase, medium roof (6' inside) with 3.5L Ecoboost and 3.31 LSD axle. This rig is 5,200 lbs (trailer 2,000 and car 3,200) and it towed it with ease. Trip computer read 12.4 mpg for an 80 mile mostly uphill trip. I was able to leave it on cruise control and it only shifted from 6th to 5th a couple times.

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

Just brought this home a little while ago. GVW of 10K lb so it should haul anything I ever need.