Oil-Bath Boat Trailer Bearing Service??

[Matt400]

Now that I have had the boat for a couple seasons I thought I would pump some grease in the bearing buddy and was surprised to see it didn't have it, the buddy that is.



Anyway seems this trailer has an oil bath system where you drain the oil from the hub through a screw hole, spin it around and refill.



My question is... what weight oil goes in there and how often is that service done?

 

[rrausch]

My 2-bit uneducated guess would be 90 Wt. gear oil.

But that is just my guess, based on the fact that in cars and trucks rear end bearings and rear wheel bearings run just fine in 90Wt.

 

[fishjack1]

From the below site - "FILL THE HUB WITH 80 - 90W GEAR OIL, UNTIL THE SETTLED OIL LEVEL IS ABOUT ½ WAY UP ON THE CLEAR PLASTIC DUST CAP"



Sorry about the "CAPS" above but the text that I copied were in all CAPS...



See below for more info - not sure if this is the brand you are using?? -

Oil Filled Hubs

 

[fishjack1]

FWIW - I know of several people that had the caps either come off or get cracked on these "oil filled hubs" and that is bad news. With the old "greaseable hubs" you can loose a cap or bearing buddy and still make it pretty far before slinging all the grease out and burning up the bearings and or hub...



These Spindle-Lube axles are what I prefer -



Spindle-Lube Axles

 

[rrausch]

Spindle Lube Axles are good.

Jaguar used that technology in their XJ series cars back in the mid-1970's and later. It is much easier than repacking the wheel bearings.

 

[Matt400]

Thanks for the info everyone... . I shoulda dug deeper in my trailer paper work cuz I found some interesting info.



I will post it here in case someone else runs across this.



What I have here is a Trailer Buddy Product by UFP

There web site does not show the Gold Hubs (Genuine Oil Lubrication Design) that I have so I called them to verify.



Visually it looks just like their grease model when the oil in the hub is so black like mine. There is a clear cover but it appeared to be a black cap.

These hubs use 50 weight motor oil and are designed to be filled all the way full with no air left inside. An internal spring allows for expansion and the system can hold 15 psi.



Manufacture recommends drain & refill every 20k or annually.

My boat trailer sees 9k per year so unless I see milkiness in the window I guess I will do it every 2yr.



#ad