trailer wheel bearings
Ok Guys, mine, Shauno and Slat’s (old but gold) belovered 30 year old Sea Bird Tinney and Boat Trailer wheel bearings are in need of replacement and once again it’s our good mate Laurie from Coastwize Towbars to the rescue…. Come along to our Special Wednesday Night Workshop from 6.30-8.30pm this Wednesday if you ever wanted to see and know how to change your wheel bearings and never get STUCK on the side of the road again
Repacking the wheel bearings on your utility or boat trailer is quick and easy, and you'll avoid the breakdown that'll leaves you stranded along the road. How many trailers have you seen on the side of the road this year with one wheel propped up? Don't let it happen to you. If you haven't checked your wheel bearings lately, read this article. You can complete this simple task in about an hour and save yourself a big repair bill.
One of the wheels on my small trailer lost its bearings. They were badly deteriorated, and on a slow-speed run down our driveway, the wheel just started spitting bearing parts out onto the grass. It was pretty ugly, and the wheel was just clunking around on the axle. I took the wheel off the axle, and it was undamaged. The axle looked OK as well, so I decided to just replace the bearings and put it back on. While I was at it, I decided to replace the bearings in the wheel on the other side as well. That one had given me no trouble, but bearings are cheap, and as long as I was getting into the project anyway, I wanted to be sure both were good.
Bearing buddies are dust caps that have a spring-loaded grease piston built into them. You pump grease into the fitting and it fills the cylinder, forcing the cap outward and compressing a spring. Once it is full, the spring gradually forces grease through the wheel, maintaining lubrication. The spring also creates pressure on the inside of the soft seal. That is very important because when you back a trailer into the water, the pressure increases as the wheel gets deeper under water. Water pressure forces water past the soft seal and into the inner bearing. If it is salt water, it will corrode the bearings and races, and will make removing the damaged bearing race a real chore. It is important to make sure the bearing buddy is pumped full of grease so that the spring is compressed before backing a trailer into the water.
