Trailer Bearings?

[Renze]

I work at a trailer manufacturer. We also do service on trailers, but even though it may pay us more, we only replace wheel bearings when you can feel they get sloppy, or when the brake pads are replaced so it is little effort to grab some bearings off the shelf and mount them while the hub is open.

 

[Joe1]

I also use Bird's method. Once I'm satisfied the bearing is set, the wheel spins freely and I'm ready to install the cotter pin, I grab the tire at each side and gently try to rock it back and forth to check for any motion. There should be none. If there is. the bearing is too loose. If there is no free play and the wheel spins freely with no obvious "drag" then you're good to go with the cotter pin.

 

[gemini5362]

The only thing I might add to the excelent advice you have been given is about the actual job of packing the bearings. The link told you how to pack them by hand. They have bearing packers available at automotive supply houses. You put the bearing inside one of these packers then use a grease gun on the packer and it pushes the grease up into the bearings. This makes for a bit quicker job and a lot less messy. The other day I noticed that my local auto supply had a couple of different brands with the cheapest one being 9.00

 

[Bird]

They have bearing packers available at automotive supply houses. You put the bearing inside one of these packers then use a grease gun on the packer

I had one of those for several years that was given to me and I never did use it for two reasons: (1) I can do it manually quicker, and (2) my grease gun always had a different grease in it than what I wanted to use on the wheel bearings. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I learned to force the grease into the bearings by having a little grease in the palm of my left hand and striking it with the bearing in my right hand, turn bearing, race and all, a little and do it again until I've gone all the way around with the bearing. Of course I had a lot of experience with packing bearings of all different sizes because in addition to trailer, car, and pickup wheel bearings, I did that with lots of bearings from air tools I was repairing.