trailers

[AllforWork]

Help with trailer. Want gooseneck 20 to 25 ft. Can not find trailer talk forums. Advantage or disadvantage of dovetail. Are grease axles OK. Mostly hauling hay or 3 ton tractor.

Thanks

 

[Highbeam]

I tow a 4500 lb tractor package on a bumper pull trailer of 18 feet in length. It has a dovetail of 2 feet in length, when combined with the 5 foot ramps I get 7 feet to climb to deck height vs. 5 so the dovetail makes for a more gradual climb, I like the dovetail.

I have 5200 lb Dexter EZlube axles. I wouldn't pay extra for the EZlube feature. You still need to manually disassemble and grease the bearings even according to dexter. The EZlube feature doesn't hurt unless you pump grease in past the seals and it gets all over the brakes.

My 10,000 lb GVWR trailer weighs 2500 lbs. To carry a 3 ton tractor, in a 25' gooseneck, the trailer will weigh closer to 5000lbs so youll want to be looking at trailers with 14000 lb GVWRs.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Are grease axles OK )</font>

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gifI'm not sure what you mean by that. If you mean the EZlube, as mentioned above, I like that on little boat trailers and on my little 4' x 8' trailer, but would not want it on a trailer with brakes for the reason mentioned.

 

[gordon21]

I just bought a 16' landscape trailer with two axles and one set of electric brakes. I have added bearing buddies to all my trailers in the past that did not have brakes. I was going to go get 2 sets this weekend and install them. Please explain how using a bearing buddy will possibly contaminate the brakes? Should I put the bearing buddies on one axle only and do manual greasing on the electric axle? I don't see how the spring would be that strong to force grease into the brakes. My past experience shows that when the spring is fully compressed, you merely stop trying to add more grease. You watch the flat disc slowly move outwards and stop when the spring is compressed.

 

[Dallas_Lilly]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( </font><font color="blueclass=small">( Are grease axles OK )</font>

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gifI'm not sure what you mean by that. If you mean the EZlube, as mentioned above, I like that on little boat trailers and on my little 4' x 8' trailer, but would not want it on a trailer with brakes for the reason mentioned. )</font>


Grease axle bearings opposed to oil bath axle bearings?

 

[Highbeam]

Where do you think the grease goes each time you have to add more grease to the bearing buddy? It must go somewhere. It goes out the back through the seal that is mounted to the rotating hub/drum and starts to build up and spooge out between the brake backing plate and the rotating hub. It gets mighty hot in there, the grease gets more fluid, and the rotating hub flings or drops grease all over inside the cavity between the hub and the drum wear surface. Bad news, you can't just clean it, the brake linings are saturated with lube.

Now with the EZlube axles as you pump in new grease, the old grease is supposed to be purged back out toward the grease gun and not go into the brake cavity. Problem is you don't know whether or not the seal is holding until you remove the drum/hub to inspect. At that point, why not just repack the bearings like a normal person? People report 30 pumps of grease into their EZlube axles before any old grease purges back out. After about 10 pumps I would be worried that I just filled up the brake cavity with grease.

On non-braking axles (I question the sanity here unless the trailer is super light) lube away as the extra grease can't hurt anything.

 

[Bird]

Lewis, the bearing buddies are not a problem as long as you don't overdo greasing them and push some out that gets on your brake linings. </font><font color="blue" class="small">( I don't see how the spring would be that strong to force grease into the brakes. )</font> You know when you repack wheel bearings, you don't actually completely fill the void in that hub, but with the bearing buddies, you very well may do so. I've not had a problem myself because I've never used bearing buddies on the trailers I had with brakes, but I've seen it enough that I'd be leery of them even though the problems I've seen may have been operator error in overdoing it and/or old defective seals.

 

[KentT]

I have EZ lube axles on my 14' tandem axle (7,000 lb rating) trailer with brakes, and I love them so far, with around 5,000 miles on the trailer. I've seen no indications of grease coming out the back seal and getting on the brakes. There is no front seal, only a rubber plug that pulls out. When you fill the cavity between the bearings with grease it begins to push out through the front bearing, where there's no seal to slow it down... Stop pumping and reinstall the plug...

EDIT: In comparison, there's no way with some systems for you to tell, except for resistance on the gun...

One caution though -- only grease the trailer with EZ lube axles before use, when it is cold, NOT after you've driven it and the grease warms up and gets thinner... then it would be more likely to push by the rear seal...

My 2 cents -- your mileage may vary!

 

[George2615]

I have a 7K 20' tiltbed trailer hooked to a 2 5/16" 10K hitch. I find it easy to load and unload and since the whole bed tilts I don't need a beavertail. The beavertail allows you to load / unload gradually so what your loading doesn't bottom out on the trailer. If your getting a trailer to haul a 6K tractor you'd need at least a 10K minumum trailer. My 26HP tractor with loader and 5' KK rotary mower totals 19' in length so it fits nicely on my 20 foot bed trailer. If it has ramps then a beavertail would be advised to ease the steep loading angle. As others have said, a gooseneck will weigh more than a pull behind so you may need to go higher in weight capacity maybe 12-14K rated.

 

[hudr]

Dovetail is great for loading equipment. I have seen platforms that go over the fold up ramps to level it for hauling hay. Grease axles are fine. I assume you are talking about the now available upgrade to oil-filled axle bearings (like on big trucks). I have a neighbor that has them on his new dual-tandem trailer and they are nice. Given the choice I would go with them myself. For now I am still packing wheel bearings on my 24' 2-axle single wheel gooseneck.

 

[KentT]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I assume you are talking about the now available upgrade to oil-filled axle bearings (like on big trucks). I have a neighbor that has them on his new dual-tandem trailer and they are nice. )</font>


EZ Lube axles have a passage from the end of the axle (where there's a grease zerk) to the area between the inside and outside wheel bearings. There's a grease seal behind the the inside bearings. You fill this cavity with grease until it starts to come out through the outside bearing. Then you plug it back up...

Dexter EZ Lube Axle System

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( there's no way with Bearing Buddies (or their clones) to tell when to stop except for resistance on the gun )</font>

Kent, actually there is a way to tell. The plate, cap, or whatever you call it that has the grease fitting in the middle of it is pushed inward by a coil spring, as can been seen in this picture. As you pump grease into it, that plate is pushed out toward the end of the hub. My personal opinion is that you should stop before it's pushed all the way out.

 

[hudr]

I have seen the EZ-lube before. However, I assumed he was talking about getting away from grease entirely and going w/ the oil bath bearings.

 

[KentT]

Bird,

You're correct that the "Bearing Buddy" brand is spring loaded -- I used them on my boat trailers. But, some of them others only have a grease zerk in the grease cap... That's what my snowmobile trailer had on it and they SUCKED!


I wasn't specific enough. Sorry! I corrected my post above.

 

[Bird]

In my old age, I'm gettin' forgetful sometimes. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif We had Bearing Buddies on my boat trailer, my brother's boat trailer, and my other brother's 16' tandem axle trailer with no brakes. On the little Big Tex utility trailer that I now have, it's the Dexter EZ Lube system. Because on both, you have a grease fitting in the end of the hub, it's easy to confuse them (well, maybe only for old folks like me), but there's actually a considerable difference in them as can be seen in the links you and I provided. Of course, it's been a long time ago (Fall of 1990, in fact) when I went to the Dexter factory in Indiana and had a complete new suspension from the frame to the ground custom built for my fifth-wheel travel trailer and I discussed all the different options available at that time. The oil bath type are probably good, but for the fifth-wheel, I decided on the tried and true old style that required re-packing wheel bearings occasionally.

 

[Highbeam]

"EZ Lube axles have a passage from the end of the axle (where there's a grease zerk) to the area between the inside and outside wheel bearings. There's a grease seal behind the the inside bearings."

Well almost, actually the grease is pressure injected into the space between the rear grease seal and the inner bearing as shown in the photo. The bearings aren't full of holes they're the roller bearings so some pressure is required to push new grease through both sets of bearings. A lot depends on that grease seal doing its job and if that grease seal let's go then bad things can happen.

It seems dexter believes that a few pumps of grease eliminates the need for repacking. That's good news to me. So tell me, do you all raise the wheel and spin it as you add grease or do you force the grease through the stationary bearings?

An oil bath bearing would be superior in my opinion if that's what the poster meant.

 

[KentT]

The instructions I was given don't mention raising the trailer -- so I just pump it through the stationary bearings. When I grease mine, I pull out the rubber plug on the end of the cap, use my finger to scoop out any "dirty" grease that's out on the end of the axle, and clean off the zerk. Then I pump it until I completely fill the cavity and the old, "dirty" grease starts to come out through the front bearings -- just as you grease other fittings until the grease starts to come out. Since the cavity is full, the grease should flow freely into/out of the bearings when the grease warms up in use....

This supposedly eliminates any need to repack. I have about 5,000 miles on my trailer so far, and the bearings run cool as can be -- even on 900 mile runs. I haven't pulled a hub to check them -- I haven't felt the need. I just give a visual inspection and grease them like I described.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( do you all raise the wheel and spin it )</font>

Joe, I never have, and I don't worry about forcing grease into the bearing. I don't let them run plumb out of grease before adding some, and it's my belief that, after pumping grease into the hub, the centrifugal force when I hit the road will distribute the grease into the bearing? Now I can't swear that I'm right, but I can tell you I've never had to replace a bearing on a trailer of mine. And the only wheel bearings I've had go bad on a car was one front wheel bearing on my '55 Cadillac in 1960 and the right front wheel bearing and hub on our '01 Windstar with 65k miles on it last November. The Windstar had never had the hub off or the wheel bearings checked until then.

One of my brothers bought his boat and trailer in Anchorage and in addition to using it on fresh water lakes, he frequently used it in salt water at Seward. Then he moved to Texas, towed it down here behind his motorhome, and used it in both fresh water and in salt water on the Texas coast. He had bearing buddies and never pulled a hub to check the bearings for over 10 years and never had a problem. But then the other brother and I decided to take the boat to Port Aransas once and decided we'd clean and repack the wheel bearings first, and sure enough, we had to replace all the wheel bearings and races and seals. We sure were glad we decided to check that before taking off on that trip. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Highbeam]

OK guys, I'll take your advice and use the EZlubes as the dexter site and you all recommend instead of repacking. The grease I use is not the light buttery grease but the red EP grease for tractors and such. Is this OK to use in the wheel bearings or do I need a new grease gun with the light weight stuff?

Sorry to take the thread sort of off topic but in a way this in demonstrating the value of the EZlube axles.

 

[Bird]

Joe, I've personally never used a red grease for wheel bearings until I bought this little Big Tex trailer with the Dexter EZ Lube and that's what it has in it. I don't know whether Dexter shipped the axles that way (which I suspect was the case) or whether Big Tex did that when they built the trailer.