Bearing buddy or old fashioned grease packing

[heehaw]

how often do you pack the front wheel bearings on your car/truck? most of us would say never!! or at least not till theres a problem, over 100k miles. of course this doesn't apply to boat trailers since they get soaked in water.
heehaw

 

[Dennisfly]

I prefer the Spindle Lube System which is made by bearing buddy.

There is a rubber plug in the end of the grease cap which allows you to access a zerk that is in the end of the spindle. The spindle has a passage that supplies the grease from the zerk to a point just inside the inner seal. When you pump grease, it is forced through both inner and outer bearings and the old grease exits the plug area in the dust cap. You don't have to prepack bearings, you can "change your grease" with no disassembly, and there is no constant pressure to "blow" seals.

The downside is you would have to buy new spindles if you don't already have these. I have a boat trailer and a travel trailer that they came on as original equipment.

 

[RobertN]

We just got a used 5th wheel trailer. It had all the manuals, including the one for the axles. The axles are Dexter. The manual said to change every 12 months or 12000 miles. So did the local trailer shop.

I think there are two things that happen. One, the grease will harden over time, especially with lack of use. The other, is as the bearings ect heat and cool, you can get moisture. Then the thing sits for six months, sometimes a lot longer. Then you get rust or corrosion.

Nothing is worse for a vehicle, trailer ect that uses lubrication, than to sit. Grease cakes, seals harden...

how often do you pack the front wheel bearings on your car/truck? most of us would say never!! or at least not till theres a problem, over 100k miles. of course this doesn't apply to boat trailers since they get soaked in water.
heehaw

 

[CurlyDave]

how often do you pack the front wheel bearings on your car/truck? most of us would say never!! or at least not till theres a problem, over 100k miles. of course this doesn't apply to boat trailers since they get soaked in water.
heehaw

On most of my cars, the need disappeared with front wheel drive.

The front bearings are lubed with the CV joints, but I lube the rears.

 

[Reg]

The E-Z lube axles that have a grease fitting in the center of the axle spindle ?
or after-market Spring loaded "Bearing Buddy" cups ?

I thought the latter went out decades ago, I certainly wouldn't buy a trailer with them these days.

Anyway, I have never taken very seriously the notion that a hand grease gun can put out enough pressure at enough volume to blow out the seals.
There is significantly less resistance to the flow of grease through the races/rollers than the seal provides, so the grease flows along the path of least resistance.

What I think happens is that seals wear or don't get installed properly, THEN a hand grease gun squirts grease right through/past them.

Here's what I do;
COUNT the number of strokes it takes for grease to first appear.
On a tandem axle trailer if one takes more strokes than the other three, that extra grease is probably going somewhere it shouldn't, so I take it apart and investigate.
This is the RIGHT time to do it, when the problem is diagnosed and BEFORE the grease gets to the brake linings.

Also, know your trailer & know your grease gun. I cannot tell you if 5 strokes is "normal" or if 4 strokes is "too many".
If you COUNT the strokes every time and do this from new, you will KNOW when a seal is leaking grease out the back and you will be able to replace it before grease gets on the brake linings.

 

[Skyco]

I thought the primary reason to use bearing buddies is that the spring load creates pressure inside the grease to try to keep water from flowing in when you back your boat trailer in the water. Even then, I think I remember that you're supposed to repack the bearings once a year after boating season?

Exactly! They are not designed to grease anything but to keep water out when a hot hub hits cold water and wants to suck it in. I only use them on boat trailers, IMO they are worthless anywhere else.

 

[Bird]

I've used bearing buddies on both utility trailers and boat trailers and was happy with them. But like Tig, I would not use them on any trailer that has brakes. But my last utility trailer had the spindle lube system described by Dennisfly and I like that one.

 

[Dutch445]

Here is an excellant thread in an RV forum that goes into
good detail on axle maintenance. lots of good info
here. some seems like a bit of overkill to me,
but I guess it's all good.


RV.Net Open Roads Forum: Annual Brake Inspection and Axle Re - Lube (Pic's)

 

[GaryM]

Might try a tool like this or this.

I've used the second type with good success and it accommodates pretty much all bearing sizes.

 

[Bird]

Gary, for me at least, both of your links led to the same 34550 bearing packer, so I edited it so the second link goes to the 65250 bearing packer.

I used to have one of the second type that was given to me, but I never used it. It was just quicker for me to do it the old fashioned way with grease in the palm of my left hand and and tapping the bearing into the grease with my right hand to force the grease into the bearing.