Bearing buddies

anyone use bearing buddies on their trailers ?

 

Yes for forty years. We only put the boat in and out once each year so the bearings don’t get much chance to warm up and dry. The bearing buddies do the job.

 

Have had them on. Several boat trailers, they work. Still clean and repack every spring.
Best advice is to use the correct grease for your application.
I used to trailer my boat 4000-6000 miles a year and would squirt some grease in every 1000 miles, never had a bearing failure on any trailer, longest owned was ten years.

 

Yes. 30+ years on one trailer, still rolling. Have never repacked (it's a utility trailer, not submerged on boat ramps) just keep it full of grease.

As long as the seals hold out.............

 

Bill brings up a important point. Don't over use and blow the seals.

 

The answer to your question is a simple either yes or no. What is it exactly that you want to know about bearing buddies?

 

Bearing buddies have springs and overflow holes, so that won't happen.

 

I don't like much like them because they can lead to a false assumption regarding the condition of the bearings. The problem with those devices is that they only put grease on the OUTER bearing, not the inner. This means that you still absolutely have to do regular maintenance (i.e., take the hub off to clean and grease) for the inner bearing.

A much better option that some axles have, is a hold drilled down the length of the axle that applies grease from the inner bearing and flow it out to the outer bearing. This type of axle usually has a rubber cap that you pop off to hook up your grease gun.

 

I would almost consider them a must unless you have some odd infatuation with packing bearings by hand. Obviously they do not completely replace the need to manually repack bearings in certain applications, but they make the maintenance on your trailers much easier. Make sure you get reputable ones though, there are some crappy ones out there that do fail or the zerks are garbage.