I love the sound of wheel bearings in the morning.....

[Crocodile]

Bearings.jpg
Hello All,
I thought I heard a rumbling sound coming from my trailer.
We might win the odd battle but we will never win the war.
Local trailer repairer advised this DIY repairer to use cheap bearings and replace them more often (install Timkens for long trips). He even lent me his tube of Sikafkex to glue the metal part of the seal into place.
The alarming aspect to this is that I did a jack-up-and-listen only a couple of weeks ago and all was quiet.
Changing bearing at home has very little to recommend, I would hate to do it roadside.

[NAGG]

Tell your local trailer guy he is a "goose"

what is the difference in price of a set of cheap bearings Vs Timken ? ...... $10 (maybe)
How often does he expect you to change the cheap bearings ? ...... Then you have to add the cost of the grease - so add another $5-10 each time
What's your time worth ? ... or does he want you to come to him.

The reality is that for the average boater a set of Timkens could last years if a good quality grease & bearing buddies are used .

I do a lot of towing (10,000km a year minimum) & on some pretty crappy roads ..... and the only failure was due to throwing a bearing buddy and not noticing (night time)

For my way of thinking - prevention is always better ...... I do a complete rebuild before every major trip ( often 5000km round trip ) and once a year . ....... $70 for piece of mind
btw .... buy your Timkens when Supercheap have then on sale < $25 a set

Chris

[RayLamp]

Timken marine sets aren't really that expensive and I've never had a failure with them. Can't say the same for other bearings.

A trusted mechanic recommended Evinrude grease. Good gear that.

[tunaticer]

Faulty seal somewhere there, they are rust pits causing the noise.
FWIW it is usually far cheaper to buy the bearings from a bearing specialist like CBC or statewide bearings.
Supercheap is anything but cheap in my experience and forget buying from BCF and the like.

Bearings on my trailer are now about 8 years old and done maybe 40,000km.
I bolt my bearing buddies on these days to avoid throw offs along the corrugated roads.
3 x M3 socket head cap screws in stainless is all you need.

[Crunchy]

Timken aren't that good, NTN Japanese bearings are the goods.

[TheGurn]

Just rebuilt my 'big boat' trailer. Outer bearings looked like new but checked the inners anyway. Dodged a bullet there
They looked like they'd been packed with dried clay. Couldn't even rotate them by hand. Luckily this boat seldom gets used. Prompted me to check my other 'little boat' trailer which is 2 years old. Outer bearing fell apart in my hands. Both trailers have bearing buddies that I top up but methinks a more timely looksee is in order. Replaced with Toyo bearings. Are these the 'cheapies' I should've avoided?

[NAGG]

Timken aren't that good, NTN Japanese bearings are the goods.

Really ..... aren't that good ?

Gee - I don't know how many well qualified people I've spoken to over the last 25 years and they are always mentioned as a high quality readily available bearing .
Yes NTNs get a nod & SKFs get a mention..... but you have to track them down .

My own experiences with Timken would have me scratching my head as what could be better & why ....... I'm curious

Chris

[NAGG]

Grease ..... that's another topic - I've been using that red Nulon (Extreme performance) grease for the past few years ..... I'm pretty impressed with it - it seems to handle any water ingress much better than the BP marine or Shell Gadus that I had used over the years. Also found that it was good at high temps (40 deg +) It remained quite viscous .

Chris

[gazza2006au]

Bearings are bearings IMO its better whatever is available to you and at your preferred budget some will say u need the bee's knee's where others will say budget bearings have lasted them a decade, i however think the most important bit is to sufficiently grease and load the bearings with grease but also load the hub with grease as when your doing 110kph down the highway the grease acts like a self centrifuge and self feeds into the bearings automatically when needed by centrifugal force

all the times i have changed bearings only once have i loaded the bearing but not the hub because i broke down inside the M5 tunnel in Sydney the wheel came off done a tight line walk on a 15 meter drop luckily it rolled back onto the highway (50 meters out of tunnel) north bound, had to change the wheel hub and bearings had a brain fart moment in a desperate attempt of repairing the trailer i purchased a squeeze tube of grease from super cheap auto, this bearing is still running fine but i have my doubts

[NAGG]

Bearings are bearings IMO its better whatever is available to you and at your preferred budget some will say u need the bee's knee's where others will say budget bearings have lasted them a decade, i however think the most important bit is to sufficiently grease and load the bearings with grease but also load the hub with grease as when your doing 110kph down the highway the grease acts like a self centrifuge and self feeds into the bearings automatically when needed by centrifugal force

all the times i have changed bearings only once have i loaded the bearing but not the hub because i broke down inside the M5 tunnel in Sydney the wheel came off done a tight line walk on a 15 meter drop luckily it rolled back onto the highway (50 meters out of tunnel) north bound, had to change the wheel hub and bearings had a brain fart moment in a desperate attempt of repairing the trailer i purchased a squeeze tube of grease from super cheap auto, this bearing is still running fine but i have my doubts

Yep - good tip on loading up the hub ..... I only started doing it over the last few years (actually when I started using the Nulon) I literally use a tub for both wheels & buddies ..... then pump it up with a grease gun - ALWAYS USING THE SAME GREASE.

I carry in my car - a tool box that contains everything to rebuild 2 sets of bearings .... plus a spare hub - gun / tub & cartridge of Nulon Pieces of wood , brass drift & poly boat roller in case I have to knock out the cups . ..... (the poly boat roller is used to knock them back in )

That's another thing .... regular rebuilds make it easier to knock out the cups

Chris

[Crunchy]

Really ..... aren't that good ?

Gee - I don't know how many well qualified people I've spoken to over the last 25 years and they are always mentioned as a high quality readily available bearing .
Yes NTNs get a nod & SKFs get a mention..... but you have to track them down .

My own experiences with Timken would have me scratching my head as what could be better & why ....... I'm curious

Chris

But then again you rate Mojiko so.....

[NAGG]

But then again you rate Mojiko so.....

My reference to “Team Mojiko” is sarcasm. ....me being facetious and a bit of a joke among friends .
For the record I do keep my sinkers in a mojiko tackle tray .

Chris

[Crunchy]

After 15 years of changing bearings I reackon the NTN are better than timken IMO, I have never changed an NTN bearing that actually needed it but I have seen pitting on Timken races and the weight of the NTN bearings feels like better quality....CBC have NTN bearings so easy to get and Northside Marine used to supply NTN too but not sure if they still do, I guess it all depends on what you tow and how far but with 2.5MT of boat towing 500km's I like NTN in the hubs personally....

[gazza2006au]

You need to keep in mind how frequent u change bearings as each time u press in a new race its removing aluminium from the hub this is probably why the previous poster said the more he changes the bearings the easier they are to press in, you've gotta keep an eye on it so the outer race doesnt spin with the bearing and cause a much bigger problem with your rim i have not to date seen any destruction's but i often rebuild motocross bikes and this is a problem when doing the internal crankcase bearings spinning inside of the aluminium because of wear

[Noelm]

Most hubs will be steel, the only alloy ones I know of are those ones with the bearing bit all one piece with the rim, hate those big time.