Bearing Buddys Woes

[redbeard]

Just a word to the wise. If you use a bearing buddy on your hubs be careful not to put to much grease in them, as soon as the plate starts to move STOP, and yes you can over grease them i found out the hard way, two sets of bearings in two weeks same axle both sides. I've pulled trailers for over 40 years and not blow a bearing. BTW on my rebuild the trailer got new tires, wheels, bearings and Bearing Buddy's and one new hub that was 4 years ago. The parts man at Croft Trailers say that Bearing Buddy's has made him alot of money over the years. To much grease will work its way through the bearings and blow the rear seal, there by letting water in to the bearing and causing failure of the bearing. So for me its back to the old way of doing bearing work, hand pack the bearing and use a dust cap no more Bearing Buddy's for me. Four new sets of bearings and new hubs at $240 and back to carefree traveling for many years to come [ I hope ].

Hope this helps someone save same $$$$$

[lakerunner]

Yep , Most trailers no come with the type that shoots through the axle and out the rear pushing old grease forward. You can grease all day without blowing rear seal.

[MH Hawker]

Just a word to the wise. If you use a bearing buddy on your hubs be careful not to put to much grease in them, as soon as the plate starts to move STOP, and yes you can over grease them i found out the hard way, two sets of bearings in two weeks same axle both sides. I've pulled trailers for over 40 years and not blow a bearing. BTW on my rebuild the trailer got new tires, wheels, bearings and Bearing Buddy's and one new hub that was 4 years ago. The parts man at Croft Trailers say that Bearing Buddy's has made him alot of money over the years. To much grease will work its way through the bearings and blow the rear seal, there by letting water in to the bearing and causing failure of the bearing. So for me its back to the old way of doing bearing work, hand pack the bearing and use a dust cap no more Bearing Buddy's for me. Four new sets of bearings and new hubs at $240 and back to carefree traveling for many years to come [ I hope ].

Hope this helps someone save same $$$$$

you should concider switching to these type of hubs. Tie down engineering also makes them.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... _200466888

[ROLAND]

interesting... my trailer has those bearing buddys and this year when I had my boat serviced, instead of taking it to the stealership, I took it to a gentleman who has been servicing marine motors for about 20 years... works out of a shop at his house..... the one thing he told me when I picked up my boat was that he thinks I should replace those bearing buddy's with some other kind ( don't recall what brand he said but he had some in mind ).. He said that since I just paid to have a new water pump put in, and because I only tow about 8 to ten miles or so to the lake, it was something he would do next year, when I wasn't paying for a new water impeller... Having read this thread, sounds like the man knows what he's talking about.

[redbeard]

Thanks for the info there MH Hawker if I didn't have the new hubs and bearings already that's the way I'd go. Do you guys think that you could drill a hub and just put a grease zerk in it and that would work the same way?

[kryptonite]

Thanks for the info there MH Hawker if I didn't have the new hubs and bearings already that's the way I'd go. Do you guys think that you could drill a hub and just put a grease zerk in it and that would work the same way?

We have several wagon gears at work that have the zerk in the hub. Just take the dust cap off when greasing so you don't overfill it.

[Traillblazer]

They are called EZ Lube dust caps. I just did a lot of research to find out what they were because nobody around here knew what I was talking about. I needed new plugs for them. Even if you do not have a grease fitting inside of your axle shaft, you can check your bearings periodically very easily to check for water. I have never heard of anyone burning up a bearing from not enough grease, but have thrown many away due to water getting in. If the bearings are packed correctly, you should have not problems.

[k5guy38]

If you mount the seal backwards the grease can work it's way out the back when pumping up and the water will still stay out.