Why or should you yearly repack bearings

[Shadow Catcher]

I was responding to thread on iRV2 concerning the desirability/need of repacking wheel bearings on a trailer. Wheel bearing on an automobile will go years with out additional attention, so why can't a trailers. And the answer is probably that it can. if done well.
As with many things there are different grades of bearings, nine recognized. The bearings coming from where ever and not graded (all that I have seen) for trailers, lead me to think they probably tend to be at the lower end.
http://www.astbearings.com/bearing-tole ... evels.html
The other half of the equation is the grease used, synthetic preferred for high heat high speed applications
http://www.skf.com/group/products/beari ... index.html
When I do the inspection repacking of the bearings this spring I plan on, if possible replacing the Dexter bearings with, if possible, better quality bearings and seals and using Amsoil NLGI 2 grease.
One of the other purposes is inspection of brakes, and unless you have grease on them which speaks to the packing seals issue, all you should have to do is adjust as you used to do with pre disc brakes.

[nevadatear]

++1 from my husband the machinist. What shadow catcher said. One of the first things Randy did when he got the axle from northern tool was to change out the bearings to timken and quality seals. Although he checks each year and several times as we roll down the road each trip, he only repacked when he changed out the wheels two years ago.

[Dale M.]

The yearly bearing regrease probably comes from the boating world..... How may travel and utility trailers does one see along side of road with wheel off as compared to boat trailers.... The main thing I see is people with boat trailers probably do not clean inspect and repack bearing at beginning of "season" and usually pay for it at some point.... Think about situation here, warm bearing dunked into cold lake water or ocean continually for all summer or fishing season... Water and bearing and grease do not play well together .... But with travel trailer or utility trailer its a different scenario.... Very little of the enemy around (water).... IF you have a decent quality bearing and quality grease and good procedure for cleaning and repacking your trailer axle/bearing and get them tightened probably they should be good for 20,000-30,000 miles.... How many years will it take you to travel that much....

Dale

[nevadatear]

Exactly Dale.

[Roo Dog]

If correctly serviced they should not need looking at for a very long time or a very long way, both even.
That said I do an annual inspection/service on mine more because I feel like doing so rather than for any other reason.
A bit of a left over from a dubious past I guess.

RD

[len19070]

I have a maintenance routine that i go through for many things that is tied to different dates.

When the seasons change, so does the oil in the vehicles.

The "Ides of March" (3/15) I get my Bike inspected.

On Tax day (4/15) I do a PDI (Pre Delivery Inspection) and Maintenance on the trailer.

Daylight savings time I change the batteries in my smoke detectors.

Mothers day service the mower.

Halloween I service the snow blower.

There are others but I stick to it and have never had a problem.

Happy Trails

Len

[Kody]

I have a box trailer (8x5) that I have had for about 10 years or more. I have never repacked the bearings since I made the trailer. The bearings on the boat trailer I repack every year or every two years. I have no idea what brand of bearings are used on the box trailer. Bearing Buddies have been very popular here on both boat trailers and caravans. The biggest reason for bearing failure seems to emanate from the fit of the bearings on the axle shaft. I have seen bearings with 0.004" clearance as they sit on the axle. This is certainly not good machining practice and very conducive to bearing failure. It does pay to check the fit of the bearings on the axle if you can before buying one.

Kody

If anyone has a spare back, I'll take it! I still can't work like I want to but I'll get there.

[Shadow Catcher]

In the interest of longevity I will be dong the bearings this year and picked up a bearing packer to make it a bit less messy as I also need to pack the berings on our small utility trailer.
One thing occurred to me is the necessity of, even if you do not pull the drum/pack bearings, adjusting the brakes. I have not done this for more than ten years as all of our cars (they are all Subaru's) have disc brakes or they were self adjusting before that. I still have the tool for reaching in and adjusting the star wheel (will come in handy). A quick youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tf1Bc526zE
I picked up the SKF bearings and seal at the local Napa store.