Trailer wheel bearings.......

the idea is good "but" what happens when you lose the oil?????
i have used the greasable bearing buddies for years now and if i lose one at least
the grease stays in there a bit. cheers

its not only if you lose one , but can you be sure the seals wont let go. cheers

Priced some of these at Supercheap & were $110 /pair. A mate has some on his van but the van wheels have plastic hubcaps held on by the wheelnuts which would at least stop you loosing the bizzo if it fell out. I wonder what exactly is the advantage, bearing buddies are cheaper and offer the same amount of "protection". I wonder if though you would need to take them off every year to repack the bearings, probably not. None the less, the perparation necessary to get them to hold with loctite would require scrupulous degreasing and would be a right pain getting them off if you need to adgust the bearings...

I have fitted durahubs to my tandem boat trailer. The hubs need to be hammered (with a block of wood under the hammer) into the wheel hubs, they are a tight fit - probably tighter than bearing buddies, the loctite is probably not needed to hold the durahubs in, more likely to keep it oil tight. The oil is not just EP90 it is a special product and extremely tacky. I think it may retain enough lubrication even if one leaks. The seals are about six bucks each over the counter at CBC. I am having trouble with one out of the four durahubs but that is because the axle stub is out of round, to resolve this I have taken the spring out of the back of the seal and cut about 5 mm off it, making it grip the stub tighter. If this still leaks I am going to fit a speedi sleeve and hope that works. I would not use durahubs on a bush trailer because of the extra cost and because greasable bearings are easier to repair/repack in the bush. I have bearing buddies on mine because they came off the boat trailer. You should still do a clean and repack at least every year anyway so unless you are putting the trailer under water there is not much point to fitting either.

Reiner,
I use the bearing buddies for my trailer. I do heaps of water crossings with mine and carry a small grease gun in my kit so before i start crossing rivers I load the hubs up with fresh grease, that lasts me till i get back home and then just to keep things clean, i inspect both sides to see how things are.
The golden rule here is not to fill the hubs with grease as they need some free space to transfer heat. But with regular inspections and replacement grease it assures you of longer life of bearings and seals.
My bearing buddies went on tight, had to use the wooden block to get them on too, In 3 years I have never had any problems at all and still running the same brgs and seals (never replaced).

Great idea ONLY if they are maintained.
Ange

A simular idea is to remove the bearing cap, and fill it with diff oil. Then (and this is the tricky bit) quickly put the cap back on. The oil will then fill in the gaps left when the grease flings out.(and stops water filling these gaps) I have never had a problem with bearings since doing this. Also should you loose a cap, there is still grease in there. Same effect for the cost of 2 capfulls of diff oil.

Gerard