Trailer Bearings

[dessertman]

I can drive my car or SUV through thousands of miles of wet roads and never worry about the hubs or bearings. I can even drive through deep puddles.
But we all keep our fingers crossed when going down the road with our boat trailers and spend money to re-pack and replace bearings. I never want to be that SOL guy by the side of the road when it comes to bearings.
Simple question: why can't we get sealed hubs/bearings on our boat trailers? Too expensive? Is a 5 minute dunking in a lake any worse than driving a hundred thousand miles on wet roads?

[Bigfishhunter]

I had a mechanic tell me one time that trailer bearings need to be designed the way they are because of the abuse they take. So, easily replaceable is the ticket, lower tolerance, and better able to handle the abuse.
He also said that the most abuse they take are those short back and forth, side to side motions we do while maneuvering the trailers. Plus we heat them up then dunk them in cold, and then drive them away again. I don't know if this solves you question, but I change my bearings and races every spring whether they need it or not. It is not that expensive or hard to do, so might as well get it done and be done with it.
BTW I trailer a lot.

[ohiojmj]

For a fairer comparison, drive your SUV until the hubs get nice and warm, then dunk your hubs in1 or 2' of cool water. Repeat this a few dozen or so times a year until you get 100k miles. I'd bet you would have trouble with those sealed SUV bearings. With periodic maintenance (checks, seal replacement, cleaning, adding grease, proper tightening), a SOL episode will be extremely rare but not impossible. Trailer bearings and well as vehicle bearings do wear out for various reasons on a rare occasion. Finally, bring a set of replacement bearings, tools, and a little grease to be prepared if you happen to travel to remote places where you may find help, but not the parts. Do routine maintenance/checks and sleep comfortably at night.

[Gregking]

Last year I hauled my 620 up to Canada to get some lines wet. When loading up a buddy noticed that I had a seal leak so we pulled the center cap off and found 3/5 studs broke. Now I admit I get a little speedy when I get close to camp and the road is bumpy but broken studs? So the next morning we are in Kendra trying to find studs to fit and be pressed in. We got home just fine and i haven't had problems yet. I did however order a new hub assay from ranger for peace of mind. If I never use the $159 part I won't complain

[REW]

Dessert,
It is all about full wheel submersion.
I will guarantee, that if you submerse any of your auto or truck wheel bearings 20-100 times per year, you will have solidly rusted up hubs.

There is a huge difference in having water splashed up on a tire, compared to completely submersing the wheel.

Having said that, if you have good seals, and insure that no water gets into the hubs, you really don't need to change the grease more than once about every 5 years.

I finally put new tires on my trailer last month. So, as long as I had both tires off the hubs, I decided to pull the hubs, clean and repack the bearings.

The last time that I did the hubs was about 6 years ago. I do make sure that the seals are 100%. I do make sure that the bearing buddies have a slight bit of grease pressure on them to keep the moisture out of the wheels. When I pulled the hubs off the trailer, they were nice and dry and the bearings and races were in excellent condition. So, I repacked the bearings, replaced the seals and remounted the hubs.

Bottom line - keep water out of the bearings, and there is no need to change and clean trailer bearings any more often than auto bearings.

I have a couple of utility trailers that don't get a lot of miles. The last time I did any thing with those bearings was about 10 years ago. Same reason. They don't get wet, and they have few miles on them. I do jack the wheels up now and then on both the utility trailer and check for play and also check for any signs of bearing roughness.

Be safe
REW