Bearing Buddies.. Any Good ??

[Girella]

Can anyone tell me whether or not bearing buddies are effective in protecting trailer wheel bearings.

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks
PK

[toro1]

from what i have been told, bearing buddies may help keep a supply of grease up to your bearings under a bit of pressure, but nothing beats doing regular maintainence yourself on them. i was going to buy some myself but after talking to the bloke where i was buying them from, i decided it wasnt worth the bother, the funny thing was he talked himself out of a sale. good to see a salesman tell it as it is and not just for the sale

[skippa]

PK,

best investment for your trailer. Toro, the salesman was a dope, or he knew you would be back soon for more bearings. Had mine on now for 6 years and never had a problem. Buy the genuine ones not the cheap copies, or they will just fall off.

Cheers,
Tony 8)
PS spend the extra and get the dust covers too.

[dnej]

Bloody great gear. Get the stainless ones, and dont over pressurise them as you can pop the rear seals. Also wait for a bit after you reach your destination, so as your bearings are cool before going into the water, that is if you dunk your wheels. Big mistake driving straight in, when the bearing are hot.
Also use lithium base grease, and dont mix it with the clay base stuff, as they are not compatible.
Hope this helps
David

[Sportfish_5]

Yep there top stuff but do get the stainless ones and dont even bother with other oil filled options.

Cheers

Greg

[aquarius]

I reckon they help prolong the life of your bearings......i always pump grease into them after returning home from a boating trip just to push out any water that may have found its way in.
Stainless with dust covers you can't go wrong.
Don't forget the lock nuts for the trailer wheels!!!!!!!
THERE'S VERMIN ON THE LAND AND IN THE WATER SO I FOUND OUT!!!!!
Cheers Brent :)

[billfisher]

I don't think bearing buddies do any good and they can do a lot of harm. By pumping them up with a grease gun it is easy to overpressurise and blow the rear seal, thus allowing water to enter the bearings.
The theory of the merit of bearing buddies is that when you arrive at the boat ramp the bearings are hot and when the trailer is backed into the water and the bearings are cooled, creating a negative pressure causing water to be sucked in. In reality your bearing should not get hot when travelling. Also if the theory was correct you should be getting a positive pressure when travelling and blowing grease out of the rear seal and this does not happen.
The best way to look after you bearings is to repack them regularly with a good quality grease and make sure you work the grease into the ball races by hand (there are some good web sites on how to re pack bearing if you do a search).

[Aaron_Fogarty]

Speaking of Vermin Brent Ive had 2 sets of bearing buddies Taxed. one set from Caloundra the other from the boat passage on the brissy river.
theres some low lifes out there.
my 2 bob
Aaron

[dnej]

Billfisher,
I did say that you should not over fill the units, did I not? (1/2 to 3/4 full is plenty.) otherwise you could pop the rear seal.
The recommendation on not dunking bearings,(after long travel,) has been provided as advice from a mechanic,and has nothing to do with bearing buddies as such.

After 3 years of using the buddies, my bearings and seals are in great shape.
Does not bother me if you want to disregard same. Thats life!!!
David

[billfisher]

Dinej,
I take your point but the whole (flawed) theory of bearing buddies is to have the grease under pressure so that water will not get in. I stand by my point that it is very easy to overpressurise when pumping them up with a grease gun.

[basserman]

i always thought the (non flawed IMHO) theory of bearing buddys was to expel any water from the bearing not so much keeping water out that is the seals job

i swear by bearing buddys and i have had them on both my boats for over three years without on bit of hassle
now you just need to rember that bearing buddys are made to put freash grease into the bearing so not matter how good they are nothing beats regula maintance and thats not just for the bearing but the whole boat and trailer

i give my buddys a couple of pumps ever couple of mounths or so and never have them over 2/3 full i also give a few pumps before any big trip (over 1 1/2 hours of driveing)

i would much preufe to have bearing buddys than putting my trailer up on jacks and pulling the wheel and bearings off to clean and repack them ;D

[Sportfish_5]

Bearing buddies really having nothing to do with keeping water out, as you said Basser the seals do that. They are there to ensure constant lubrication to the bearings on a piece of equipment that sometimes is neglected. Nothing replaces good maintenance practice but some grease is better than no grease. Overpumping them with grease will cause seal problems so it is important to be careful when using the grease gun.

I have them but I still do my bearing check every year and always do them before a big trip.

Cheers

Greg

[DNO40]

Best invention ever. Nut as basserman and others have stated you still need to regularly check you bearings and conduct maintenance on them. I have had bearing buddies on trailers for many years and would not own a boat trailer without them. They certainly if nothing else extend the life of bearings especially for those that are not maintenance minded.

[blaze]

dont know if you guys release but from a mechanical perspective you only need to pack the bearing cone with grease and a smear around the cup. there is NO mechanical need to pack any grease into the hub, over packing the hub with grease can cause over heating. That is the way all correctly packed road transport vehicles are.
cheers
blaze
ps
read into it what you will about bearing buddies

[klyons]

I'm with Blaze
I've repacked hundreds of wheelbearings and the thought of someone pumping grease in with a gun horrifies me. Too much grease WILL cause heat buildup and seal failure. This is probably the only time bearing buddies actually help- once you have stuffed your seals the only way to keep water out is to pump grease in before and after every trip.
A little hint. If there is any grease on the axel behind your seal either your seals are stuffed or the sealing surface on the axel is stuffed.

Kev

[Girella]

Thanks to all who responded to my post. Even though there appears to be two trains of thought, all the information has been very educational and I now have a much better understanding of the mechanics involved.

It seems that the safest way to go is without at this stage.

Thanks again.

[dnej]

From 25 years of experience using them, I will continue to do so because they are great.
David

[Girella]

Thanks heaps for the advice Dave.

[littlejim]

I always get puzzled when this topic comes up.
Unless the hub is completely filled with grease (which nobody seems to recommend) the 'two pumps' on the grease gun will compress the same amount of air. If this pops the rear seal I would have thought the air would escape and the rubber seal would spring back into position.
The other aspect is to do two pumps of the grease gun and see the tiny amount of grease that comes out. How this travels the six inches across the hub to the inner bearing and protects it from water has always been a mystery to me.

I had bearing buddies in the early stages, based on the sort of recommendations you see here on this forum. My inner bearings used to still go after about three launches. By then the buddies had either been knocked off or fallen/bumped off.
I started packing the rubber seals with grease when I repacked the bearings, filling all the space between the ribs, and since then the bearings last as long as I like. Still check them every 6 to 12 months but last set lasted 4 years. Replaced them because I had so many spare sets from the early days.
The buddies I still consider as being the best 'hub cap' for the trailer wheels, better than the plastic cups you otherwise have to use, definitely keep the water out of the small outer bearing. But to protect the inner bearing I'm going to keep packing the seal with grease.

I suspect that peoples experience with bearing failure has a lot to do with how well the hub/axle/bearing combination fits together, tolerances etc. We always get heaps of boaties who have had great results from bearing buddies and therefore swear by them. There are always others, like me, who found they still had problems (and who, as described above, find the concept a bit hard to swallow.)

For the non-believers, try packing the seals and see if it works for you.

[billfisher]

Littlejim,

Your comments are spot on. A few pumps with a grease gun is not performing maintainence. Also filling all the grooves in the plastic seal with grease makes a big difference. As you said the bearing buddies are a more solid end cap than the usual alternative and this is the only reason I persist with them.
PS the way to stop them from falling off is to indent their rims with a needle punch.

[dnej]

For the doubting Thomas's, read on.
David

[blaze]

Hi David
Very easy to write a speal that sounds good, thats what advertising is all about, but like I said in an earlier post, you should not or do not need your hubs full of grease, that in its self creates heat and premature bearing failure and more ingress of water
cheers
blaze

[klyons]

All these blurbs carry on about the hubs being hot when you back into the water. If you tow your boat to the ramp and your hubs are hot, you already have bearing troubles. I,ve towed my tinnie 600km and the hubs are only 2 or 3 degrees above ambient.Why? Because they are NOT chock full of grease.

Kev

(been a mechanic for 20 years not an advertising exec so what the hell would I know) ;D