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Bearing Buddies


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According to my Extreme Trailer owners' guide and Bearing Buddy's website, re-packing or replacing wheel bearings on a regular basis is a thing of the past, provided the grease level in the BB's is properly maintained. As a matter of fact, the BB website doesn't recommend even "inspecting the bearings more frequently than every 5 years".

Do those of you that regularly tow long distances ( I estimate I logged approx. 4,000 miles last year. ) follow this advice or do you replace the bearings on a regular basis?

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I wipe the grease off my wheels regularly and figure when there isn't anymore splattering on them, I should check the level in the bearings... of course I don't have an Extreme trailer (Ryan)

Don't the Extreme trailers come with oil bath bearings? - that is different than the grease ones

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If you have to wipe grease off of your wheels, then you have either put too much grease in the hub, via the BB, or your seal is bad.

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Are there instructions around somewhere on seal replacement - I'm tired of having greasy towles at the end of a trip.. not to mention having dirty wheels - can't have that!

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You could also just use the bearing buddy bra if the grease is coming out of the BB itself. Even with brand new ones, some grease leaks out. The seal itself is not part of the BB but is on the backside of the hub and seals the interior of the hub to the axle. The hub assembly has to be removed to replace it.

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I guess I have about 8,000 miles on my trailer (everything is so far away here).........once every two or three months, I put the marine green wheel bearing greese on the zert, pump it out till level (like the instructions say), and do that warm before you put the boat in the water...........no real leakage, and they seem great, not a problem yet. It usually only takes about one pump per wheel. The instructiosn say if you see greese coming out, then you have overfilled.

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Exactly M3Fan.

Generally there are two sizes for the axles. You need to know what size yours are if you are planning to replace them. Just take one from each axle if they are different to your local store and have them match them up. Use good marine quality grease.

If you plan to do it yourself and you have never done this before, pick up a manual at an auto parts store that explains how to re-pack bearings.

Its easy. Just a little messy.

The BB just has a small o-ring for a seal that is in the BB cap.

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trust your buddy... they really do work! You can be confident that as long as you keep the gease in them (which helps the seals keeps the water out) you can count on the bearings.

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I'll echo the comment about being careful about too much grease. if you put in too much, your seals will fail and you will have to repack/replace the bearings. Been there and it's a messy job!

Kevin

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They work, I would check mine more than every 5 years, especially with the milage you put on, but there should be no reason to replace the bearings.

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As an aside to this thread, you know where I found my BB instructions?

There was a decal affixed to the inside of the port side trailer frame rail. I really have to wonder why on the inside instead of the outside.

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I have had BB on 2 trailers over 15 years. Not a single issue. Just keep them full with grease, not too much, and check them on a regular basis. The Buddy Bra is a good thing to have.

We easliy tow 3-4K miles per year, sometimes more now that the kids are bigger. I worry about tire life alot more than the bearings.

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I wipe the grease off my wheels regularly and figure when there isn't anymore splattering on them, I should check the level in the bearings... of course I don't have an Extreme trailer (Ryan)

Don't the Extreme trailers come with oil bath bearings? - that is different than the grease ones

I'd like to hear from other Extreme owners on this. Ours came with the oil bath bearings & we didn't order them, but up until that point I had assumed that it was an upgrade. I've been unsure ever since (dealer could have ordered it the way that he orders all of his trailers, so I'm not sure).

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Well my extreme is a 2001 and before the advent of oil bath. But I don't have to wipe my wheels ever.

Sounds like I need to look into the bearing seals or something - it is fairly significant grease on the wheels after a hundred miles or so of trailering

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Well my extreme is a 2001 and before the advent of oil bath. But I don't have to wipe my wheels ever.

Sounds like I need to look into the bearing seals or something - it is fairly significant grease on the wheels after a hundred miles or so of trailering

BTW I have bras on my BB but even if I remove them there is only a minute amount of grease on the inside cover.

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Well my extreme is a 2001 and before the advent of oil bath. But I don't have to wipe my wheels ever.

Sounds like I need to look into the bearing seals or something - it is fairly significant grease on the wheels after a hundred miles or so of trailering

BTW I have bras on my BB but even if I remove them there is only a minute amount of grease on the inside cover.

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Here is what my buddies look like - if anyone has any specific experiance w/ these..

The grease comes out from between the blue (axle) and the silver buddy

post-80-1113764321_thumb.jpg

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What I wonder is if they were installed correctly to begin with. One of our boats didn't have them & I looked at installing them. I recall the guy saying to me that there was a very specific way of installing them, & that if you didn't get it right (which he said happened a lot) then you could have grease all over your wheels all the time, just like you've got. Since it's happening on all 4 wheels, it makes me think that this might be the case. Then again I could be way off base & not remembering the conversation correctly either. :)

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Well - it sure doesn't seem right... could also use some brake inspection too... (feels like they aren't working quite right to me) so maybe time to drop the trailer off and have someone look at it.

This is one of the issues of buying a "previously owned" boat.. :unsure:

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I hear ya, & usually the trailer is pretty neglected. People don't usually think about maintanence for that, usually just the boat. On our last boat we had a DHM tandem with a boat with 300 hours. When I dropped it off to have the bearings & brakes checked, all 4 bearing housings were completely full of water & 2 of the brake shoes were cracked. Shocking.gif

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