Trailer Bearing Service

[Juliery]

I suspect one reason that most shops always replace bearings as they don’t want to depend on their employees to inspect the bearings.

Wheel bearings on a car last tens of thousands of miles. Quality trailer bearings will too, if you keep the water out and grease them occasionally. To inspect, block the trailer and jack up one side. Grab the tire top and bottom and see if it will move back and forth - it shouldn't. Then spin the wheel and listen for noise (rumbling or grinding) - there should be none. Going on a long trip? Check the hubs for heat occasionally. My previous boat trailer had 25 years of use with the same bearings. No problems.

Now brakes, on the other hand ...

 

[Maggieiscrazy]

Its high. Thus the comment that its "Seattle Area". Parts werent $75. one set of bearings alone from EZ loader is $55 so four is $220. Oil for the baths $14. New end caps $25 each so there's another $100. EZ loader sells a "kit" with all that in it plus a hub for $112 each. I had hubs replaced too. so parts were about $500. Labor then was $400. Going rate for Northwest for labor is about $130/hr. So they charged me 3.5 hours. All in all not bad for complete new hubs and bearings. 4 bills is not a bad piece of mind for a job from someone who knows what they are doing and wont leave you stranded on the road later because the rear seal wasnt installed right and the bearing wasted because of. I am nervous of oil bath set up. They are different that greased hubs. Not as easily maintenanced on the side of the road.

Oil bath are a great setup. Most semi trailers use them now. Problem is. If you blow a seal or lose a dust cap. You’ll be out of commission in a few miles. With the standard greased hubs. You may get a few hundred miles.

 

[scoflaw]

With a grease hub your going to go way longer than a few hundred. probably thousands

 

[JHornsby3]

They are different that greased hubs. Not as easily maintenanced on the side of the road.

As one that has spent hundreds of thousands of miles behind the wheel of heavy rigs and worked on a large fleet of beaten gravel trucks, they can be easier to work on. Oil bath in 99% of the cases I have worked on, on the side of the road, have been easier. The biggest thing to remember to keep them working properly. is that vent in the fill cap. You have to keep that vent opened. If it's a sealed unit and there is no cap with the pin hole vent, keep a spare cover and gaskets with you at all times. And make sure your hubs have cooled before putting them into water. Had a belly dump with tag axels that ran at 97klbs. The hubs would heat up like normal, and the driver would pull into the site and go through the wheel wash. That cold water on the hot plastic sight glass would crack every time.

With oil bath, it's easier to just look and see that they are oiled. With the grease caps, it's not always easy to see they have grease.

 

[89P270]

I agree with the maintenance if you catch the failure while on the road. I suppose use of the word "maintenance" vs "side of the road" fix may have been more appropriate. What I meant was greased hubs - Grease tends to stick while oil will leak. if greased bearings get hot from lack of grease or bearing starting to fail the usually wont completely loose all the grease and can be re-greased on the side of the road to get you to a better area for addressing the issues. However, if the rear/front seal on oil bath fails and you loose the oil and dont see it til its been driven miles without oil, and gotten really hot which likely will happen faster during a failure event, you may be stuck there on the side of the road awaiting a complete hub replacement and unable to move to safe spot. I suppose this can happen in either type of hub if you dont keep an eye on the maintenance/heat. I always inspect before I tow as well as check heat in each tire after 10's of miles to ensure no heat build up. Your also right that with oil bath you can see the oil level while greased bearings you cant. I am learning the oil bath management this season as I have never had them before.

 

[Juliery]

If you have greased bearings with bearing buddies (highly recommended) you can "see" by the retracted position of the spring loaded seal when you need to add grease.

 

[Creekwood]

Replace all the bearings, do not repack them. Cheap insurance...

My dues were paid stranded in a parking lot for 8 hours on labor Day weekend. No one would service us, had a race seized on the axle, had to go to Rural King to buy air tools to get the race off. NEVER AGAIN!!!!

Great advice. My first boat was a trailer boat, but I started to stay in a marina, so the trailer was only used for winter storage. I decided to do trailer trip with it, so I repacked the bearings myself and headed out. At the first stop I checked the hubs and saw a bit of smoke. I nearly burned the skin off my hand when I palmed that hub. Ended the trip right there. Inner bearing seals were toast and the bearings were failing. As soon as they heated up, the grease flowed out and then ran dry. Lesson learned.

 

[scoflaw]

Great advice. My first boat was a trailer boat, but I started to stay in a marina, so the trailer was only used for winter storage. I decided to do trailer trip with it, so I repacked the bearings myself and headed out. At the first stop I checked the hubs and saw a bit of smoke. I nearly burned the skin off my hand when I palmed that hub. Ended the trip right there. Inner bearing seals were toast and the bearings were failing. As soon as they heated up, the grease flowed out and then ran dry. Lesson learned.

What lesson was learned? If you can't tell a good bearing from a bad one and don't know how to pack one, hire someone that does. Properly maintained bearings should last as long as the trailer does.

 

[MonacoMike]

What lesson was learned? If you can't tell a good bearing from a bad one and don't know how to pack one, hire someone that does. Properly maintained bearings should last as long as the trailer does.

BS in todays world the quality of the past is gone. Just an unwarranted attack...

 

[scoflaw]

Been driving trailers up and down the east coast for 50 years, have yet to have a problem. Interestiing eh?

 

[MonacoMike]

Been driving trailers up and down the east coast for 50 years, have yet to have a problem. Interestiing eh?

There are two types of folks pulling trailers, those who have had a failure and those that likely will. It is just a matter of timing as the parts are surely not perfect but new bearings are as good as the typical user can do. I suspect modern trailer bearings are built for the typical use cycle which is why every trailer mechanic I have discussed this with recommended new bearings every time.

 

[scoflaw]

Well I'm the guy on the ground getting things done. You type.

 

[JHornsby3]

I once had a guy that refused to do any kind of work on a truck. He kicked out a sight glass on a belly dump then drove from Boise all the way to Post Falls with no oil in the hub. 82k of hot mix asphalt there and empty back. Oil bath can run without oil. How far is the question. I personally think he got very lucky. Be made it back to the yard and he kept his job for another week. I wanted to fire him. The boss wanted to see him walk back and hand dig hot mix out of the trailer.

 

[Juliery]

Contrary to some here, bearing failures do not have to happen. When buying bearings, buy them through an industrial supplier . They trade in quality bearings (Timken, SKF, NTN, NSK, Koyo). Be aware that Timken supplies these companies with Chinese and Eastern European bearings, as well (so open the box to look before buying). The Japanese bearing manufacturers make premium bearings and are the top of the line. Some are also made in the USA.

Failures:
Many bearing failures are due to lubrication problems (wrong type, too much grease, not enough grease, mixing incompatable greases). Never mix lithium based grease with any other base like urea based grease. It will turn into a goopy substance with minimal lubricity.

On boat trailers, many bearing failures are because of worn or damaged seals (letting water intrude into the bearing assembly). Check them as regularly as bearings, even change them annually.

When replacing the cups (outer ring of tapered bearing set), check the hub housing for burrs, dirt, etc. If the cup is not seated properly it will not allow the rollers of the cone to seat and run true in the raceway (causing premature bearing failure).

Before changing bearings, check the dimensions of the spindle and hub housing for roundness in 4 or more places where the bearing will be mounted. If the shaft or housing is out of spec or out of round, the bearing could spin on the shaft or housing creating excessive heat, leading to bearing and, or shaft failure.

 

[Thornton69]

Have been seeing lots of bearings (outside of trailers axels as well) recently from brand named manufacturers with china on them. Tough to know what you're going to get with them for quality. Haven't had a problem with them yet but am in the middle of a crap show with what appears to be a counterfeit Deere oil pump from china in the last 6090 I built.

 

[Nater Potater]

I just finished repacking the four sets of cheap bearings on my travel trailer, weighing around 12,000 pounds. That's after putting 10,000 miles on them. They look as good as the day I put them in. They'll run another 10,000 miles, then get swapped for a new set. As @Juliery mentioned, the proper grease plays a pretty big part in the life of the bearings, so do some research before arbitrarily throwing in whatever you happen to have laying around. And, cleanliness is king. The tiniest speck of sand in the grease makes a wonderful grinding paste...

 

[Creekwood]

What lesson was learned? If you can't tell a good bearing from a bad one and don't know how to pack one, hire someone that does. Properly maintained bearings should last as long as the trailer does.

You are probably right. I didn't do it properly and didn't realize they were toast.