Trailer Maintenance

[KG's Supra24]

How often are you supposed to regrease the trailer bearings/hubs? I have pulled the trailer all summer and havent touched it maintenance wise. Is there something i should be doing?

[wotan2525]

I assume you have bearing buddies (or do the new trailers have liquilubes?)


Bearingbuddies should just be refilled through the zerk when they get low... I do mine once a year. Takes 5 minutes for all 4 wheels.

[McDye]

as wotan noted it really depends on what hubs you have. If it is grease with bearing buddies, you should abut 1/8-1/4 in of blue showing on the buddy.

If is the Vault, according to the manaul nothing for 5 yrs.....this is scary to me....one thing to note, on my trailer ('10 Boatmate) it states a 5 yr warranty and for $50 more within first yr it can be extended to 10yr.

here is link to their site... http://www.ufpnet.com They have manuals online.

[KG's Supra24]

I realize this may be a stupid questions but how do i know which setup i have?

[wotan2525]

Oil bath hub --> https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/woeimages/00007489.jpg

Bearing Buddy --> http://www.castlecraft.com/images/Trailex-BearingBuddy.jpg

I'm guessing you have bearing buddies. Pull off the rubber covers, take a regular grease fitting and some nice lube and fill them up. Reinstall rubber cover and you should be good to go.

[tg0824SSVGG]

My 08 Gravity Games with the "bling" trailer has the oil bath - not sure about what
the other trailers had in the same year ...

[rludtke]

I tear-down, clean, inspect, and re-pack and re-assemble my bearings with grease every spring at the start of the season. I almost always need to replace some bearings due to corrosion, probably due to dipping in the lake, and sitting in storage over the winter. In fact, this year I lost the wheel bearings in one hub on my first trip to the lake. I put off the wheel bearings in order to do some boat testing, and didn't even make it to the lake.

So this bolstered my belief that the wheel bearings take the highest priority when de-winterizing.

A couple thoughts on bearing buddies:

According to my research, the bearing buddy is not a replacement for packing wheel bearings. Greasing your bearing buddies will not garantee that either the outside or the inside bearings recieve fresh grease. The intended purpose of the bearing buddy is to prevent water from entering the bearing cavity in the hub.

When you travel down the road, the hub and bearings will heat up. Dipping the trailer into cool water will cause a rapid "shrinking" of the hot enlarged wheel hub. This rapid contraction can cause, if an air pocket whithin the grease in present, a vacuum that can suck water in past the seal.

The bearing buddy is intended to help prevent the air pocket from existing. You need to inspect the spring loaded end cap on the outside of the bearing buddy to ensure that there is spring is compressed before you put the trailer in the water. If it is not, then add grease until the spring is completely or nearly compressed. Then back the trailer into the water.

Or- and this is good advice whether or not you have bearing buddies, let the hubs cool down before you submerge them under water. This will help prevent water from being sucked into the hub.

Bearing buddies are not meant to replace cleaning and re-packing your wheel bearings with grease- they are strictly intended to help keep water out, if they are properly used.

[tre]

I added grease to the bearing buddies on my old Supra about once every year (zirk fitting - used a grease gun). I never had an issue in 8 years.

My new Supra has the oil bath bearings (the vult). I need to add/change the oil once every 5 years according to what I read.

[Fman]

My 08 Gravity Games with the "bling" trailer has the oil bath - not sure about what
the other trailers had in the same year ...

'08 standard double axle boatmate trailer, and I also have the oil bath hubs, not sure what I should be doing maintenance wise on this, anyone know?

[tre]

Here is the manual for the "the vault" oil bath hubs.
http://www.ufpnet.com/Portals/0/PDFs/Trailer%20Buddy%20VAULT%20Axle%20Maintenance.pdf

[tg0824SSVGG]

thanks for that link Tre ... I broke a lug on one of my hubs the other day -gotta get that figured out