Bearing Buddies?

[marty+jojo]

Just wondering, does anyone else have trouble with the inner seal coming out of the hub after pumping bearing buddies with grease?
Marty.

[billfisher]

Thats the drawback with them. Perhaps they should be called bearing enemies! It doesn't help protect the bearings by pressurising the hub and running the risk of breaking the inner seal and allowing water to get into the bearings. You are better off without them and repacking the bearings occasionally.

[Crooked]

On the subject of bearing buddies I have just taken ownership of a new boat and the bearing buddies from the old one don't seem to fit they are too small.

Is there two sizes? If there is I have the small size and anyone who has a trailer that they will fit is welcome to them as long as they pay postage if I have to post them, I'm in Townsville.

On the thread topic, I didn't have a porblem with breaking the inner seal as long as you do not over fill them.

Don't mean to hijack your post here either.

cheers, Evan

[Kerry]

Simply pumping too much grease! Wheel bearings shouldn't be running in totally packed hubs anyway. It all comes down to the way they are used.

[trueblue]

Over filling the bearings will pop the seal every time.

[Roughasguts]

Just pump the grease in, until the plate behind the grease nipple wobbles.
Remember the grease gun can pump out 3000 Psi, and that will move most anything.

[blaze]

Thats the drawback with them. Perhaps they should be called bearing enemies! It doesn't help protect the bearings by pressurising the hub and running the risk of breaking the inner seal and allowing water to get into the bearings. You are better off without them and repacking the bearings occasionally.
man after my heart, couldnt agree more. The way to look after all things that move and hings that dont is regular maintance
cheers
blaze

[clone trooper]

Marty, it sounds like your pumping too much grease in?

[Navi]

had them for 5 years never a problem, good grease and not to much work's well...

cheers chris...

[marty+jojo]

Ok guys, thanks for the replies. Just replaced them, from now on i will take it easy with the grease gun.
Cheers Marty.

[finga]

On the subject of bearing buddies I have just taken ownership of a new boat and the bearing buddies from the old one don't seem to fit they are too small.

Is there two sizes? If there is I have the small size and anyone who has a trailer that they will fit is welcome to them as long as they pay postage if I have to post them, I'm in Townsville.

cheers, Evan
Apparently some trailer guys are using hubs that use the same bearings in the hubs instead of a big bearing and a little bearing.
Scalem had a good thread here a while ago about them and he had the same troubles with the BB's.
He ended up having some special adaptors made up.

I don't like them either.

[shandos]

I used bearing buddies for years but was never really happy - mind you I sink my trailer to drive the boat on. Tracked the problem to the "marine" inner seals - the ones where the rubber seal rotates inside a "stainless" frame. Got rid of them and replaced with the standard seal (rubber and metal spring), then got rid of the bearing buddies (kept losing them on long trips). I service my bearings once a year and now no problem

Regards
Shandos

[cabfisher]

Hi all re bearing buddies.
They were on my boat trailer when I bought it and on atrip to Lenthal Dam over the rough road in from the highway one of the covers came off causing the bearing to cease up and distroying a tyre and the cost of having the trailer tow back to Marybrougher and replacing the bearings
$500.00 and no fishing I replaced the bearing Buddies with standard bearing s and Hub covers .
They will do me thanks very much. Harry

[Grand_Marlin]

I swear by the bearing buddies - if installed and used correctly the are excellent.

2 things to check:

1) Make sure the axle has the proper machined recess for the seal to sit on. A lot of axles (especially older ones) aren't machined past where the bearing sits. This makes all the difference to your water sealing capabilites and the performance of the bearing buddies (the ability to hold grease in)

2) If you look at the stainless cup and rubber seal, you will notice the seal has a groove in it that allows the stainless cup to mount inside the seal recess, rather than the seal just sitting in the back of the stainless cup.
This is a pain to get in, but does help the seal work properly.

Cheers

Pete

[Roughasguts]

Can't say I have had trouble with me bearing buddies, the buddies are 12 years old and the bearings are 6 years old.
But when I do replace them I replace the whole hub as well in gal cost, 40 bucks each.

On the other hand got normal bearing set up on me box trailer, there 28 years old and only re packed once, in that time.

Actually I might put some sealer on me outer seal next time I re-asemble my bearing buddies. Depends if I see water evidence in the bearing next time I pull it down, suspect I will see some damage.