I'm aware i've posted some other topics regarding trailers - yes i've towed anywhere up to 7000lbs before - but i've never once had to deal with the maintenance side so i'm totally clueless. :^)
I bought a Harbor Freight 4x8 folding trailer last year (12" rims, 1200lb max rated weight, no ebrakes) which the only parting comment I was told was "the bearing grease in these totally sucks and you probably want to replace it".
Well when I was assembling it I started removing the bearing grease... but then felt like I didn't know what I was doing, realizing it was too late to buy any more that night, and being on a super-compressed time schedule (had to have the trailer on the road hours previously) just used it as was, with about 1/2 or 2/3 the grease in the one side partly removed. I stopped every few hours, it clearly heated up the hub more on that side, wasn't happy about driving under those conditions but was too far behind schedule to mess with it. It was never too hot to touch though, just notably warmer on that side with my cooloff periods.
Mostly I didn't know if i'm supposed to clean the old grease out with a solvent (ie every last trace) and also didn't know the proper way to pack new grease into there to be honest. It seemed like quite a bit of grease was in there from the factory... Nor what grease would count as a good one even!
So can someone please walk me through the For Dummies version. I was told to repack grease every 2000-3000 miles anyways and the last trailer trip put 2000mi on it. What is a GOOD grease to use, whats the right way to clean the old grease out, how much do I put into where (do I shove it in by hand or squeeze it in through that little fitting or both), etc.
I bought a Harbor Freight 4x8 folding trailer last year (12" rims, 1200lb max rated weight, no ebrakes) which the only parting comment I was told was "the bearing grease in these totally sucks and you probably want to replace it".
Well when I was assembling it I started removing the bearing grease... but then felt like I didn't know what I was doing, realizing it was too late to buy any more that night, and being on a super-compressed time schedule (had to have the trailer on the road hours previously) just used it as was, with about 1/2 or 2/3 the grease in the one side partly removed. I stopped every few hours, it clearly heated up the hub more on that side, wasn't happy about driving under those conditions but was too far behind schedule to mess with it. It was never too hot to touch though, just notably warmer on that side with my cooloff periods.
Mostly I didn't know if i'm supposed to clean the old grease out with a solvent (ie every last trace) and also didn't know the proper way to pack new grease into there to be honest. It seemed like quite a bit of grease was in there from the factory... Nor what grease would count as a good one even!
So can someone please walk me through the For Dummies version. I was told to repack grease every 2000-3000 miles anyways and the last trailer trip put 2000mi on it. What is a GOOD grease to use, whats the right way to clean the old grease out, how much do I put into where (do I shove it in by hand or squeeze it in through that little fitting or both), etc.