Looking at the bearing buddies the other day, and was trying to decide if I need them or not.
Its for a small trailer that hauls 2 quads, for maybe 1000 miles a year. Ive been repacking the bearings every spring, and things seem ok, but it is a small hassle to do them. I was told there needs to be some air space inside the cavity, that if its packed full, like a bearing buddy would, then the grease would expand and force grease out the seals, eventually wrecking the seals.

I wont be going in any water, like boat trailers do, and i know thats one of the advantages of the buddies, is keeping the water out.

Id like some input, on the goods and bads, of using the bearing buddies.

 

Bearing buddies work great. pop em on,,,,,fill em with grease (dont overfill),,,,and the spring loaded plate keeps pressure on the grease while you drive. Fill em back up when you see the zerk getting lower.

Good cheap trailer mod,,,that will make your bearings trouble free. Everyone should have em.

I havent had any bad experiences with mine. I supppose if you did overload them (i dont think that just the spring would force the seals out) then you might risk getting grease in your brake assembly (if you had brakes). Just be sure to stop when the grease gun gets firm.

Also,,if you are only going 1000 miles a year,,,,you could probably get away with re-packing every 5 years at least.

 

what size tires do you have


I would defenitely recommend them for smaller trailer wheels/tires (spin much faster,,,,and therefor need more grease).

 

They are the small donuts, i believe 18.5 x 8.5 x 8 and they probably do spin pretty fast at 75 mph.

 

they would be perfect for that setup

those small wheels really go thru bearings pretty quick

 

I agree with Bing, don't over grease them or you will get grease on the brakes. Not good. A blow out or wheel passing you by at 75 mph would not be a good thing either[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

Had a bearing go out on a trailer without a bearing buddy on our way to Glamis in Pasadina on Christams day. Left the trailer for 2 days, came back on bought a new axle that came with bearing buddys. Never had a problem after that and that single axle trailer was always over loaded.

Craig

 

Go with the E-Z lube axles, the back seal wont blow out like the bearing buddies do.

 

Bearing buddies work great, especially for boat trailer. I don't think they are really "needed" on utility trailer, but they do make it easier to grease the bearings no doubt.

I had a small trailer and just popped the cap once in a while to check and add grease as needed. Sometimes not as often as I probably should have (just got lucky I guess).
Not that big a deal.
Whichever way you go will work.

Not slamming you at all here Perp [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img], just saying that not having bearing buddies probably didn't cause the problem. Maybe a little more maintenance or inspection (assumption on my part) of the bearing might have helped (which I admittedly am guilty of also sometimes [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]).
But I guess that incident lends to the opinion that bearing buddies are good because they do make it easier to keep up on them [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]:

 

youre not saying that you'd use bearing buddies on a travel trailer or anything that large are you?