Trailer bearings

[37 chief]

I use my 18 ft Big Tex trailer to haul my mowing tractor. It has been 15 or so years since I have done anything to the wheel bearings. Do any of you service your trailer bearings, on a regular schedule? My 96 Dodge 3500 that pulls my trailer probably the same, only if I change the rotors do I do I repack the bearings. My 05 f 150 has nothing done to the wheel bearings, with over 100 Th.mi. How do you treat your bearings? Stan

 

[wh]

For just a little time cleaning/repacking wheel bearings is cheap insurance against roadside breakdowns.

 

[Bob Bancroft]

I use my 18 ft Big Tex trailer to haul my mowing tractor. It has been 15 or so years since I have done anything to the wheel bearings. Do any of you service your trailer bearings, on a regular schedule? My 96 Dodge 3500 that pulls my trailer probably the same, only if I change the rotors do I do I repack the bearings. My 05 f 150 has nothing done to the wheel bearings, with over 100 Th.mi. How do you treat your bearings? Stan

Timken type bearings, it seems, can just about last forever with a tiny bit of lubrication. The non serviceable front wheel bearings on my GM 4x4 on the other hand, are a different story. I assume they're a ball bearing.

 

[da.bees]

New accusations, new or used get complete teardown,lubed and adjusted. Why some trailer manufactures don't attend to bearing and brakes before leaving plant defy's reason. Rv wheels pulled on 4-5 year intervals to check,lub and adj brakes and bearings. All my utility trailers get low miles put on them so I put 1 shot of grease in Bearing buddies annually and disassembled about every 10 years. I do check hub temperatures with laser often.

 

[used red MN]

New accusations

Do your “accused” bearings ever seek legal counsel? I’m sure it is a spell check thing and you meant “acquisitions”
Chief
What wh said is a good practice. I would say if you were pretty regimental with a laser temp gun doing a check at least once or twice a week you could probably spot 90 percent of any imminent failures. On your Dodge it would be interesting to see what the owners manual recommends, 2 or 4wd? Your F150 has sealed bearings.

 

[rustred]

I use my 18 ft Big Tex trailer to haul my mowing tractor. It has been 15 or so years since I have done anything to the wheel bearings. Do any of you service your trailer bearings, on a regular schedule? My 96 Dodge 3500 that pulls my trailer probably the same, only if I change the rotors do I do I repack the bearings. My 05 f 150 has nothing done to the wheel bearings, with over 100 Th.mi. How do you treat your bearings? Stan

All depends if you’re referring to 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive. Totally different situations.

 

[MarkB_MI]

A common fallacy is that if you have greasable hubs you don't need to inspect and/or repack the bearings. You see a lot of boat trailers on the side of the road, often due to bearings that failed due to water intrusion and subsequent corrosion. Before bringing my boat north from Florida this spring, I pulled the hubs to make sure everything was OK; it was, but I damaged a cone getting the seal out so I went to a nearby boat dealer to get a new bearing. They were out of the bearing I needed, but the parts counter guy said "We don't sell that many bearings. Mostly folks just buy the whole hub, which isn't much more." He said they always throw a spare hub in the truck anytime they tow a trailer any distance. Two spare hubs if it's a tandem axle trailer.

After several years of owning our camper, I felt the trailer brakes weren't working as well as they should be, so I pulled the drums and hubs to inspect the brakes and bearings. One of the brake drums was packed full of grease! I've only used a manual grease gun on the hubs, and there was no sign of damage to the seal, so I figure the dealer tech used a power grease gun when they prepped the camper for delivery and managed to blow a LOT of grease past the seal.

 

[caterpillar guy]

So why not just go to oil hubs and forget about all this packing nonsense. We have run oil lubed bearings on semis for millions of miles with no major problems and you can just look at the window in the hub to see if there is oil or not. IF not then look in back to see if there is oil running down the side of the wheel. IF not then just add some or pop the plug out to see if it is dry. IF dry then you need to pull it apart to see why. I've pulled wheels with more weight than most campers would normally see on engine oil in a wheel once since that was all I had to put in one once. Was in ID went to Blanca CO with it and the trip was across WY from Little America Cheyenne down to Walsenburg CO and over the pass to Ft.Garland to get in the back country where we had to go. I know it was the long way around but less states and fewer mountain passes to travel of narrow travel for combines. I have been over the shorter way in the winter through Garrison CO and would not be a fun trip with a bunch of inexperienced drivers from flat lander country with oversized loads.