How Often & Why To Change Wheel Bearings

[Angus]

Hey guys.

As a boat owner now, and after experiences detailed in DHess's straddy report I want to learn more about my equipment!

For all the boat owners out there...

How often do you randomly (if ever) change wheel bearing.

How often do you greese wheel bearings?

What signs would lead you to prematurely chance or greese them?

Cheers guys.

By the way all these questions relate to TRAILER wheel bearings.

Thanks.

Angus

[tomca]

I pop the caps off after every trip and look to see if the grease has water in it. I also give the wheels a good wiggle at home before I go and when I arrive at the ramp. I keep spare set of bearings, seal, cap, grease and tools to replace them in the boot of the car.

The only failure I ever had was last year when the aluminium wheel/hub cracked and the bearings pulled out and the wheel nearly came off. Purchased 2 new wheel assemblies so should be right for another 20 years

[daveylad]

I've got dura Hub's on my trailer with these they are filled with Bearing Oil or Grease and have a window where you can view the oil level, I check them every couple of weeks, last week i found one of the washers punctured and had allowed water into the area so I cahnged the washer and re-filled with oil. I reckon these and Bearing-Buddies are a must

[Keen-as-fisho]

Generally I get mine done once a year when the out board goes in for a service.

[bootyinblue]

Put bearing buddies or dura hubs on. I have bearing buddies on my trailers.

I pump grease into them every few trips and I have repacked the bearings once in 5 years, although the boat does not get dunked very often (sad to say...)

After a good highway trip, jump out and feel the temp of the hubs. should be no more than just warm. Any excessive heat is a sign of friction.

Lastly, do not drive to the ramp like a bat out of hell then dunk the trailer straight in the water. It cools the bearings and hubs quickly and allows water to penetrate the seals causing premature wear.

[ellicat]

I like to check mine when 1 of 2 things happens. -

1. When I can actually hear the wheels turning; and/or

2. When I can actually hear the wheels not turning....screeeech

On a more serious note - bearing buddies are the way to go.

Check when you haven't used the trailer for awhile.

Check before a longer than normal trip.

Other than that check them once a month if you're using it often.

Always check them for heat when you stop and before immersing in the water.

[bootyinblue]

ellicat wrote:

I like to check mine when 1 of 2 things happens. -

1. When I can actually hear the wheels turning; and/or

2. When I can actually hear the wheels not turning....screeeech

On a more serious note - bearing buddies are the way to go.

Check when you haven't used the trailer for awhile.

Check before a longer than normal trip.

Other than that check them once a month if you're using it often.

Always check them for heat when you stop and before immersing in the water.

Mmmmmmmm.... maintenance tips from Brian 'I can fix that' Ellicat

[kriso]

if you have a jack , jack the trailer up so the wheel is off the ground, grab the wheel once off the ground at 9 and 3 and pull with one hand and push with the other (do this rapidly changing direction as is you where turning the handles on a push bike back and forth quickly) if you have some slack movement it means the bearing preload is out of adjustment which is a sign of bearing wear. this warrants taking the assembly appart and checking the condition of the bearing itself (whilst doing this you would clean all old grease off and apply new grease if bearing is in serviceable condition, when you reassemble the bearings in the hub the correct load has to be applied, so you tighten the nut firm but not too tight spin then back it off then nip it up untill you can get the split pin back through the castle nut and hole to lock it into place. the wheel when fitted should spin freely but have no play in it. i know this all can sound pretty dutch for those that arent too mechanical but theres bound to be a half decent you tube vid that explains the how to side of things.

Gus - Im picking up henrys boat tomorrow after work if you want i can quickly pop round and have a feel of the hub for you but would be pressed for time to do a re grease etc that night unless you can come to my place with the boat thursday morn?

[dhess]

Pretty much what every one said, but sometimes its a little more complicated.

Before one of my bearings went kaboom and damaging the hub and axle there was no warning. Neglect wasn't a factor either.

I changed bearings and races annually and gave my bearing buddies a few pumps of grease every few outings. I would also periodically (every 100km or so) feel the hubs to see if they were running hot. Heat is the most common sign of impending doom.

Pinpointing the cause of my catstrophic bearing failure required alot of reading and head scratching.

Key things I learned were:

- Bearing buddies whilst not a bad thing don't offer a huge advantage over conventional grease caps as they lead to complacency for many.

- Hubs fitted with bearing buddies will usually maintain the outer bearing in perfect condition, its the inner bearing that is furthest from the grease nipple that will fail from not getting adequate grease or being exposed to saltwater as its near the seal. This is compounded by people dunking their trailer after a trip on the highway and not giving them time to cool down. The temperature differential causes water to be sucked in.

- Bearing buddies can get stolen or knocked off whilost travelling. This is initially what I blamed my failure on as the bearing buddy was gone. Though hardly not surprising that it fell off when the bearing exploded and the wheel was wobbling around.

-If you pump too much grease into the bearing buddy you will blow the seals on the axle out. This may or may not be a problem depending on the type of seals that are fitted.

-Its probably not worth mucking around with degreasing, inspecting and repacking bearings. Just replace them with good quality (not chinese) bearings as they are not overly expensive.

-It can be a pain to get the grease gun off the nipple on some bearing buddies. You have to pull so hard there is a real danger of breaking the nipple.

It wasn't a decision taken lightly but for the replacement I settled on using durahubs for the follosing reasons:

-The clear window at the front allows you to automaticaly see how much oil is around the bearings.

-If the oil goes milky you know straight away that water is getting in. Same thing if you see any condensation the following day.

-Durahubs have a rubber diaphram that equalises the internal pressure when they are warm so water being sucked in is no longer a problem.

-I had to get a new axle and durahubs work best with a new axle as the surface is smoother than on a heavily used axle. You still have to polish any machining marks out with emery tape to get a smooth surface for the seal to sit on.

I also ended up buying a spare wheel as the boat never cam with one and a mount for the spare with a hub packed with bearings ready for a quick roadside change.

So far so good, the bearings are running cool no water is being ingested and not loosing any oil. TIme will tell.

Oh and as for the cause of my bearing failure, the week after getting back from Straddie I was doing some routing maintenance and what did I find on the end of the grease gun? The broken remanants of one bearing buddy grease nipples. After doing a bit more reading I learned this was the cause of other wheel bearings failing. Will never know for sure.

[dhess]

daveylad wrote:

I've got dura Hub's on my trailer with these they are filled with Bearing Oil or Grease and have a window where you can view the oil level, I check them every couple of weeks, last week i found one of the washers punctured and had allowed water into the area so I cahnged the washer and re-filled with oil. I reckon these and Bearing-Buddies are a must

Hey Dave,

Do you mean you had to replace one of the black rubber diaphrams?

Did you check out the races and bearings for rust. Bearings aren't made from stainless and the slightest amount of water will cause them to rust which is not a good thing.