Harbor Freight trailer bearing seal question

[Ron Dickey]

I asked this under my " harbor freight questions and answer" under the " trailer and chassis secrets " site.
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=54757
I asked where to look one person came up with Bearing Distributers
And another said call Harbor Freight.
It is not on their shelves others have look and so have I ?????????????

It seems that is hard to get this seal. I damaged the little spring found in the back of the Bearing seal. But my neighbor said it keeps the center firm and the seal at this time is brand new and it should be ok to use for now. But I will need one in the future.

MY QUESTION TO THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE HF TRAILERS IS WHEN YOU NEED TO REPLACE THAT SEAL WHERE DID YOU GET IT?

Several folk have said automotive stores and many other stores do not have them because they are metric.

the trailer has a 25mm shaft

The seals are Dimensions are 30x52x10mm

when you needed to replace the seal where did you go, call, or buy on the internet from?

I am considering in the future to buy a replacement hub from some maker where I can find parts closer to home.

because so many people talk about having or buying a HF trailer I felt I should ASK!

Ron

[CarlLaFong]

SKF 692373 is 30X52X10 mm. Any bearing supply will have it or can get it for you

[Roly Nelson]

I make it a rule to re-pack the bearings of all 3 of my HF trailers, when I plan to make a long cross-country trip. If there is grease being slung out on the wheel, I replace the seal, which I have had no problem finding at O'Reilly Auto Parts.
Roly ~~

[notned]

I grew up with cotton trailers that had zerk fittings. Why don't our teardrops have zerq fittings?

[mary and bob]

What did those cotton trailers have for bearings, and what kind of speed were they run at?

[notned]

Not sure about the bearings, but I think you're on to something with the speed. 35 to 40 mph.

[Rolly]

Don't the Harbor Freight trailer bearing seals have a part number stamped or printed on them?

Rolly

[absolutsnwbrdr]

viewtopic.php?p=994463#p994463


BTW... my hubs do have zerk fittings which are easy to feed grease in to. Can be seen here...



But if you want to remove your bearings to clean them both thoroughly, its difficult (although not impossible) to remove the the inner grease seal without damaging it. Not a bad idea to keep extra seals handy for when you do decide to do a full tear down.


Also, if you only rely on the zerk fitting for packing more grease into the hub, you have no idea what the grease that's in there looks like. I pull the hub at the beginning of each season and make sure everything looks legit. But I don't necessarily pull the rear bearing and seal out for the inspection.

[mary and bob]

What I've done to remove the inner bearing and seal is use a large wood dowel, or piece of broomstick, put it against the inner bearing and gently hammer it and the seal out. The seal will usually pop out without damage. The hubs with the grease fitting on them [bearing buddies] are generally used on boat trailers. The ones on my boat trailer have a spring in them, the idea being to keep pressure on the grease to keep water out when launching and retrieving your boat. One theory is that using them totally fills the cavity in the hub and when the grease warms up on a trip pressure will build up and force grease out through the seal. Not good if your trailer has brakes. I recently had a problem with a seal on a old utility trailer I had bought. The standard size seal wouldn't fit, it was slightly too big. Back to the auto parts store, we measured the old seal, and they were able to order the correct size seal which was only about .010" smaller. I recently bought an old store display of various trailer wheel seals, hope I can use some of them.

[Wolffarmer]

The only reason there are zerks on some hubs is that those hubs are meant to be used in a dirty environment. Such as agriculture, construction. Or in the case of a boat trailer. Probably some others but don't stop the rant. A hub used on the highway only needs a few dabs of grease in each bearing and a good dab in the cavity between them. That center dab is optional really, it just makes me feel better. As mentioned above for bearing buddies to do their job the hub needs to be completely filled with grease so the buddy can push it through the hub and out the inner grease seal and onto your brakes. Leave any space in the hub and the bearing buddy spends its time filling that space instead of keeping the water out. A good quality bearing properly greased with a quality grease will go for many many miles and it doesn't take much grease to properly grease a bearing.

If you need bearings or seals find a bearing supply house. If you live near an agriculture area you are in luck as there will be many of those. WE farmers go through bearings by the truck load. Also it is often a good place to get a high quality grease. Just take your old bearings and seals and if they can't find a number. ( rare ) they can measure the thing and get you what you need. Changing a hub probably will not gain you much as the stub axle is still metric or what ever it might be.

Randy

[pchast]

SKF 692373 is 30X52X10 mm. Any bearing supply will have it or can get it for you

Also SKU 27737 4 pack of trailer seal for 5.99 from HF at 1-800-423-2567

[Ron Dickey]

The only reason there are zerks on some hubs is that those hubs are meant to be used in a dirty environment. Such as agriculture, construction. Or in the case of a boat trailer. Probably some others but don't stop the rant. A hub used on the highway only needs a few dabs of grease in each bearing and a good dab in the cavity between them. That center dab is optional really, it just makes me feel better. As mentioned above for bearing buddies to do their job the hub needs to be completely filled with grease so the buddy can push it through the hub and out the inner grease seal and onto your brakes. Leave any space in the hub and the bearing buddy spends its time filling that space instead of keeping the water out. A good quality bearing properly greased with a quality grease will go for many many miles and it doesn't take much grease to properly grease a bearing.

If you need bearings or seals find a bearing supply house. If you live near an agriculture area you are in luck as there will be many of those. WE farmers go through bearings by the truck load. Also it is often a good place to get a high quality grease. Just take your old bearings and seals and if they can't find a number. ( rare ) they can measure the thing and get you what you need. Changing a hub probably will not gain you much as the stub axle is still metric or what ever it might be.

Randy

this is something I never had explained to me. I just ask questions if I can't figure it. I may have put in to much grease on the bearings but the spece in between is mostly light grease so I guess it will work.

On my old trailer I put the hubs on in 2007 and pulled it to norther ca several times, to New Mexico and back and when I realized it would cost as much as buying a new HF trailer to fix it Feb 2013. I not once thought about re-greasing it nor touching the hub to see if it was hot. People talk about their builds but never asked how often I change my grease in my bearings. I am sure it is written on the forum some place on the forum but I missed it. I am lucky that nothing happened. I am a little afraid to open it up and see what I will see. I only wondered about if the hub was loose or not buy jacking it up and wiggling the tire.

on my new one I know better what to do.

Thanks to all of you I am learning and I love to learn
Thank you to you all. Ron

[pjsauls]

Agree with pchast --

"Also SKU 27737 4 pack of trailer seal for 5.99 from HF at 1-800-423-2567"

I had to order the seals by phone from Harbor Freight when I replaced mine. Cost much less than from the bearing distributors and seem to be doing well so far with about 3500 miles on them.

John

[nevadatear]

Randy sells thousands of bearings and seals, american and metric. Archaic and common. Desert metal products. 775 273 3090. Ask for randy if the old hard of hearing guy answers. Thats his dad!

[Ron Dickey]

I make it a rule to re-pack the bearings of all 3 of my HF trailers, when I plan to make a long cross-country trip. If there is grease being slung out on the wheel, I replace the seal, which I have had no problem finding at O'Reilly Auto Parts.
Roly ~~

We have a new brand new O'reilly Auto Parts in San Luis Obispo, the young man who helped me went through screen after screen of bearing seals. and could not find one.
Roly do you have a part number on a receipt that you can share?
I went to a trailer place in Arroyo Grande and he said I could only get it from Harbor Freight .... but He can sell me a new Axel for around $200 I have bought from them before and they are very helpful. He felt that in that manor I could find a seal any where. I said I would think about it. he said he would need me to bring in the trailer so they could measure the present axel.

I put on the seal I had it seems ok just the grease spring inside is a little kinked. but the hub is very tight unlike the other side. So I will need to take it all apart and see if I can fix it.

So Roly can you find me a number for that Seal please?

Ron