Re: Hub & grease question
And I would suggest this to you. Fill them as completely as you can. If you don't already have some sort of bearing buddys (there are a lot of different companys that make them) count your lucky stars and avoid them like the plague. I am absolutly convinced that the use of bearing protectors has caused more bearing failures out on the road than they have ever protected anyone from. That's not to say that they aren't OK in some ways. I used them even after I came to understand how their misuse was casuing lots of failures, but the only reason is that they are generally made of much heavier steel than plain dust caps so you could pound them on with a hammer without denting them up as badly. Really, that's the only reason I liked them.<br /><br />If you are really lucky you have ome of the couple of versions of posi-lube axle. With these there is a grease fitting out on the end of the axle stub, it leads to a chamber running down the alxe (a hole of about 1/8") which exits behind the inner bearing but before the seal. With them you can completely fill the hub cavity but without pressurizing it (which is the real problem with bearing buddys). The grease caps used with these systems has a rubber plug in the end so when grease starts to come out the hole you're done and you just stick the plug back in.<br /><br />Oh, the probem with bearing buddys, and how they are misused, is this. The hype about them tells us that as you drive down the road your hub heats up but when you launch the boat they are rapidly cooled by the water and as a consequenc water is sucked into the hub. That is all pure BS. The hub on a properaly maintained trailer doesn't get hot at all, the temperature differential between the hub and the water is so small that there is next to no pressure change inside the hub. As a consequence no water gets sucked in. Many people who have these things think they are doing the lord's work by giving each wheel a shot or two of grease every time they take the trailer out. Where do they think all that grease is going? I'll tell you where, its blowing out right past the rear seal. The misuse of bearing buddys causes grease seal failure, plain and simple. Once the grease seal fails its just a matter of time, and not much of it, until the bearings fail.<br /><br />Anyway, that's how I see them.<br /><br />Thom
