"Hub in a tub"

[Ducksnutz]

if you do your maintenance gazza you dont get the issues you have, but hey at least that second wheel didnt come off and kill someone so thats a bonus

a bearing should not get hot enough to prevent you holding your hand on it even after 1000km non stop.
so with maintained seals cups bearings and correct tension by the time you have taken the strap off and got the boat ready you can back it straight in.

i do new bearings every year when regos due, i dont pay the rego till ive done the bearings
i have a complete hub and bearing setup greased in a vacuumed sealed bag which ive never had to use
tyres replaced every 3-4 years
and on a trip i pull over after 10 mins or before i get on the freeway to check by holding hand on bearing face and rocking both tyres

Never had a failure with those precautions


poor maintenace caused your issues not bearing heat mythology

Gazza,

This is the best advice given. Not a dig at all but highly recommended that you give this some thought.

[Noelm]

I must own up to being caught out a couple of times with shagged trailer bearings, I'm not the biggest on maintenance, but I do try to keep things in good shape, but, now and then the "she'll be right" kicks in, mind you, a long trip for me is about 10 minutes, unless I am heading off on holidays down the coast, last time I got caught was a real drama, going crabbing early one morning, one bearing was a bit noisey, but.....she'll be right, got to the ramp, launched OK, but coming home the noise started to get a bit loud, a peek in the mirror revealed the wheel at an odd angle, so I stopped in a safe spot and investigated, there was nothing left of the bearing. Now what to do, unhook the boat and leave it to get tools and parts? try to limp home? Decided to unhook the boat, drive to Supercheap, which was about a minute up the road, buy a new complete hub and replace it. The only tools I had was the silly kit in the back door of the Prado, finally got the wheel off, used the useless slip joint pliers to get the split pin out, and the nut off, unfortunately part of the bearing was stuck on the axle, I used the double ended screwdriver gizmo and rock as a hammer, smacked my thumb nail with the rock, danced around like a lunatic on the side of the road, just as a council truck pulled up, they had near on a full workshop of tools, had it all back together in minutes, so I gave them a few crabs for their trouble.

[blacklab]

999999999999999

[Dignity]

Col, sounds like a brake pad has been rubbing constantly.

[Mopheus]

I also have a bearing failure story - camper trailer after 100km of corrugated dirt roads into Karijini National Park. Couldn't feel the corrugations at 100kph through the 31's on the car but apparently the 26's on the trailer didn't feel the same way. Chewed out the inside of one hub.

Had to ditch the trailer in the Eco Park and hotfoot it back into Tom Price where the auto store was closed undergoing transition to new management, and I had to beg a mine maintenance crowd to sell me a hub set at 4.50pm on a Friday arvo. Fortunately they stocked them and a carton of beer did the negotiating.

Now I won't leave home without a full spare hub setup plus a full set of bearings, grease, jack and tools. Plus the 30m temp check and every stop thereafter.

Live and learn.

[disorderly]

Ok embarrassing story no.78.....

Replaced the bearings one day and then took the boat and trailer for a quick test spin..

Heard a bit of noise about a kilometer up the road ..jumped out and could feel tyre rim and hub was hot...

Turned around and jacked her up at home ..as i was pulling the tyre and hub back off I remembered that I had thought the nut had gone on too far past the split pin hole but that it had to, to tighten up and eliminate the wobble...

Yep the new inner bearing was still sitting on a rag on my workbench...

It worked much better once I actually put it in..

[Dignity]

I also have a bearing failure story - camper trailer after 100km of corrugated dirt roads into Karijini National Park. Couldn't feel the corrugations at 100kph through the 31's on the car but apparently the 26's on the trailer didn't feel the same way. Chewed out the inside of one hub.

Had to ditch the trailer in the Eco Park and hotfoot it back into Tom Price where the auto store was closed undergoing transition to new management, and I had to beg a mine maintenance crowd to sell me a hub set at 4.50pm on a Friday arvo. Fortunately they stocked them and a carton of beer did the negotiating.

Now I won't leave home without a full spare hub setup plus a full set of bearings, grease, jack and tools. Plus the 30m temp check and every stop thereafter.

Live and learn.

We all have stories, did a trip up to the Daly River and the instructions for the prep included, replace your bearings and carry spares. Well on the way back we got to about 90 kms north of Winton and we could see one of the car and trailers in front of us they were about 500 m in front of us and I swear I could spot the wobble in the trailer wheel.
My mate didn't think so but I made him hit the metal to the pedal to catch them and make them pull over. There was no phone coverage there.
When he stopped the wheel just lay on it's side, the bearing race had basically welded onto the axle. It took us a while to sort it out and when we asked for his spare sets of bearings he said he didn't bother as they were new when we left. Fortunately ours were the same size so we used them. Got going with the hope we'd get into Winton and buy some more. We got there just as the garage was shutting shop and luckily he had 1 set only left. We didn't need it but always good to have spares. Guess who had to shout all the beers that night.

[Lovey80]

I’ve been lucky. On a previous boat I changed the bearings which were rusty when they came out. So I put a full set of new ones in with seals and bearing buddies. 20 minute drive to the ramp nice and cold. Went fishing (bearings got dunked). Came home and jacked the trailer up to check for wobble. It had a little bit (nut needed 1/3 turn). Took the bearing buddy off and milky inside. Rear seal looked fine. Decided to change them all out. Next trip. Same thing again.

ended up going to Dura-hubs on the advice of Smithy through Ausfish. Never been happier.

[blacklab]

[
999999999999

[Noelm]

For routine maintenance I have a spare complete hub, and I just put a new bearing in it (or check and repack the old ones) replace one hub, clean and repack/replace those bearings, then do another wheel, I have 6 sets between the big boat and the tinny, I just find it easier to just replace a complete hub and rebuild it at my leisure, sometimes I might do a couple at a time, or maybe just do one and another later on, that way, the trailer is only on the jack for a few minutes and time spent is minimal.

[stevej]

The only hassle I’ve had is twice on two different trailers I used those ark complete hub bearing assemblies and they had faulty bearings straight out of the box

one the inner cup seat was machine incorrectly and second one the bearing was just junk
I was short on time and didn’t have the time to knock the bearings out and put timkens in.
ended up costing half a day pulling them out and doing it again.

[Noelm]

The cheap bearing sets seem to be hit and miss, I have had one bad one, (it wasn't really bad, just had the wrong size) and some good ones, and know of a couple of duds from other boaters.

[Dignity]

I’ve been lucky. On a previous boat I changed the bearings which were rusty when they came out. So I put a full set of new ones in with seals and bearing buddies. 20 minute drive to the ramp nice and cold. Went fishing (bearings got dunked). Came home and jacked the trailer up to check for wobble. It had a little bit (nut needed 1/3 turn). Took the bearing buddy off and milky inside. Rear seal looked fine. Decided to change them all out. Next trip. Same thing again.

ended up going to Dura-hubs on the advice of Smithy through Ausfish. Never been happier.

Probably cheap bearing buddies, have had that happen where I've bought the ones on special as every now and then one would go missing and the cheapies would always do that and also rust quickly. The genuine ones dont.

[NAGG]

Ok. How many times do u pull up at a boat ramp after a 1 hour drive than roll under the trailer to inspect your seals? Once its dipped in the w ater and the boat is off its too late

It would be very rare that I roll into a boat ramp & launch straight away . I always let the bearings cool .... It doesn't take long
The other thing is that there is a big difference to warm brearings to hot bearings .

Bearings don't just collapse because you've backed the trailer in with warm bearings - seals dont just split either .

Now I've thrown bearings with the best of them ...... probably 80% of them have been on the back of having lost the bearing buddy on one of my long trips / corrugated roads ..... heck I've had brake calipers come off ....... but none of these were on the back of the lack of service / quality of bearings etc .

I've now got into the habit of every 6 months or so - I will remove the bearing buddy & look at the colour of the grease - If it's red & uncontaminated ..... that's a good sign .

& yes every time I launch the boat - I have a quick look over the trailer at the back seals & brakes in particular .


Chris.

[NAGG]

I do exactly the same Sam....

Ditto (every fuel or piss stop) - back of the hand (fingers) on each hub , rim & tyre

I've come to learn that if everything is OK - the hub will be no hotter than the tyre

Chris