How often to you pack your trailer wheel bearings?

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Figgy

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Hey all,

So my new used trailer last year had a wheel bearing failure while being towed back from a dirt bike trip. It sucked...it's a '96 Triton single axle trailer...I pulled a MacGuyver and fixed it "good enough for government work" in a parking lot, got it home and then repacked both sides.

Well, it looked like the other side had never been serviced...and yes I should have known better. Safe to say this is the first and last bearing failure I'll ever experience.

My questions is how many miles do you all typically run before a cleaning and repacking? To me annually simply seems like overkill...I would think they should be able to run 10,000 miles or so prior to needing to be pulled apart, cleaned and repacked. Also, this trailer does have zerks, but I think they only fill the inboard bearing. And yes...it does have the little tires on this bad dog, and it's only an open trailer too...so very light.

Thanks in advance--
 
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I do mine at least once a year. I hate breaking down when on a trip, A few minutes checking them makes all the difference to me since if it locks up and scrubs a tire and a spindle, your trip will be delayed maybe by hours. My 2 place single axle I mainly only use in winter, So I do that one every fall. My boat trailer every spring...
 
yes...being stuck sucks...as I can attest to. Typically on a trip now, I'll touch the hubs at stops to see how much heat is being generated. Last year prior to my blow up, it gave some warning, but I ignored it...that is a hub that was pretty warm...and stayed warm even after our sit-down lunch!

Looking back that was kinda dumb to ignore...and I payed for it.
 
I do mine every 3 years. That's pulling the seals and repacking inner and outer, then installing a new seal. It never looks as though it's needed when I pull it apart. I'm in the camp that yearly is overkill as long as the job was done correctly. The grease easily lasts that long.
What is a big contributor is people who don't know how to do it correctly. Not getting the grease completely through the bearing when packing and over/under tightening the bearing spindle nut are the two main mistakes. A new quality seal keeps the water out too.
 
I think if you looking to go 10,000 miles your looking for trouble
We do alot of bearing service at the shop and most people that are not using the trailer for commercial duty can repack every 2-3 years @ 3000-5000 miles
short trips will generate dirty grease even though not many miles.
If we pull a trailer apart and the grease looks good we tell them they could go longer.
So if you go 2yrs and it looks good go 3yrs next time BUT WRITE IT DOWN!!!!
everybody comes in and says they just had it done, so we look it up and its been years! Also agree with the good seal make sure it has a spring behind the rubber lip to apply sealing pressure.
The zerks do work when used proper
be careful not to blow the seal out, pump several time then turn hub to help grease go thru the inner bearing to get to the outer
 
You do see allot of people on the side of the road with bearing issues. Makes you want to look at your own trailer with every few years of use. I'd hate to be going on a long snowmobile trip and having a incident on a cold winter day.
 
It only takes a hour or two. I do mine once a year. But I added bearing buddies this year so we'll see. Maybe I'll do it every other year now, & grease it every year.
I had a tire blow once without a spare, I hated dealing with that on a Sunday afternoon when everything is closed in a small town. With that in mind, I'd rather be safe than sorry again.
 
I do mine every year trailers 13 years old. This year I restored the entire trailer I had it sandblasted, painted, new wood on the floor and just rewired the lights on it all I have left to do is repack the bearings and install new seals. Hope she last another 13 years now.
 
Just to throw this in. If your bearings have been neglected and you have Dexter axles, you can get the complete hub assembly for less than $30 a piece (some places less than $25). They are real easy to replace. If you have Easy-Lubes (special spindle) be sure to loosen the nut and push all of the old greases out if you are repacking. Don't just "top it off". This is why I do not like the Bearing Buddys. They don't let you push the old grease out.

Best method of course is to disassemble, wash, and repack. There are a number of good videos online to show you how to do this if you are not sure. Like mentioned above, the new grease needs to be worked into the bearing (why they call it pack). Can be done in the palm of your hand, or with a bearing packer.

In Michigan where they use a lof of salt on the roads, I have found that using acorn nuts for the lugs helps protect the lugs. With standard nuts the lug nut can rust on so tight that the ear of the hub simply breaks when you try to loosen it. This is how I know about buying new hubs assemblys.
 
Towards the end of rusted lugs...I always grease the studs, and back sides of the wheels too. It's a car thing, wheels get fused to spindles often. I find that a little antiseize goes a long way.

I guess part of my point is that I don't, and never have, serviced the (packable) bearings on my cars (or customers' cars) with any degree of regularity relative to a trailer bearing (like years, and years, tens of thousands of miles). And yes, we are dealing with a tiny little bearing whose ability to bear weight is much less than car-sized bearings. But really, every year to me is simply too often...seems like over recommending. I don't do my boat but every few years (larger wheels, larger bearings---and A LOT MORE weight too).

And yes...getting stuck with either a trip ending, trip screwing up, or trip delaying road-side repairs is NOT ANY fun.

Moreover, if we guess that indeed the PO never did a bearing repack, well, looks like they lasted twelve years before one failed! Now, I don't propose going that long, but every year is a lot of repacking and a lot of seals.

Lastly, has anyone actually seen axle seals without the tensioner spring on them? Not saying they don't exist, but I've worked on a shit-ton of cars, boats, motorcycle, snowmobiles, trailers, lawnmowers, weed wackers, et cetera and I've never seen a seal that didn't have one???
 
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Lastly, has anyone actually seen axle seals without the tensioner spring on them? Not saying they don't exist, but I've worked on a shit-ton of cars, boats, motorcycle, snowmobiles, trailers, lawnmowers, weed wackers, et cetera and I've never seen a seal that didn't have one???

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Yes, want me to send you one
 
it's always a good idea to atleast take the cap off and look at the grease every year, and spin the wheel and hub assy.... listen and feel for catches, inspect the whole system, hub, front, rear seal, look at the tires and wheels. be sure you arent seeing grease all over the back of your wheel. good sign a seal is bad. and if it is flinging grease out, it is letting all kinds of debris in.

if you are buying a used trailer, never assume (even if the seller says they just did it) the bearings and hubs have been serviced. check it out, takes a few minutes to avoid hours and dollars of headaches.

and when in doubt, REPLACE THE IFFY PART. nothing like trying to change a hub assy on the side of the road in the dark in the snow, at below zero temps. good way to ruin any trip.

one thing you can do like ding says, and it is cheap. carry a spare hub and bearing assy all prepped and ready to go. then if you have a major failure and the spindle isnt too damaged, it is a few minute quick change.

never know what can happen on the road. just because you serviced them in october, doesnt mean you cant have a simpler failure in december or january. better safe than sorry. ski
 
i do alot of bearings on trailers boat,sled the most important thing is to pack both bearings completely and put back bearing in fill space then put in seal then turn over hub and fill from back to front with grease then put in front bearing push on axel and grease turd will come out of the center of the front bearing some of that you can put in cap, then dont run to loose or to tight ,too loose and that will takeout seal and bearing to tight and that will takeout bearing, i usually as tire is spinning by hand tighten to were you can feel the bearings make contact and back off to closest hole this has worked for me well for sled trailers ill go 5000 then repack, boats i check yearly because you drown those all the time my 2 cents
 
Quick update...got the hubs off on Saturday, and even though they probably have only about 4k-6k miles on them at the most, the grease in the bearings was dirty. The grease in the hubs was still nice and clean however...but that's not IN the bearing after all. And since it's still summerish, when I towed it from Chicago to Minneapolis the other day to get my new sled, I would check them for heat when gassing up and one side had no discernible temperature change yet the other was a teeny tiny bit warm.

Did not have enough time to clean and repack, will do that this weekend.

And I do agree with everyone, having had the PITA of fixing a blown bearing that maybe in this case an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This trailer is going to be making some trips out west I hope. DO NOT, want to deal with bearing issues on the side of the road!
 
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