Bearing Buddies

[AHarris]

I put bearing buddies on my 25' TT and have towed the trailer about 4,000 miles since then (Michigan to Louisiana to California). In a few months I will be towing it back to Michigan and then to Louisiana.



Are the bearing buddies a good way to avoid more frequent taking apart, cleaning, repacking, etc or am I taking a risky short cut here? This is not a heavy trailer (about 5000#).



I know guys who run their boat trailers for years on years and just keeping the BB's topped off with grease and not worrying about them, Our TT is 6 years old, has probably been towed about 8,000 miles total, and spent 4 of its 6 years in indoor storage while were in Germany.

 

[LRutigliano]

I have a 1994 V/M trailer for our 1994 Reinell boat. It has Bearing Buddy's and the bearings have never been taken out or repacked. Plus, the trailer tires get dunked in the water every time I use the boat.



I would say they work...



Just make sure you use a high quality synthetic GL-5 (high load) grease...



Also, don't be afraid to keep pumping grease in the zerk, because you will have to fill the cavity between the axle OD and the hub ID between the inner and outer bearings so that the grease reaches the inner bearing.

 

[Hoefler]

Buddy Bearings were designed for boat trailers to keep the bearings pressurized to keep the water out when launching a boat. They are not good for trailers with brakes. The grease has to go somewhere. When you fill the Buddy Bearing, the plunger moves outward. The spring keeps pressure on the hub, the grease will seep out of the seal on the inside. Look a the trailers at a boat launch, check the ones that don't have brakes. The inside of the wheel will be splattered with grease. Just imagine what it would look like inside the drum with your brakes.

 

[CWheeler1]

B/B and E-Z lube are two different cats--

ez lube have no spring therefor no pressure on the seal so you can pump grease until fresh grease comes out the out side bearing. CAW

 

[CRuth]

Buddy Bearings were designed for boat trailers to keep the bearings pressurized to keep the water out when launching a boat. They are not good for trailers with brakes. The grease has to go somewhere. When you fill the Buddy Bearing, the plunger moves outward. The spring keeps pressure on the hub, the grease will seep out of the seal on the inside. Look a the trailers at a boat launch, check the ones that don't have brakes. The inside of the wheel will be splattered with grease. Just imagine what it would look like inside the drum with your brakes.

I can vouch for that. Was a pain in the rear to clean one side. Luckily someone stole my trailer before I could get to work on the other side.

 

[Bob Cochran]

I agree E-Z Lube is a whole different animal. Even so it is recommended to annually remove and repack by hand.

 

[Nordby]

Never, ever use EZ-Lube, or any other bearing buddy setup on trailers with brakes. Take them apart and pack them the old fashioned way. I've been through brakes on 3 horse trailers (Sundowners, Dexter axles) and a flatbed - with Dexters. 2 of the combined total of 8 hubs survived without grease on the brakes. And dexter parts are very pricey.

I give this advice to anyone who will listen, and I usually get the reply back that I overgreased them and I don't know what I am doing. That doesn't fly on tdr folks - and I've been doing trailer and drum brakes for 25 years on my own vehicles so am not totally ignorant on the subject.

I personally only used the EZ-lube zerks once on one of the trailers, all 4 seals failed. One of the trailers I bought the prev owner only used them once, all 4 failed. The other two trailers I don't know the maint history, but they failed too except for 2 hubs. See the post above, EZ-lube is supposed to send the grease back out the front, so by the Dexter axle maintenance docs (online) and what the gentleman said previously, these are designed to be pumped until clean grease comes out the front.
The real proof not to use them: when I brought the drums into the brake shop to be turned, the guy started smiling and said EZ-lube axles generate more business for him than anything else.

Use them at your own peril.
jon.

 

[GAmes]

I have EZ Lube hubs on my boat trailer (no brakes). In order to lube the outer bearing with new grease the entire hub cavity hub has to be filled with grease. When they get warm going down the road the grease expands and goes out the inner seal. They are just as messy as bearing buddy wheels after awhile. If there were brakes on the trailer the grease would be all over the brake surfaces. No way would I use them on an RV with brakes.

 

[AHarris]

After reading this I might just take the bearing buddies off the trailer and have them repacked the old fashioned way. Except probably now I'll need to get new seals. Aw s**t.

 

[RHestand]

Handy bearing packer from Geno's.

This little $18 item works great.

IMO, a lot faster, and not nearly as messy as scraping grease off the palm of your hand.

Ray

 

[GAmes]

Except probably now I'll need to get new seals.

Seals are a lot cheaper than replacing grease contaminated brake shoes.

 

[CWheeler1]

My 35'H/R aluma-lite had dex. running gear w/EZlube pulled them at 125k had one seal bad. Have them on my 07 Durango plan to run them the same way--have 18k on it now no problem yet. Maby I'm just lucky. CAW P. S. I owned a fleet of 18 wheelers ran oilers on all trailers and never had bearing fail/break problems.

 

[CDonaldson]

Trailers with brakes have seals. The bearing buddys work excellently to keep grease where you need it BETWEEN inspections and re-packing. I pull apart my bearings every fall to make sure all is OK, replace them or pack them. In between during the hauling/traveling season I DO touch them up with grease when I am lubing the truck.



Both of my flatbed GN trailers AND all my horse trailers came with them stock from the manufacturers. I would guess if they were some kind of a problem the manufacturers would not have put them there?





CD

 

[FFeiller]

does it make a difference between using a hand lube gun or a pheumatic greese gun on E-Z lube?



just yesterday i added greese with a hand gun to the E-Z hubs on my trailer. now i'm wondering if I should tear the thing down. so much confilicting info on the forums.

 

[CWheeler1]

does it make a difference between using a hand lube gun or a pheumatic greese gun on E-Z lube?



just yesterday i added greese with a hand gun to the E-Z hubs on my trailer. now i'm wondering if I should tear the thing down. so much confilicting info on the forums.

Makes no difference--don't worry about it. caw

 

[steved]

If bearing buddies are so bad on axles with brakes, why do the MANUFACTURERS install them??

 

[CDonaldson]

steved



I don't think that they are bad on axles with brakes any more than they are bad on axles without brakes. I have them on my trailers and none of them have any leaking problems.



When I got my first trailer that had them, the fellow told me NOT to use any 'air' power grease gun, just use the manual hand gun and give it a pump or two. He went on to say that too much air power with the grease, or too much grease pressure in the overall, would blow the axle seals, then they would leak, would be problems down the line like any other bad seal would have problems.



Matter of common sense and how much grease it takes to do the job vrs having too much grease beyond the design of the seals and pressure.



Think about how much grease we use on front end parts - how overloading grease cups causes them to blow, made sense to me, and I have not had problems on any of my trailers, couple of them have had the buddies for more than 10 years, couple more in the 6-7 year use without problems.



I know a couple of small trailer manufacturers who install them so people CAN keep bearings lubed so they don't have issues. Axles and bearings are expensive warranty issues that most dealers find themselves having because they need lubed and people do not follow through with good maintenance practices. I am just guessing, but it seems to me that the manufacturers are trying to have less issues using them vrs the other way around.





CD

 

[FJfonda]

Bearing Buddies a compromise

Bearing Buddies serve one purpose --- keep positive pressure on the seals during the dunking process of boat launching. On any other trailer I would just stick with the standard dust cap and a yearly service schedule. I have personally struggled with the following in my use of Bearing Buddies:

- Finding a robust seal for the axle - cheapo's don't hold up

- Keeping the required pressure, not too much and blowing past the seal

- Getting ALL the air out during service... Air expands with heat much more than the grease does and has the same effect as over greasing.

- On drum brakes, knowing when you have a problem

That being said, it is a trade off of the potential of water intrusion vs the potential of grease blow by on the brakes. I find a close inspection is required to determine if grease is required --- need to determine the "piston" position in it's travel.

 

[steved]

Hmmm, I must have an oddity then... I own a 2008 trailer with Quality axles under it, and they have the manufacturer-installed "bearing buddy"-equivalent (its a drilled spindle IIRC)... I have no grease on the brakes, and I've greased them quite a bit.

I have a home-brew axle consisting of modified D60 tubes under my small trailer. I have installed zerks in the axle flange and plugged the axle tube (through-spindle)... no relief valve, no fancy springs. I have probably put over 200 pumps of grease into those hubs, and not a single drip out of the seal... I even tried to fill them prior to installation... not a drip. And these seals have unknown miles on them, and probably close to 30k that I've done myself. And they run cool. It has no brakes, so I didn't really care if it did leak... and it never has.

The amount of grease it takes to fill the cavity is more than most would ever put in...

 

[CoastyAV8R]

I have bearing buddies on our travel trailer and the previous owner pumped the them full of grease and it wound up on the brakes. The guy said he had never pulled the brakes apart so I don't know how many years he had been doing this. When I was talking with the service at the local RV dealer, he said he recommends bearing buddy's but also said if your going to use them you should use a 2 lip seal like one that comes on trucks as they are more robust and much less likely to let grease past them. He also recommended common sense with the bearing buddies like putting in enough grease to barely unseat the spring loaded puck and not to go overboard when greasing them, just a pump before a trip usually sufficed.