My 2 cents on wheel bearings

[ajcampen]

Sheriff I tried to call your bilge princess today. I was doing the trailer wheel bearings!!
Why does a easy job always turn into a project. I just wanted to get the right side done as it's against the way in the garage. The rear axle went fine. Frt axle last year when I spun the wheel no noise nice and smooth. This year when I rotated the tire to get the lug nuts loose im like great I hear the Famous bad rusty bearing noise. Get the drum off and yep bearings bad. Good thing I keep a spare set for when I Travel so pound out the races and put in new bearings. What a pain.

BBP I’ll drop my trailer off for you to work on next week. It is nice to have a handy Guy like you around.

[Big Block Power]

Sheriff I tried to call your bilge princess today. I was doing the trailer wheel bearings!!
Why does a easy job always turn into a project. I just wanted to get the right side done as it's against the way in the garage. The rear axle went fine. Frt axle last year when I spun the wheel no noise nice and smooth. This year when I rotated the tire to get the lug nuts loose im like great I hear the Famous bad rusty bearing noise. Get the drum off and yep bearings bad. Good thing I keep a spare set for when I Travel so pound out the races and put in new bearings. What a pain.

BBP I’ll drop my trailer off for you to work on next week. It is nice to have a handy Guy like you around.

Man I would. But to be honest my back is junk. Between this bobcat run I just did and 60 bags of rock my wife just had me get. Oh and my brother is moving and goes can you help me move this dresser and this. I'm done. It hurt just bending over today. Not good.

[Alaskabound]

Shrf, sorry I missed your question. Think I was trying to keep myself disinfected at that time(Feb 22). No issues whatsoever with the hubs. I don’t ever think about them, which is not good I guess. Didn’t know what the actual cost was as the whole unit was on the showroom floor. Pretty pricy, I guess, but I would sure get them again.

Dub

[TwoBurgers]

My '13 Heritage has the Vault hubs. I would guess I put about 2k miles per year and they get dunked in fresh water only. I have had to replace one hub due to rust (an obvious failure). I hear the trick is getting the o-rings set correctly. I let my trailer shop inspect the trailer every spring and that do the work. As far as high end or not, I have seen a Myco trailer with the Vault hubs and they are top of the line trailers. My two cents.
Best,
Chris

[Mike in SC]

This is interesting and all, but what type of bearing lubrication do your trailers have?
My last boat had the super lube axles, easy to add grease, pushes old grease out.
My current trailer has bearing buddies, which I hate. To change from this system, I need new axles, or axle stubs.
Probably not worth it.
How many of you still have bearing buddies?

[Big Block Power]

Yep. I just repacked them this year and replaced a set of bearings.

[shrfdeputy]

I just finished the first long tow with the new Vortex hubs, new wheels and tires. It was a breeze. I've been to the lake multiple times this year before the long tow. I pulled the caps and there was no sign of any water anywhere. I pumped a little fresh Lucas grease in there and sent it down the road. No issues. Very happy with the upgrade so far.

[TwoBurgers]

So I'll weigh in on the Vault hubs. My '13 Heritage trailer came with them. I put on approximately 2k miles per year - so about 14K miles so far. The hubs were flawless for about the first five years (10K miles?). At the seven year mark, upon inspection, one hub was found to be rusted and required replacement. At the nine year mark both hubs for the rear Axel have leaked. One seemed to slowly draw down, and one just threw grease all over the outside wheel.
I think the trick is the service provided needs to know how to get the hubs to seal correctly. Currently, my trailer is at the trailer shop and I am hoping they will have it correctly fixed (both rear hubs) Thursday so I can use the boat Saturday.
The question... would I get them again? At this point, I probably would, but I wish there was a better solution out there.
Chris

[mdadgar]

So I'll weigh in on the Vault hubs. My '13 Heritage trailer came with them. I put on approximately 2k miles per year - so about 14K miles so far. The hubs were flawless for about the first five years (10K miles?).

That is what they are rated for - 10 years.

- Mark

[Snowman8]

My Vault hubs always scared me... I’m kinda old school, maybe even pre-school! I like to be able to take my wheel bearings apart, inspect, clean and re-pack once a year. My old EZLoader trailer had the Vault hubs and even though I never had any trouble in 5 years they were always in the back of my mind when will I have trouble, I know they said not to touch for 10 years but if I was to keep that trailer I probably would have taken them apart this winter.

My new Loadmaster trailer has Dexter EZ lube spindles and I kinda like the idea of easily being able to just pop the rubber cap off and look at the grease to see if it is getting wet and starting to break down. This system is also really easy to pump clean fresh grease into the bearings mid season. Just take the cap off & pump grease until clean grease comes out the front through the bearings then clean the excess grease out of the cap to allow for expansion. Good grease is cheap and I guess it offers me some peace of mind to be able to re-pack and inspect once a year along with being able to pump fresh grease in a couple times a year during the season. I pull 80 miles one way to go to the place we like to go boating so our trailer gets quite a few miles on it and it sure would ruin a good day on the water to have trouble to or from the river. Especially with the short season we have here in MN! Just my 2 cents...

[Big Block Power]

I would love to get oil bath filled ones myself.

[thunder550]

Once I got my hubs to stop leaking they have been great. One turned out to be a bad hub/disc...couldn't get it to stop leaking, finally replaced it and no more problems. Normal hubs and bearings, and the axles have the ez-lube fittings or whatever they are called. I bought oil bath caps for them, where the sleeve pounds in and there's a clear threaded and sealed cap that goes on the end. I use Red-N-Tacky grease. The clear caps are really easy to see if water gets inside, you can see the condensation on the inside of the cap. Easy way to tell if there's a problem. For a grease change (just did it this week, first time in 2 years), just unscrew the cap, pump new grease into the zerk fitting, it pushes the old stuff out the front. Super simple.

[Big Block Power]

Once I got my hubs to stop leaking they have been great. One turned out to be a bad hub/disc...couldn't get it to stop leaking, finally replaced it and no more problems. Normal hubs and bearings, and the axles have the ez-lube fittings or whatever they are called. I bought oil bath caps for them, where the sleeve pounds in and there's a clear threaded and sealed cap that goes on the end. I use Red-N-Tacky grease. The clear caps are really easy to see if water gets inside, you can see the condensation on the inside of the cap. Easy way to tell if there's a problem. For a grease change (just did it this week, first time in 2 years), just unscrew the cap, pump new grease into the zerk fitting, it pushes the old stuff out the front. Super simple.

Let's get a 1 minute vid of your bearing lube change and fill

[thunder550]

Let's get a 1 minute vid of your bearing lube change and fill

Lol. I spent more time fighting with my grease gun than actually greasing stuff.

[Big Block Power]

Let's get a 1 minute vid of your bearing lube change and fill

Lol. I spent more time fighting with my grease gun than actually greasing stuff.

I hate my little grease gun. Too lazy to buy a real one.