Trailer Bearings

[NautiqueJeff]

Okay, I usually have my trailer checked out at the beginning of the season, and don't really do much to it during the summer unless I notice something out of the ordinary. After my last trip, I noticed that my two front hubs were really hot. I figured I had better take a look at the amount of grease in the bearings. I don't think I like what I found, but I don't really know what things are supposed to look like in there since I usually leave the trailer to the experts. Funny, I feel pretty confident working on a fairly pricey boat, but don't know what I'm doing with trailer maintenance.

I popped the four covers off. I found that the left side looked as I would expect it should - nice and clean with just a bit of grease coming out of the grease fittings. The caps were clean.

The right side was a mess. The grease fitting was covered in grease, and the caps were full of grease too. So, have I blown some grease seals on the right side? Do I need to replace the bearings? The pictures below are of the right side. I know the picture quality is terrible. All I had was the camera in my phone. Can someone help me out here? Is this even a problem? I'm pretty much clueless when dealing with the trailer.

[M3Fan]

RE: Trailer Bearings

Jeff-

That front seal is more of a bearing buddy system it looks like. Pretty normal for grease to leak past those, not to worry. Looks like a zerk fitting inside there, which you can use to juice up the bearings a bit with some more grease. The seal in a bearing typically is referring to the rear seal which seals the rear of the hub to the axle surface, in which case you would see grease flung all around the inside-side of your tires/wheels if it had failed. As for replacing the bearings, just jack each wheel up that is in question (jack under the leaf spring under the axle) up an inch or so and give the tire a spin. If she spins nicely, for a good amount of time before stopping that is good sign #1. Good sign #2 is grasping the tire and trying to push it back and fourth, like you were attempting to pull the wheel off with your bare hands. There should be basically no play back and fourth. If that is fine, so are your bearings. I still replace mine biannually to be safe. I'll put up a DIY pretty soon. Your trailer brakes are probably on your front hubs and perhaps you did a good amount of stopping on your last trip? The brakes really heat up the hubs. Hope that helps.

[NautiqueJeff]

RE: Trailer Bearings

Thanks! I'll give those tests a try tomorrow. I was in a hurry on my last trip, so I'm sure my brakes got a good workout that day. Maybe that's all it was.

When I add grease, how do I know when to stop? I have heard that adding too much can be a bad thing.

[Mikeski]

RE: Trailer Bearings

Just add grease until the piston starts to move out, you just want a little pressure from the spring on the grease, if you fill them up they will splatter everywhere.

[Christopher-W.-Becker]

RE: Trailer Bearings

Jeff,

You have a newer RamLin correct? You may not have bearing buddies! Instead the newer RAMLIN's (mine is an '04) have a rubber cover in the hole in the dust cover. When your remove the rubber cover, you have access to the zirc AND see the grease (outer bearing of your stick your finger in). The axle has a hole drilled through it with a Zirc on the end. When you pump grease in it puts the new grease in the back of the bearings. This pushes the "old" grease out the front. So you can flush the grease by just pumping till you see fresh grease coming through the bearing and wipe out the old grease.

The system is open, so if you put in to much....it just comes out the hole where the rubber plug is.

[NautiqueJeff]

RE: Trailer Bearings

Yeah, no bearing buddies. That's cool. Maybe after I do M3Fan's tests, I'll flush out all the old grease and see how it does on the next trip.

Thanks!

[AWhite70]

RE: Trailer Bearings

I have the same setup on my '02 Ram-Lin and was wondering what peoples thoughts are of this setup vs. Bearing Buddies?

I disassembled cleaned and repacked the bearings in my trailer last year after I bought the boat, just so I knew what was in there. It's been 20+ launches and over 1000 miles since then and a couple nights ago I decided to squirt some new grease in the hubs. The old grease that came out looked brand new, no signs of water or contamination. Granted there aren't a whole lot of launches or miles but I was impressed.

On one hand I like the bearing buddies because it keeps pressure in the hub to keep water out. On the down side adding grease to the bearing buddy just fills the cavity in the dust cap and pressurizes the hub cavity, it doesn't provide fresh grease to the bearings.

The Ram-Lin setup doesn't pressurize the hub cavity but when you add grease it forces new grease to the bearings and flushes the old grease out the front. To date I haven't seen any problems with water contamination.

So what do you think is a better system?

[McQ211]

RE: Trailer Bearings

I have two trailers (separate boats), one with each type of set-up. The "through axle" setup is superior to the Bearing Buddy system in my opinion. I would much rather be able to change all/most of the grease in a hub (repack the bearings) without having to remove the hub. Pushing out all of the old grease gives you a very clear picture of what is going on inside the hub since you can see and smell what comes out. the Bearing Buddy system just lets you add grease to whatever grease is already there. Inside seals fail in both circumstances, but I've had the inside seals fail more often with the Bearing Buddy system than the "through axle" set-up. The trailer I purchased with my SV-211 (Magnum) came with the Bearing Buddy system. Since most of my trailering with the 211 is maybe a 5 mile round trip, I have not replaced/modified the axles on the Magnum. If were trailering any distance at all, I would have my axles replaced/modified with the "through axle" system. If not replaced/modified, I would definitely carry a spare pre-lubed hub and bearing set - a good idea in any case. If I were ordering a trailer, I would definitely specify the "through axle" set-up.

[jhiestand]

RE: Trailer Bearings

I've had somewhat of a negative opinion regarding the bearing lube setup on Ram-Lins, but maybe it isn't so bad after all. Anyone running an oil-hub setup? I've got a couple buddies with Mastercraft trailers that have them and they look trick as all get-out. Have to admit, those MC trailers are nice!!

[Flux]

RE: Trailer Bearings

Everyone seems to like the oil beath hubs. The downside is the plastic can break and your bearings will be fried in short order.

Funny, but I noticed alot of trailer bearing posts here and at WW, myself included. It's been over 100 for a couple weeks here in Cali. I think the excess heat and road temps is taking it's toll on the trailers, and not to mention it's prime boating season as well.

As for the hubs, I have Bearing Buddies and they are fine. I overfilled the front (brake axle) and they spit all over the rim. The brake axle hubs will always be hotter, so it may liquify the grease allowing it to seep past the front seal and that is normal, it's pressure relief and will prevent you from blowing the rear seal which is the all important one. Always check around the back of the hub and look for seapage there. If you have it, you have a bad seal. You can easily overfill bearing buddies, you really only want to move the blue ring about 1/8 of an inch from it's down position. For long trips I will start taking a grease gun and an extra bearing set and bearing buddy with me. Some suggest taking an extra hub, but if you are keeping an eye on your grease levels and brake pads, you should be fine.

Last weekend we trailered 200 each way and I noticed a metal rubbing sound on the brake hubs. We were in a pinch and simply took it home. After taking it apart we had grinded the pads down to the studs and trashed the rotor hubs. The bearings are fine however, but tonight we have to pull both rotor hubs, put in new seals, pack with grease, and replace the pads. Could have avoided a 250 dollar mistake by changing out the 30 dollars worth of brake pads.

[phbrown]

RE: Trailer Bearings

I've also got the hubs able to replace the grease. Seem to work fine. I also had a problem with the front hubs getting way hot. Turned out the wire that you attach to the bumper that activates the brakes in case you lose the tralier had gotten pulled just enough to have the brakes rub. I pushed that in to the hole farther and have had no other problems.

[JAG]

Bearings

Ramlin trailers have the thru axle grease fitting built by Dexter Axles. I have had my trailer since 1990 and have had nothing but problems with water intrusion into the hub and seal failures. The thru axle system is nice in that it allows you to pump in new grease while pushing out the old but to completely flush the system requires a lot of grease. The problem of water intrusion comes from the fact that the hub heats up (expansion) while towing and then is immersed in cold water (contraction). This rapid contraction causes water to be drawn in through the inner seal or the hubs rubber seal. Bearing Buddies are designed to keep the system under a positive pressure and therefore prevent intrusion of water. I have had several seal failures from what I think was due to pitting on the seal ring on the axle. Inspect this area for pitting. Even with complete seal failures and covering the brakes with grease I have never had to replace the bearings. Getting fed up with seal failures I converted the system to Bearing Buddies. Bearing Buddie also makes a seal saver kit which uses a stainless steel seal ring that slips over the exisitng axle seal ring and seals to the axle with an oring. The seal saver kit includes a new inner seal. The old axle grease fitting was removed and plugged. Since then I have no more water intrusion and seal failures. I did look into oil bath systems by Tie-Down and Liquilube (both systems are for boat trailers) and probably the only reason I did not go with one of those systems was the cost.