A few years ago I bought a used 5x8 Ft. stake rack trailer for our annual Elk/Mule Deer/Antelope hunting trips out west.
Leaving Michigan it's pretty much empty except for a chest freezer. On the way back though it's loaded to the gills right at max capacity. On the off season it seems to be constantly being used for all sorts of misc. stuff and being loaned out to friends and family. This little trailer has seen 4 round trips from Michigan to Colorado and Wyoming and countless trips within Michigan.
When I bought it, I replaced the bearing, hubs and tires and I installed bearing buddies just so I can be assured that fresh grease would always be available for the bearings.
My question is. How long should I expect these bearings to last? Should I replace them soon or will they last forever if I take care of them?
Trailer bearing life expectancy ?
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ls1mike
$50 Site Donor 2023
On my 7500 lbs travel trailer I check and repack them every 2 years. My last 5th wheel I changed them out at 6 years.
Replacements will last far longer than the original,lowest bidder Chinese units.Buy a name brand,grease them with good high temp grease and use the steel spring loaded bearing caps/greasers and you'll be good to go for many years and thousands of miles.
ls1mike
$50 Site Donor 2023
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Replacements will last far longer than the original,lowest bidder Chinese units.Buy a name brand,grease them with good high temp grease and use the steel spring loaded bearing caps/greasers and you'll be good to go for many years and thousands of miles.
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Replacements will last far longer than the original,lowest bidder Chinese units.Buy a name brand,grease them with good high temp grease and use the steel spring loaded bearing caps/greasers and you'll be good to go for many years and thousands of miles.
Someone mentioned water and this is generally what takes out bearings on boat trailers fresh or salt water . Water and bearings don't mix well .
i used to own a lawncare biz. 3 trailers and a couple hundred thousand miles and zero problems with bearings. I wouldn't worry about it at all.
Re-pack once a year if it's used a lot and it should be good. Use a NGLI GC-LB rated grease that's meant for bearings, and it should be good to go for the season. Basically, pick one grease and stick with it.
Pull the bearings every couple of years, wipe off the outside grease and have a good close look at all the rollers. They should be nice and shinny, no wear marks or rust or pitting.
When you re-grease the bearings you want to do it in such a manner to push all the old (dirty) grease out.
If you can prevent water from getting to the bearings, they will last a long long time.
My Dodge Ram still has this type of bearing setup as the rotor is a rotor/hub with replaceable bearings.
The hard part for those who have never done bearings or brake rotor hub with bearings and races, is getting the preload right when tighting the castle nut.
Originally Posted By: spasm3
The hard part for those who have never done bearings or brake rotor hub with bearings and races, is getting the preload right when tighting the castle nut.
Originally Posted By: nitehawk55
Originally Posted By: spasm3
The hard part for those who have never done bearings or brake rotor hub with bearings and races, is getting the preload right when tighting the castle nut.
Kestas
Staff member
Bearing life depends on loading and number of revolutions. I doubt most trailer bearings ever reach their design end of life. Rather, most bearings fail from abuse or seal failure. This includes improper maintenance, preload, and allowing water and dirt to enter the bearing.
Thanks for the info people. I'm going to skip bearing replacement then and just keep them greased.
The bearing failure with water is generally a warm/hot bearing being suddenly emmersed in cool/cold water(boat ramp)-thus forming a vacuum that sucks water past the seals. With a bearing buddy type deal, you are fully loading the bearings and hub with grease-and under a light pressure by compressing a spring against a pusher plate that visibly moves as grease filling is completed. An additional pump or two with the grease gun occasionally serves to keep everything happy. I've gone many years just doing the above on a number of trailers with no 'issues' at all.
Do bearing buddies really work?
I bought a lightly used camper that had them. I did some reading, came to the conclusion that they only really belong on boat trailers, and decided I would remove them. I wanted to grease the bearings by hand and verify that they were in good shape. Good thing too: while there was no issues the grease was clearly not making it from the outer bearing to the inside, as the hub was not filled with grease. But the buddy spring was compressed...
Not driven enough? Too viscous to make it past the bearing? Beats me. Like I said, I decided I didn't want them, and I removed them.
Hmmm. Good question. I used to pull my main trailer about 20k miles a year, I replaced the bearings about every three years as PM and never had a failure. I still do it about every 3 years, but do many fewer miles.
My travel trailer is dual axle. It has dexter e-z lube axles. The design allows grease to be pumped throught the inner and outer races with a grease gun. As long as you use a hand grease gun you won't blow the seals out. My tt is an 05 and i have not pulled the bearings out yet. The grease usually comes out pretty clean , i use valvoline duralube.
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