Bearing Buddies

[jeepr]

Bearing Buddies are not at fault for the grease pushing out the rear seal. Bearing Buddies are fine if used correctly. They should only be filled until just before the spring is fully compressed. When they blow out the rear seal is when people continue to add grease after they are full. I have towed thousands of miles with Bearing Buddies with no issues what so ever. They are especially good with small wheels like on a snow mobile trailer. I still pull my hubs every year and service the inner bearings.

[Nitetimes]

Bearing Buddies are not at fault for the grease pushing out the rear seal. Bearing Buddies are fine if used correctly. They should only be filled until just before the spring is fully compressed. When they blow out the rear seal is when people continue to add grease after they are full. I have towed thousands of miles with Bearing Buddies with no issues what so ever. They are especially good with small wheels like on a snow mobile trailer. I still pull my hubs every year and service the inner bearings.

Everything you said is absolutely true...but...very few people know how to use them properly so they are the main reason for seal blow outs and axle failures. The wheels size has nothing to do with their usefulness or not. Properly maintained bearings have no need for fancy dodads to keep them working right.
I don't grease mine all the time, in fact I seldom do it. People seem to forget a couple of things...when cars had real spindles in the front you rarely repacked the wheel bearings and they didn't fall off. Grease does not evaporate, so if the bearings are pack correctly they don't need to be bothered with more than every 20k miles or more unless you are running in very harsh conditions.
I don't know a good argument for bearing buddies, sorry, not even boat trailers. I've replaced lots of axles on boat trailers with BB's installed so I don't really see their usefulness. A new seal once in a while will do more than those BB's ever will.

[Alphacarina]

Also, the HF Chinese made grease seals probably aren't the best. If you want to use Bearing Buddies, it would probably be best if you replaced the grease seals with a new set from NAPA

Don

[jeepr]

Nitetimes, I agree. Now that you mention it, I don't recall ever adding grease to mine between services. I guess I just like the idea that the spring should be forcing grease into the bearings as the grease heats up. Probably mis-placed confidence on my part..

[Gerdo]

I just pulled my hubs apart today. I have BBs but don't use them. I pulled my inside bearings out to inspect them. All looks good. I did destroy the seals so off to NAPA. I found a seal that would fit but the original seals were a double seal, one facing in and one facing out. The one facing in also had a spring in it for tension. The NAPA one was a single seal. So I called a trailer shop and found a double seal. The inner seal directs the grease from the BB to the inner bearings. You would have to pump a ton of grease into the hub, filling it, until it would get to the outer bearings. I hand repacked the outer bearings. I would grease the inner bearings using the BBs in the future. It looks like the best way to use the BBs is: Raise the wheel off the ground, spin the wheel while pumping a couple of shots of grease in. It would be impossable to blow the inner seal out with grease, that thing is in there.

[boardhead]

I had to replace the bearings and grease seals on my HF trailer - it was my fault, not theirs. Here is the info asked for in the first post for bearings for the HF 90154, 1450 lb trailer:

On page 25 of the owners manual, the bearings are item #20, the grease seals are item #32. I called Harbor Freight and gave them this information and they sent me the correct parts.

If you don't have your owners manual, you can download it from Harbor Freight's website. Just go the the web page for your trailer and click the green "Download Product Manual" button below the price.

[asianflava]

I still pull my hubs every year and service the inner bearings.

Kinda defeats the purpose of easily lubed bearings.

[jeepr]

I still pull my hubs every year and service the inner bearings.

Kinda defeats the purpose of easily lubed bearings.

Haha, yep. It's a character flaw, I know if I don't service them the dang things will freeze up!



Now my brother probably never, ever, serviced his bearings and has not had a problem.

[brian_bp]

I still pull my hubs every year and service the inner bearings.

Kinda defeats the purpose of easily lubed bearings.

Yes, which emphasizes that the purpose of Bearing Buddies is protection from moisture in boat trailer applications... not ease of lubrication.

If you want to avoid packing bearings, you need sealed bearing cartridges, like modern cars and Dexter Nev-R-Lube trailer hubs. Unfortunately, it looks from the Dexter catalogs like the smallest Nev-R-Lube hubs are in their 3500 lb capacity series (6-on-5.5" bolt pattern and 10"x2.2.5" brakes) - more than most teardrops and tiny travel trailers would need or want.

[Gerdo]

I grabed a couple of pictures of the two seals that would work on my axle.
This first picture is the NAPA seal. It is a single seal.

This seal was bought at a trailer shop. It is a double seal and the inner seal has a spring to keep the grease in.