# Trailer bearings and grease...



## capt j-rod (Feb 14, 2008)

Thought I'd share my recent experience to try and help others. I am a big believer in Amsoil products. I've had excellent outcomes and I feel they are worth the extra money. It turns out that different greases are not compatible. I was guilty of just hitting the bearing buddies and heading down the road. I switched from Lucas red and tacky to the amsoil blue water resistant grease. For the record I did not lose a bearing on the trailer, but it got very hot on the way home last night. When I pulled the hub a brownish burnt smelling watery goop came out. I washed out all the grease with diesel in a coffee can and blew them out with the air compressor. Races and bearings were all still good, I pumped fresh grease through the hub to flush out any old stuff. I hand packed my bearings, replaced the seal and lovingly put it all back together. There was no water in the hub, but it might have evaporated due to high heat. I guess the lesson learned was to never mix grease. I've since decided to have two separate grease guns and not mix them. I was fortunate that I didn't have far to get home or I would have definitely fried the bearing. I also cleaned all the brakes (surge disc) and vacuum bled them with new fluid. Lost a whole day to it, but we are ready to roll with confidence. Also reminded me to carry a wood block and a bottle jack with basic tools when I trailer. It would have been a disaster trying to do that on the side of the road. Of course it was the driver's side so my a$$ would have been hanging over the white line on route 2 on the bay bridge. Please don't turn this into my grease is better than yours, just make sure you aren't mixing things around in the hubs!
Tight lines to all.


----------



## bustedrod (May 13, 2015)

good to know, have fried a few brngs on the spindle along the road, I have started putting rubber caps over my brng buddys .


----------



## firemanmike2127 (Mar 17, 2013)

I've had a bearing cage fail 3 weeks after being disassembled, thoroughly cleaned & inspected in the shop parts washer, & reassembled by me a number of years ago. The axle also had EZ-Lube hubs. Not sure which grease was involved because I have several different types in the shop (std. petroleum grease from NAPA, Lucas Red-n-Tacky, blue waterproof grease, & spline grease). This was on my personal fishing boat that I still use today. Interesting read on your experience. I ALWAYS jack up my customer's boat trailers that come through the shop & shake the wheel & hub away. Hubs always get a shot of grease, tires properly inflated, & bearings shook to see if things are OK or in need of maintenance. Trailer bearings are SOOOOO often the most neglected part of trailered boats. Recently, I had a new customer bring me a pontoon with a 5 year old tandem axle drive-on trailer that he had bought new for this older boat. I noticed that the wheel was laying over in the fender wheel quite a bit & suspected a bent spindle base on the angle. I grabbed the shop floor jack, picked up the affected axle of the trailer, & removed the tire, wheel, & hub WITH NO TOOLS !! That customer was very lucky along with everybody he passed on the road that day....Mike


----------



## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

Many years ago we went through this 'grease mixing' issue at work.
And since we were responsible for maintenance on hundreds of pieces of equipment ranging from as small as weed eaters to cars, trucks/trailers of all kinds/sizes, motorcycles, boats/trailers to off road equip., need I say we learned a valuable, costly lesson.
Being a government entity, by law at that time,everything we used went out on bid usually every year, including all oils and lubes.
Making an already long story short, those that were responsible in writing the specs. for outgoing bids that were sent to vendors for products never bothered to check the compatibility of one product to the next.
And it bit us after a change in greases....it also cost us a pile of $. Especially in time and labor
Thankfully, we had a regular preventative maintenance program that many of these vehicles ran through every so many hours/miles. With that PM program, some of the more specialized emergency equipment came through a couple times a month.
We started seeing different kinds of bearing failure...needle bearings,roller bearings, spherical bearings etc. in short order. If the bearing hadn't failed, the mixed grease looked dis-colored and hard and they weren't far from failing.
It was very apparent that the prior grease we were using and the current grease we had switched to were not compatible.
Again, with so many different pieces of equip. requiring grease, you can imagine how costly this was. 
If you're going to switch grease/oils, read the label of what's in it and also what types of greases/oils its compatible with.

Thanks for the caution CJR...
...*ALL GREASE and OIL are NOT COMPATIBLE!*


----------



## RiparianRanger (Nov 18, 2015)

Is grease "color coded" the same way anti-freeze is? Asking because I bought my boat two years ago and had it professionally serviced shortly thereafter, including repacking the trailer wheel bearings. Pulling the dust caps reveals a set of bearing buddies on the single axle and what looks like red grease on the zirk fitting. Are these OK to re-grease if I stay away from the "blue" marine grease?


----------



## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

RiparianRanger said:


> Is grease "color coded" the same way anti-freeze is? Asking because I bought my boat two years ago and had it professionally serviced shortly thereafter, including repacking the trailer wheel bearings. Pulling the dust caps reveals a set of bearing buddies on the single axle and what looks like red grease on the zirk fitting. Are these OK to re-grease if I stay away from the "blue" marine grease?


Yes, you should grease them. But don't overdue it. There are a few good vids on proper greasing of bearing buddies on the net.


----------



## firemanmike2127 (Mar 17, 2013)

My preference is to jack up the side I'm servicing . I can check the adjustment of the castellated nut, spin the wheel/hub assy to listen for any noise indicative of a problem, & more evenly distribute the new grease. I'll finish by inspecting the tread for imbedded road debris before checking the lug nuts & tire pressure. Mike


----------



## RiparianRanger (Nov 18, 2015)

Here's a little added info. Took a couple photos of the bearing buddy and back of each wheel. The bearing buddies appear to have ample grease and it looks like some grease has splattered on the back though it looks old to me. Maybe you all can lend your thoughts. Anything you see here to be concerned over?


----------



## firemanmike2127 (Mar 17, 2013)

Looks pretty normal to me. I clean the inside of my wheels with a little gas & then wipe them down with WD-40. Mike


----------



## Mrwiggler (Jan 26, 2017)

Looks like an inner seal, possibly leaking to me. Maybe over greased?


----------



## bustedrod (May 13, 2015)

looks like maybe inner seal change time. brng buddys are ok but I use a rubber cap over the bng bud w a hose clamp to keep it tight. never have any problems since I started using them on my wheels.


----------



## firemanmike2127 (Mar 17, 2013)

It's not uncommon to find a small amount of grease on the inner side of the wheel, especially at the end of the towing season. IMO the best practice is to repack/replace bearings & install a new inner seal prior to winter layup. I prefer using double lip seals when they are available. Mike


----------



## cincinnati (May 24, 2004)

My trailer has Bearing Buddies but I still re-pack & re-seal every year. The spindles have Speedy Sleeves & those will wear enough, over time, to allow the rear seals to weep, especially if you're hitting the Bearing Buddies hard each time out.


----------



## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

firemanmike2127 said:


> It's not uncommon to find a small amount of grease on the inner side of the wheel, especially at the end of the towing season. IMO the best practice is to repack/replace bearings & install a new inner seal prior to winter layup. I prefer using double lip seals when they are available. Mike


Very good advice on using double lip seals.
FWIW, agree its not uncommon to see a small bit of grease splatter on inner side of wheel at seasons end.


----------



## I Fish (Sep 24, 2008)

You guys should check out Bearing Buddy's grease seal. The seal is oversized and it comes with a ss cup that goes over the old seal lip of your spindle. Makes a much better seal.


----------



## firemanmike2127 (Mar 17, 2013)

These are also marketed as 'Spindo Seals' (made by Bearing Buddy). The kits I installed in the past have included a double lip seal. Mike


----------



## RiparianRanger (Nov 18, 2015)

Is special grease required or will any old tube of grease do? The existing grease in the trailer wheel bearings is red as shown in the thread below. Can it be determined by the color if this is marine grade grease or the standard stuff? If it's not the marine grease, is it OK to mix or will that "fry" the bearing in all cases like the OP experienced?

https://www.ohiogamefishing.com/threads/trailer-bearings-and-grease.316802/#post-2383643


----------



## KaGee (Sep 8, 2006)

If in doubt clean it all out and repack with known Marine grease.


----------



## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

firemanmike2127 said:


> These are also marketed as 'Spindo Seals' (made by Bearing Buddy). The kits I installed in the past have included a double lip seal. Mike


Yep... when replacing boat trailer wheel bearing seals, it's never a good idea to use single lipped seals. Always use double lipped.



KaGee said:


> If in doubt clean it all out and repack with known Marine grease.


Excellent advice right there!
Always use Marine grade grease on your trailer bearings.
Regular grease mixes with water much easier than marine grade grease. Marine grade grease has special additives in it so as to not mix with water as easily.


----------



## Popspastime (Apr 1, 2014)

Here's a tip for installing rubber cups over the bearing buddies. After greasing put a bit on the outer housing where the cup fits over. Wipe the grease on very thin coating the outside of the housing and push the rubber cap on but with one finger in the middle of the cap. This will push the cap on while pushing the air out and you will not take it off easily when it's time I promise. Also helps seal against water entering from outside.


----------



## EnonEye (Apr 13, 2011)

Popspastime said:


> Here's a tip for installing rubber cups over the bearing buddies. After greasing put a bit on the outer housing where the cup fits over. Wipe the grease on very thin coating the outside of the housing and push the rubber cap on but with one finger in the middle of the cap. This will push the cap on while pushing the air out and you will not take it off easily when it's time I promise. Also helps seal against water entering from outside.


This what I experienced also. Maybe I'm fortunate but I greased twice a year with the Bearing Buddies (first of year and in September) for 18 seasons with el-cheapo Wallmart marine grease before having my bearings replaced with zero issues. I think if you grease the BB's properly there's no reason I see why the bearings would wear but JMO. Probably just blessed.


----------



## tomb (Oct 9, 2004)

Greases of different soap types will definitely destroy each other, and whatever item they are supposed to lubricate. One of the reasons my local trailer shop dislikes bearing buddies. Bearings should be completely cleaned out and repacked every year. Switch brands of grease at that time, if desired.


----------



## Popspastime (Apr 1, 2014)

Use a good molly grease and you should have no problem at all.


----------



## whal (Jul 11, 2012)

When replacing inner seals make sure to get good seals, there are a lot of cheap ones out there and when installing the seals put red hi temp form a gasket on the outside of the seal before you press it in to help keep water out of the hub.


----------



## Nauti cat (Nov 30, 2009)

When I use to tow I carried a bottle jack wood blocks rags pliers hand cleaner and a complete spare hub kit. I never used them because of routine maintenance routine being the key word. I don't mix grease like "KPI said in doubt clean it out"


----------

