Trailer Bearing Help

Hey guys, was just doing a once-over on the boat before my trip on Sat. I have a few questions.

I checked the bearings, and when I popped off the plastic hub cover the metal bearing cover seal thing was 3/4 the way off. I’m sure this isnt normal because with it off like that water should go right in there. I pulled it the rest of the way off and there was a ton of grease that leaked out of there just piled up everywhere. I cleaned it all up and grabbed the grease gun. The right side one just stopped when I assume it was full (1/2 tube), cause I couldnt put any more grease in there. None came out around the edges. On the left one when I got about 3/4 a tube tube in there it started coming out around the edges of the bearings, first came about 15 drops of water, then a little bit of old milky grease, then the new grease I was putting in. I assume a bad seal.

I didnt do them least year, but the year before I did them and don’t remember these problems.

Do you guys think I’m okay for the trip? Will be 8 hours with a few 10-15 minute stops along the way.

Here is a picture of what it looks like.

I should add it is a ranger trail trailer.

I know you have a lot of going on pre-trip but I would find time to take them off and look at them closer. My idea of a vacation doesn’t involve a afternoon on the side of the road changing out wheel bearings.

doesn’t sound great, but i personally wouldn’t do a rebuild. I would toss in a gun and look at them 1/2 hour into the trip. I’d also take a spare set of bearings and even a hub, but then i’ve been broken down in the middle of sask in the middle of the nite…

added a picture of what my system looks like.

You should check your hubs on the backside towards the axle. I believe you may have blown the seals out. Bearing buddies only need enough grease to rock a little any more grease pressure than that and you have blown out the back seal. Since water has dripped out you must take the bearings out and inspect and or replace. If you have any grease on the backside of hub new or old you need to redo the bearings. Even with bearing buddies you should repack once a season.

Mwal

this is a serious consideration and would merit some time prior to going on the road. LOTS of time to do it now in comparison to being stuck on the side of the road at 2am..

i’d be worried if the grease was coming out of the BACK SEAL, not so much out the front…

Where are you adding the greese? Hard to tell. Is that a greese tit on the end of the axel?

-J.

Quote:

---

but then i’ve been broken down in the middle of sask in the middle of the nite…

---

I doubt this surprises anyone here on IDO.

-J.

i’d be surprised if you hadn’t…

Quote:

---

Where are you adding the greese? Hard to tell. Is that a greese tit on the end of the axel?

---

i don’t see a GREASE ZERK either…

Quote:

---

Where are you adding the greese? Hard to tell. Is that a greese tit on the end of the axel?

-J.

---

It goes in a small hole in the very center there. Hard to see on that picture, the picture is not mine- I stole it from google. Grease gun and and a medium pin tip.

Ok, the way that hub system works is the greese travels through the center of the axle and then into the bearing area between the inside and outside wheel bearing. (Through a couple holes drilled into the spindle.) You applied the greese correctly and I would expect to see white greese and/or a small amount of water escape. This process fills the entire void between the two bearing assemblies. The one thing you always need to be carefull of is applying too much pressue when adding greese and blowing out the rear seal.

You should take a close look at the back side of the hub where it meets the axel. You should not see any greese escaping from this area. If you do, you likely have a blown rear seal.

Another check is to jack up the axel and grab the tire. It should have almost zero left to right play. It can have a little play when pushed in or pulled out. Like 1 or 2 16ths. The tire should also spin freely with no grinding sounds. A grinding sound may indicate a bad bearing or other debris in the hub assembly. (Like rust particles or sand)

If that all checks out, I’d run them.

-J.

I don’t think taking them apart and replacing is something I can do myself, not too handy with those sort of things. I called a few shops and nobody can take a look at it until next week, and if they could none had any “boat trailer bearings” in stock.

If I took the grease gun with me and stopped every hour or so (we usually do anyways) you think it would be alright? I mean, I have grease in there.. I packed her full. So even if there was a cracked seal or something it shouldnt all work its way out right away and burn up should it?

The trailer is a 91 but has less than 3000 miles on it. And the whole system was replaced 4 years ago when I bought it. So right around 2000 miles on these bearings/hubs. 2000 miles doenst seem like very long for them to go bad already.

Speaking with a little hope in my mind here… If the grease leaked out the front (all the sites I just read said grease is supposed to come out the front when you pack like it did on the left side) and water got in that way from the hub being off a little, could it have made it past the grease and into the bearings? Seems if it came in from the front the grease pack would have kept it from getting anywhere close to the bearings, unlike if it came from the back. The water was just water, no rust or anything. And the milky grease was just a tiny bit, maybe 1/8tsp or so. This was on the excess grease that comes out when you get her full, so it should have been before it got to the bearings. Just hoping

Quote:

---

Ok, the way that hub system works is the greese travels through the center of the axle and then into the bearing area between the inside and outside wheel bearing. (Through a couple holes drilled into the spindle.) You applied the greese correctly and I would expect to see white greese and/or a small amount of water escape. This process fills the entire void between the two bearing assemblies. The one thing you always need to be carefull of is applying too much pressue when adding greese and blowing out the rear seal.

You should take a close look at the back side of the hub where it meets the axel. You should not see any greese escaping from this area. If you do, you likely have a blown rear seal.

Another check is to jack up the axel and grab the tire. It should have almost zero left to right play. It can have a little play when pushed in or pulled out. Like 1 or 2 16ths. The tire should also spin freely with no grinding sounds. A grinding sound may indicate a bad bearing or other debris in the hub assembly. (Like rust particles or sand)

If that all checks out, I’d run them.

-J.

---

Thank you for the reply, honestly that is what I wanted to hear.. who wouldnt?

I’ll do those checks here in a few minutes and if it all checks out I’ll cautiously go on my way.. checking periodically on the way up. I will get them checked out by a shop locally when I get back though, that is for sure. Might actually have the marine shop on the lake take a look while I’m up there.

Quote:

---

The one thing you always need to be carefull of is applying too much pressue when adding greese and blowing out the rear seal.

You should take a close look at the back side of the hub where it meets the axel. You should not see any greese escaping from this area. If you do, you likely have a blown rear seal.

Another check is to jack up the axel and grab the tire. It should have almost zero left to right play. It can have a little play when pushed in or pulled out. Like 1 or 2 16ths. The tire should also spin freely with no grinding sounds. A grinding sound may indicate a bad bearing or other debris in the hub assembly. (Like rust particles or sand)

If that all checks out, I’d run them.

-J.

---

IMHO look at these things that John suggested above. If there is any thing that resembles problems in these areas, I would be careful to the degree of at least replacing the rear seals and looking over the bearings.

If not, I agree with John, take the grease gun, some spare parts and run ’em making sure to check at every stop to be sure things are not getting too hot!!!

Mark

http://www.sailingtexas.com/Movies/TrailerBearings/trailerbearings.html

That tells you how to do trailer bearings. One doesn’t “do the bearings” without having them in your hand. The bearings cost very little. Miles are irrelevant. Places like farm stores should be able to hook you up in the trailer section.

Replacing trailer bearings is a fairly cheap and easy (albeit messy) task that can be done in about an hour for a single axle trailer and requires no specialized tools (although you can buy a cheap bearing packer so you don’t have to hand pack the bearings). The last thing you want is to be stuck on the side of the road after your wheel falls off trying to figure out how it all goes together IF you were lucky enough to not completely trash your spindle and took a spare hub and bearing assemply with you. Check out a couple of you tube videos on how to get it done and see if it’s still something out of your abilities. Maybe call a buddy to give you a hand?

If not, just take it real easy and make fequent stops to make sure the hubs aren’t getting hot.

Quote:

---

I don’t think taking them apart and replacing is something I can do myself, not too handy with those sort of things. I called a few shops and nobody can take a look at it until next week, and if they could none had any “boat trailer bearings” in stock.

If I took the grease gun with me and stopped every hour or so (we usually do anyways) you think it would be alright? I mean, I have grease in there.. I packed her full. So even if there was a cracked seal or something it shouldnt all work its way out right away and burn up should it?

The trailer is a 91 but has less than 3000 miles on it. And the whole system was replaced 4 years ago when I bought it. So right around 2000 miles on these bearings/hubs. 2000 miles doenst seem like very long for them to go bad already.

Speaking with a little hope in my mind here… If the grease leaked out the front (all the sites I just read said grease is supposed to come out the front when you pack like it did on the left side) and water got in that way from the hub being off a little, could it have made it past the grease and into the bearings? Seems if it came in from the front the grease pack would have kept it from getting anywhere close to the bearings, unlike if it came from the back. The water was just water, no rust or anything. And the milky grease was just a tiny bit, maybe 1/8tsp or so. This was on the excess grease that comes out when you get her full, so it should have been before it got to the bearings. Just hoping

---

First off… If there’s no evidence of grease leaking, adding grease on the road will be pointless. If there is grease leaking, replacing the seals and bearings is very easy. It’s one nut holding the hub on the axle.

If it’s a common bearing size, you’ll be able to find what you need at any Fleet Farm/ type store, and most auto part stores. There’s only a few common bearing/spindle sizes used by most manufacturers. A replacement should take literally 15 minutes per hub, with the hardest part being wheel removal.

I’ve never had to replace a trailer wheel bearing with less than 20,000 miles, so don’t think 2K is a lot of miles.

A couple of reasons that seal might of been pushed out are there was water in there and the bearings got hot, boiled the water and pushed it out. Did this on mine a couple of months ago. Shot the cap across the road. Tried limping it back to my house but it was to late and ended up buying a new axle.

Second is that there was water in there last winter and it froze and pushed it out.

Worrying about a trailer bearing doesnt sound like a good way to relax on a trip. If nothing else after checking things over like mentioned above make sure and take it for a trip around town to check it out to.

I would not just replace the bearings. I’d tap in new races too. Also, on this hub design, the rear seal needs to be replaced after removing the hub. (The seal gets trashed pretty easy.) So, buy the entire kit. Bearings, races and seals for this job.

-J.

Right. I guess some may not think of replacing everything.

My Ranger uses Cool-Hubs that creates a 50weight oil bath, if I took the plastic cover off, I would need to unscrew it. If I popped it off, I would have destroyed the plastic oil container.

There is no plastic on mine, other than the plastic cosmetic cover that snaps over the whole assembly. Everything in there is metal.

I would r&r the bearings and the seals. You can pick them up at any auto parts store. Take them off bring the seal and the bearing with you. Bearing buddies are NOT to be over greased, all you do is blow the seal out then you loose the grease. Once you hand pack the bearing maybe give a pump or 2 with the grease gun, dont grease it any more. When youre on the road and you stop, go feel the hubs they might be WARM, thats normal. Breaking down on the road sucks, but if you tear up the bearing and the inner race seizes you got problems. Doing trailer maint is just as important as doing a oil change on youre car. Find a trailer shop, if you dont feel right doing it youre self. A little $$$ insentive always helps. good luck

These are not bearing buddies. These push greese from the inside out. BB push greese from the outside in. Completely different design.

-J.

You can buy the whole hub assembly at Northern tool or fleet farm for less than a shop will charge you to repack or replace.I would go buy them and be done with it.

Quote:

---

You can buy the whole hub assembly at Northern tool or fleet farm for less than a shop will charge you to repack or replace.I would go buy them and be done with it.

---

Nearest northern tool is a 3 hour drive, nearest fleet farm is about 4 hours from here.

Almost any tractor supply house will have hubs in stock. I would suggest a spare hub on your trip at the least.

Quote:

---

I would not just replace the bearings. I’d tap in new races too. Also, on this hub design, the rear seal needs to be replaced after removing the hub. (The seal gets trashed pretty easy.) So, buy the entire kit. Bearings, races and seals for this job.

-J.

---

I generalized when I recommended replacing the bearings. Definitely get the kit and replace it all.

However,

You’ll get differing opinions on how necessary it is to change the races out if they are still in good shape.