How do you know how if you have enough grease in your bearings???

[TrepMan]

I know this was from months ago, but I need some followup help...



On my old trailer I put the bearing buddies on and would grease them until grease came out the small hole, that's how I

knew they were pumped up full.



When I take the caps off my 2000 trailstar trailer's bearing cover I notice the grease nipple and there is grease all around

it. In my old one you did not see any grease (it was all behind the bearing buddies).



So my big questions are:



1 - Is it O.K. there there is grease all around the nipple?

2 - how do you know, short of just feeling the hubs, that there is enough grease?



Thanks...TrepMan

 

[Mike Watson]

TrepMan, yes it is normal on the trailstar trailers to have grease around the nipple. I always pump enough grease into the nipple until I see the old grease start coming out around the nipple. I also turn the wheel while I put in the grease.I add some grease every couple of trips/launches. I wipe just enough of the excess grease away so I can get the cap on and not worry about back pressure popping it off.



Mike

 

[Frank Daniel]

Hey Michael,IMHO the hubs you have now are far superior to the old bearing buddy"s. I've had my Tracker Trailer for ten years now and I'm still on the original bearings.The trick is to flush out all of the grease

at regular intervals instead of adding small amounts of grease the way some guys do. There should never be a need to add grease between flushes. The only way out for that grease is through a bad seal. Check the back of your wheels on a regular basis and look for grease that has been slung from the back of the hub.

That would indicate a bad seal. I also flush my hubs about every 3 months.Just put the grease gun on it and pump til you force out all the old grease. If I see contamination of any kind, water, metal shavings or dirt I will pull it apart and fix it before it becomes a problem. I replaced a defective seal about 3 years ago. I expected to replace the bearings at that time but, they looked like new so, I put them back in and they're still going strong.

I hope this helps. It works for me. Frank

 

[TrepMan]

Thanks Frank and Mike - That was the kind of information I needed. I was not used to seeing the grease around the nipple and was worried that my seal in the front had broken.



I will flush my nipples (don't tell my wife when I get back from Canada!



Thanks again, a little piece of mind for my trip tomorrow. My first trailer was an old galvenized one for my jon boat and came with the metal cap as the bearing cover. When the guy sold me the trailer (used and he had a number of them in his yard) he never told me anything about greasing the bearings, so I just figured they were like a car, and never needed any attention.



Well, my brother comes to visit (we were living in Houston) and we went fishing in Galveston bay. I must say 3 trips over the years (2 in the bay and one on Lanier here) and we never caught a fish! Anyway we're getting close to home and I look at my rear view mirrow and notice the driver's side trailer tire is wobbling quite a bit. We make it home and I jack up the axle and get the cap off and sure enough the bearings were SHOT, luckly the wheel didn't fall off or POP (no spare back then). So I am very carefull to check and recheck my bearings, and NOW I know how on this one!!



Hey Doug P. (I know you can't post anymore, hopefully you're stealthily reading our posts put this in your next Tracker/Nitro manual - good for us Newbies!!!



TrepMan

 

[Chris Leiting]

Let me get a pic tomorrow and i'll show you how to tell if you dont have enough grease

 

[TrepMan]

Had a break around lunch and took the grease (marine) gun to my hubs. Pulled the seals, pumped in new grease till I saw the new grease comming out around the spindle. Did both of my hubs in about 20 minutes. And feel much better about heading out this weekend.



TrepMan

 

[Sam Elkins]

TrepMan, I found a picture on Champion Trailer site that helped me a lot in understanding how my hubs/grease work.
http://www.championtrailers.com/spdlubax.html#spindlub

 

[TrepMan]

Thanks Sam! Checked it out, that is cool. I'm soooo glad I got the information from this site. Otherwise I'd have done like I had with the bearing buddies and only added when there was no or low grease when I removed the cap. I never would have been looking for broken down (i.e. thinner) grease and just pumped new in once a year, at least.



TrepMan