Advice sought about trailer hubs

[Bait Waster]

Hi All I've just got a boat & trailer. I'm a novice with boat trailer bearings althought I had a nasty experience out near Boulia with a box trailer. We noticed the bearing problem as the wheel passed us & it's not an experience I'm in a hurry to repeat.

My trailer is a tinka trailer & the wheels have no studs. I'm led to believe that to change a tyre I would basically need to take of the wheel, bearings & all to put on a spare wheel. Can't imagine that would be real fun so I'm contemplaing putting on some hubs. What are peoples thoughts & is it a straight forward thing or are there traps I need to be aware of?

I'm also looking at putting on durahubs to try & prevent a repeat of the Boulia box trailer saga. I've read the posts on here which were very helpful. Can I clarify that with the dura hubs I can pack the bearings as normal & then also use oil. Are there any tricks I need to know about fitting them?

Thanks

Bait Waster

(Vegetarian: Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can’t hunt or fish)

[daveylad]

http://www.durahub.com/how-it-works/

Durahub Original is designed to be used with 80/90W gear oil for lubrication. Durahub Extreme can be used with grease or 80/90W gear oil or combined 80/90W gear oil and grease.

With our unique clear lens, you can easily check it to see if your wheel hub is sealed. If you see water contamination or condensation on the inside of the lens, you need to replace your rear seal immediately before you have bearing failure.

see above web page it will help

Daveylad

[rayke1938]

The main reason for bearing failure is lack of maintenance and incorrect bearing adjustment.

The bearings of my rustboat trailer have durahubs installed and you still have to keep your eye on them. When i wash my trailer down I clean the gunk off the transparent window of the durahub so that I can check for contamination of the oil and I also have a look at the inside of the wheel for any tell tail oil marks that indicate a seal failure.

On my dam boat with which I immerse the hubs everytime I launch I just run normal hubs with a steel end cap and a marine inner seal.

I do not wait for hubs to cool down before launching as the bearings are correctly adjusted and the hubs do not get warm.

I jack up the trailer and grease and adjust the hubs on a yearly basis. ( When the rego is due )

Cheers

Ray

[dhess]

Hi Bait Waster,

This is a cut and paste of my reply from a very similar topic about a week ago in this thread: http://www.australianfishing.com.au/forum/5-boating/277611-how-often-a-why-to-change-wheel-bearings

If you don't want to read the whole lot the key point with durahubs is to have a new axle or a axle that has very smooth surfaces where the seals sit. If its not too bad you can polish any imperfections out with emery tape, otherwise fitting Speedisleeves is the best option. Failure to do this will result in oil leaks. Another important thing is to use a real seal with a spring garter and metal body not the crap they call marine seals.

Dom

dhess wrote:

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.

[Bait Waster]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Can anybody see any dramas on putting durahubs on the intergral wheels on my trailer. (Obviously I would still have to do a bearing change to change a flat & carry oil & locktite). I think the durahub might be the way to go after looking at the trailer because it looks like I would need a longer axle to run hubs. Starting to get too hard & too many $$$ so best to focus on the more affordable solution that is likely to look after bearings.

Any thoughts about tyre additives that might be put inside the tyre to help prevent slow leaks? (I remember you could get green goo for bike tyres that help overcome leaks from prickles etc.)

I don't suppose anybody out there has a spare wheel for this beast they are wanting to get rid of?

Regards

Bait Waster

[snapsnap]

mate I have a crappy old trailer that does the job .. every 2-3 months I take the bearing out wash them in petrol to clean the old grease out and re pack them. they last about 2 years If I remember to do this every 2-3rd month. new bearing cost about 25 dollars. :blush:

[rayke1938]

Just a thought . The durahub kit normally comes with 2 sets of seals . Did you fit the correct ones?

Cheers

Ray

[mick fillet]

I have recently fitted dura hubs to my new traier.

I polished the new axle like a mirror using some jewlers rouge and it buffed up brilliant. I fially got my hands on some decent seals they have a fine spring around the back of the seal under a little flap.the seals have a metal ring on the outer that firmly goes into the back of the hub nicly and wouldnt be that tight that it would distort the seal.

my hubs leek rather bad do you use grease to thicken the oil up a bit?

[Eug]

anyone know where i can drop the trailer off and get this done? not sure if i've got the tools available, not to mention where i'd source a new axle.

cheers

eug

[dhess]

mick fillet wrote:

I have recently fitted dura hubs to my new traier.

I polished the new axle like a mirror using some jewlers rouge and it buffed up brilliant. I fially got my hands on some decent seals they have a fine spring around the back of the seal under a little flap.the seals have a metal ring on the outer that firmly goes into the back of the hub nicly and wouldnt be that tight that it would distort the seal.

my hubs leek rather bad do you use grease to thicken the oil up a bit?

Interesting that they leak. Do all of them leak?

A friend runs four of them three good and one leaks like a b!tch.

Mine have been perfect so far and I run straight oil. Haven't noticed any decline in the oil level after 1000kms or so. It sounds like I am running identical seal too.

The only thing I can think of is that in the polishing process you possibly took too much off one side the seal surface on the axle creating an elipse. May be worth changing seals or fitting speedi sleeves or both.

Eug,

No need to get a new axle unless your existing one is severley f'ed up like mine was. Axles are reasonably cheap. Around $100-$200 for a galvanised one. Try Active Fabrications at Beenleigh.

Also you don't really need any specialised tools. If you have a spare day on the weekend its really pretty easy.

[Eug]

Thanks for the advice Dom, the leaks you mention don't sound too good. Just reading through your old thread on bearing buddies now. I might shoot you a PM or two in future if you don't mind.

[mick fillet]

its not a tandem just a single axle and both hubs leek like crazy.

I will stuff around with them a bit tommrrow.

i hope i havent polished the stub to much.I doubt it as it didnt take much to get the surface where the seal sits looking sweet.

did you use that locktite stuff that dura hub recomends you should use dhess?

I did and if you didnt then i reckon its the locktite sealant creating a problem

so you running straight oil in your hubs Dhess.

so do you fit a bearing straight out of the box and in the hub,fit the hub then fill with oil or do you pack a bit grease in the bearing first?

[mick fillet]

had a good look at every thing today.I am pritty sure I located the problem,

when i put the seals in i didnt put the seals so they were running true on the axle.I just wacked them in flush with the back of the hub.and when I rotated the hub I could see the seal had a slight wobble.

so I put new seals in just sitting 2mm proud of the back of the hub.then I fitted the hub on the axle and rotated the hub by hand and continued taping the seal until it was real snug in the hub and ran perectly true on the axle

now all the seal are sweet

I am very happy with themB)

[dhess]

Mick,

Didn't pack any grease just in straight out of the box.

I used the loctite as instructed.

INteresting what you say about leaving the seal casings sitting slightly proud of the hub, I was going to suggest that you may have pushed them in too much first time. Interestingly I tapped mine in flush with the hub. I guess the geometry may vary slightly from axle to axle.

Ray,

The durahubs used to come with a set of Holden and Ford Seals. Not too long ago they slightly modified and renamed them durahub extreme and leave it up to you to get the correct seal.