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Trailer Axel grease


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You don't. They should be oil bath, which require little to no maintenance. Certainly being an '06 trailer, your in good shape.

I have a 06 XTI with an Extreme trailer. Any of you know how to repack the bearings with grease? Thanks!
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You don't. They should be oil bath, which require little to no maintenance. Certainly being an '06 trailer, your in good shape.
I have a 06 XTI with an Extreme trailer. Any of you know how to repack the bearings with grease? Thanks!

Thanks Scott! I was looking over the manual and it mentioned doing it annually so I was currious if this is something that I have to do.

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According to the message I heard while on hold with Extreme the other day oil bath are good for 20k miles between service.

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One of mine is turning a little milky indicating some water inside. Next step? I'd like to avoid the 5 hour round trip tow to the dealer if possible.

Thanks

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One of mine is turning a little milky indicating some water inside. Next step? I'd like to avoid the 5 hour round trip tow to the dealer if possible.

Thanks

The first thing I would do it fix the leak Tease.gif J/K Your going to have to take it apart and check your seals, otherwise your taking chances.

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One of mine is turning a little milky indicating some water inside. Next step? I'd like to avoid the 5 hour round trip tow to the dealer if possible.

Thanks

The first thing I would do it fix the leak Tease.gif J/K Your going to have to take it apart and check your seals, otherwise your taking chances.

That's the one drawback to oil bath vs. traditional grease hubs. When the oils baths fail, they fail catastrophically...there's little "limp home" mode available.

Otherwise, I think they are great.

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If the oil is looking milky replace it. All you need to do is remove the wheel, remove the allen bolt, drain and replace with 50 motor oil. "I have also partially filled the hub, spun the wheel a bit and drained to get most of the water out."

I use a turkey baster, as a funnel to let the 50 weight oil slowly fill the hub. The hardest part is lifting the trailer to get the wheel off and waiting for all the air to get out of the hub when refilling.

You can get water in the hubs with out a leak, they say it can get in when submerging warm or hot hubs.

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By the way my seal (outer) failed. I noticed oil pooling on the inside of one of my wheels after eating lunch in the middle of a 350 mile travel day. I brought extra seals (just to have on hand) before the trip, Extreme told me size, which was wrong Mad.gif . But a really good auto parts store Clap.gif found me a compatible seal and helped me replace it.

Unfortunetly, I damaged Mad.gif the outer bearing buddy seal (which I did not know until reaching my destination). The outside seal leaked (very little oil but let in alot of water after dunking the trailer a few times).

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If you notice oil pooling on the oil bath hubs another reason is that the allen bolt backs out after a while. I've gone through this on my last 2 trailers with oil bath hubs. Once the allen bolt was tightened the leak went away. Just found a couple of leaks on my current trailer as well, turned out to be loose allen bolts.

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Where in the OP did it say they were oil bath? I have an 04 Extreme trailer and it's equipped with "Trailer Buddy" axles. I'm pretty sure most later model Extreme trailers are the same BICBW.

Do your axles look like this?

tbendqb9.gif

If so: Here's what you need.

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If you're replying to me, no my axels do not look like that and extreme went to oil bath hubs as I said in my post. I wasn't replying to the OP thanks. I probably should have quoted the poster I was replying to.

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If you're replying to me, no my axels do not look like that and extreme went to oil bath hubs as I said in my post. I wasn't replying to the OP thanks. I probably should have quoted the poster I was replying to.

Just for the record, an Axel is a character in the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies. What you are really talking about here is an axle. Correctness matters. Ask any boss.

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If you're replying to me, no my axels do not look like that and extreme went to oil bath hubs as I said in my post. I wasn't replying to the OP thanks. I probably should have quoted the poster I was replying to.

Just for the record, an Axel is a character in the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies. What you are really talking about here is an axle. Correctness matters. Ask any boss.

Foley was cool and a good singer/entertainer.

Edited by johnsvt
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I have 2004 Extreme tandem trailer and was looking at my hubs the other day. It appears as though the cap on the hub is somewhat transparent (kind of a brownish tint) The rear axle hub looked kinda orange like there might be milky oil behind it the front one looked dark brown. Anyone know if mine are oil bath, and if my suspicions of a leaky rear hub are likely.

Thanks,

-Jared

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I have 2004 Extreme tandem trailer and was looking at my hubs the other day. It appears as though the cap on the hub is somewhat transparent (kind of a brownish tint) The rear axle hub looked kinda orange like there might be milky oil behind it the front one looked dark brown. Anyone know if mine are oil bath, and if my suspicions of a leaky rear hub are likely.

Thanks,

-Jared

my guess would be oil bath and yes re: water in the oil. I pulled the service guide off UFP's website and it didn't seem too tough to drain and refill with 50 weight oil so my 2 cents would be to drain and replace once to see if the water returns prior to going through the whole seal replacement drill. I think I read in a previous post that if perhaps the hub wasn't toped off, then driven to heat up the oil, then quickly submerged in cold water that the sudden drop in temp (and internal pressure) could lead to a sucking sensation and pull some water into the hub even the seals are still functional. I could be wrong.

Edited by Green_Giant
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Draining and refilling does not fix the leak, so the same problem will happen again. Water is not a very good lubricant for an axle hub. I would pull the hub, replace the seals and lubricant.

I sell commercial truck trailers. For many years oil bath hubs were used in the truck-trailer hubs. About ten years ago the manufacturers starting using high quality semi-fluid grease instead of oil. It has cut down tremendously on bearing failures due to contaminated hub oil or lack of oil due to it leaking out. If my trailer had oil hubs and was leaking I would replace the seals and use grease instead of oil. My opinion is based on commercial equipment in much more sever applications than our boat trailers will ever see, your opinion may be different.

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I have a performance trailer and I believe I have buddy bearings with grease. They have rubber caps on the ends. I took mine off last week for the 1st time ever and one of them had what looked like gear oil pooled up. Does water and grease mix to make grey gear oil, or could I have oil bearings that are leaking?

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my guess would be oil bath and yes re: water in the oil. I pulled the service guide off UFP's website and it didn't seem too tough to drain and refill with 50 weight oil so my 2 cents would be to drain and replace once to see if the water returns prior to going through the whole seal replacement drill. I think I read in a previous post that if perhaps the hub wasn't toped off, then driven to heat up the oil, then quickly submerged in cold water that the sudden drop in temp (and internal pressure) could lead to a sucking sensation and pull some water into the hub even the seals are still functional. I could be wrong.

So at lunch today I swung by the BU and took off the offending wheel, removed the allen screw and drained the milky clay colored oil.

I didn't have any oil at the time so just left it open and will return tonight to finish the job. (this is beginning to sound like a gangsta flick) Guns.gif

Anyway I picked up some SAE 50 motor oil (valvoline), my question now is... I'll rinse it out a couple of times with the oil then do I fill it right full or only partially? Perhaps while I have the tools out I'll check the other three and top them off as well.

Thanks for the help.

-Jared

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I have a performance trailer and I believe I have buddy bearings with grease. They have rubber caps on the ends. I took mine off last week for the 1st time ever and one of them had what looked like gear oil pooled up. Does water and grease mix to make grey gear oil, or could I have oil bearings that are leaking?

Its probably the little rubber caps that are leaking. I would pull them and re-pack the grease. water and grease dont mix, if its grey your performance trailer will soon show unsatisfactory performance.

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