Trailer Bearing Grease

Repair or modification of Boston Whaler boats, their engines, trailers, and gear
Oldslowandugly
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Trailer Bearing Grease

Postby Oldslowandugly » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:00 am

I am about to rebuild my trailer bearings with the Bearing Buddy Spindle Seal Kit. I have used Bearing Buddies and Lubriplate brand trailer bearing grease for 28 years with no problems. Since the spindles and bearings are clean I can switch greases now if I choose. I was leaning towards the OMC high pressure wheel bearing grease simply because I am a huge fan of OMC Triple Guard grease and OMC 2-cycle oil. I also noticed that many greases are now synthetic. I have no experience with those. I want to use something that is easy to acquire as I know better than mixing brands. What do you use?

jimh
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Re: Trailer Bearing Grease

Postby jimh » Wed Nov 01, 2017 9:15 am

The topic of a "best" trailer bearing grease is probably a bit like a "best" beer. There are a lot of choices and opinions.

I don't recall exactly what grease I have been using, but I do recall that when I bought the grease, I bought two large tubes of it so that I wouldn't run out and start mixing greases. I'll see if I can find the particular brand by looking at the big box of spare trailer parts I carry with me in the truck.

One aspect of trailer bearing grease and Bearing Buddy hubs: don't keep adding grease all the time. The rear seals probably would be fine most of the time if the hub wasn't constantly being filled with new grease, pushing out the old grease past the rear seal.

By the way, I plan to re-do all the bearings and the brakes on my trailer next Spring. I have to tear down at least two wheels to replace the brakes, so while I have everything apart I will re-do the bearings.

Oldslowandugly
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Re: Trailer Bearing Grease

Postby Oldslowandugly » Wed Nov 01, 2017 7:40 pm

Jim- the "best" beer is always the one in your hand at the moment! I'm sure it is the same with grease. While I used the Lubriplate brand successfully for many years I always felt the light green color made it difficult to tell when water emulsified with it. The OMC grease is a bright translucent red that I feel would reveal water right away. Another thing is that the Lubriplate is not as available by me as it used to be. The big stores like West Marine have switched to their own or other brand of synthetic grease. With small stores it is whatever they want to carry. When I get ready to trailer I check the Bearing Buddies and if the springs are not compressed I give a squirt or two to pressurize them. They used to stay full better than recently so I guess the inner seals where getting weak. A small hand held grease gun is always with me handy. I think I will try the OMC brand since my dealer has it and Bombardier sells it online. As I said, I have had very good results with the other various OMC lubricants.

jimh
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Re: Trailer Bearing Grease

Postby jimh » Fri Nov 03, 2017 6:33 pm

OLD'--the weather finally cooperated a bit, the rain stopped, the temperature rose above 38-degrees, and the sun came out. I was encouraged to go outside and look in the back of the truck to see if I could identify the trailer bearing grease I have been using. No success: I guess I must be on the second tube of grease in the grease gun. I don't remember what brand it was. Darn--now I don't know what to buy to keep the same grease in the grease gun. Maybe I can pull out the grease tube and read the label--but that was too messy to try today.

My present thoughts on "best" grease for trailer bearings: perhaps Mobile ONE Synthetic.

Vance's Revenge
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Re: Trailer Bearing Grease

Postby Vance's Revenge » Sun Nov 05, 2017 3:05 am

If you ever ruin a hub and need to buy another set switch to oil bath hubs instead of grease. I have been running them for 12 years and thousands of miles and the bearings and races look new. I didn't even change the oil in them for 5 years. I will never go back to grease. Nothing better and water cannot get to them. I run 50-wt synthetic racing oil in mine.

I worked at a marine dealership with hundreds of boat trailers with these oil hubs. There were far less problems with them than Bearing Buddies and grease.--Vance

jimh
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Re: Trailer Bearing Grease

Postby jimh » Mon Nov 06, 2017 9:41 am

VANCE--please recommend a particular oil bath "hub" with which you have had good experience.

Vance's Revenge
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Re: Trailer Bearing Grease

Postby Vance's Revenge » Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:27 pm

Hi Jim,

The system on my current trailer is UFP Trailer Buddy Stainless Steel Hubs. These are basically a piston design that look similar to a Bearing Buddy but it has a Window and O ring seals. My trailer has disc brakes which create a lot of heat so the hubs expand and contract with the heat. I feel the less they move the less chance of leaking so I switched to Red Line 50wt synthetic racing oil that is thinner and expand less.
I pull the plug on the hub and change the oil annually now but went 5 years before I even pulled the hubs to inspect the bearings. When I did there wasn't even any wear patterns on the bearings or races.
I pulled from Sacramento to Flaming Gorge in Wyoming 3 times plus my normal local towing in that timeframe.
My trailer is now 12 years old, I have gone through at least 4 sets of tires...Maybe 5 but not sure on that one.... Changed the seals on the hubs but the bearings and races have not needed to be replaced yet.

I worked at North River Boats back in 2005-06. Most all of their steel trailers are EZ loader with Oil Bath hubs. We dealt with hundreds of boats/trailers. Initially there was a problem with EZ loaders cap cracking and leaked. It didn't happen often but they re-engineered the caps and I hear they are pretty much fail safe now. In fact I think I like their design a little better than the UFP design. Their system is much larger with less oil in it for expansion instead of a piston system.

I will never go back to grease. Especially on Salt Water boats.

Vance
Last edited by Vance's Revenge on Mon Nov 06, 2017 10:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

jimh
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Re: Trailer Bearing Grease

Postby jimh » Mon Nov 06, 2017 3:05 pm

VANCE--what about a retrofit for existing hubs. My hubs are the usual 10-inch with five-on-4-1/2 studs. They are actually E-Z-LOADER hubs, but from way back, around 1992 and are setup for grease lubrication. Have you used any retrofit oil bath system that you can recommend?

Vance's Revenge
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Re: Trailer Bearing Grease

Postby Vance's Revenge » Mon Nov 06, 2017 5:22 pm

Hi Jim--my E-Z-Loader trailer came with the oil bath hubs, and I ordered them on my other boat when I had the trailer built, so I have not converted them. I know there are conversion kits sold--I just haven't had to do that. E-Z-Loader should be able to help you with this.

I do believe you have to purchase new hubs because the fill is in a plug on the side of the hub. Not the cap. Maybe you could drill and tap your existing hub??

Vance

Oldslowandugly
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Re: Trailer Bearing Grease

Postby Oldslowandugly » Fri Nov 10, 2017 3:26 pm

Vance--are those oil baths the same concept I see on tractor trailers?

I always thought that was a very good idea. But my bearings are 28 years old and looked like new when I cleaned them. As I said, I was getting grease leaking out but not water leaking in.

The old grease I cleaned out was in so good condition I actually saved it for general greasing needs.

So I filled my hubs with the red OMC extreme pressure grease and went to yank my 15' Whaler out for the season. The hubs stayed cool- they appeared to work as Bearing Buddies should- and no grease was seen outside the inner seals. I guess a seal upgrade was in order and I'm glad I did it. As a bonus- I scored nine tubes of the 3oz OMC grease cartridges on eBay for a great price. That should outlast me.