Jump to content

Welcome to TheMalibuCrew!

As a guest, you are welcome to poke around and view the majority of the content that we have to offer, but in order to post, search, contact members, and get full use out of the website you will need to Register for an Account. It's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the TheMalibuCrew Family today!

Changing to Oil bath hubs?


Recommended Posts

Ok, I am really tired of greasing the hubs on my trailer then losing the caps and having grease everywhere on the wheels/tires. Mad.gif

I have been looking into changing over to the oil bath hubs. So I called Extreme trailer and they gave me a price of $450.00 for all of the supplies to complete this project. Now that seems like a lot is this in the ball park? Has anyone done this? In this conversion will I be changing everything including the hubs or is it just a matter of changing the bearings, races and seals along with the new oil baths. Can I purchase these items some place else? The person I talked with at Extreme didn’t really know much so he wasn’t much help. I have been leaving messages for the service manager but I have not heard back and need to get this done soon.

Link to comment

I have the oil filled hubs on my trailer. The hubs (and disc brakes in my case) are an integral part of the system They are made by a company called Unique Functional Products (UFP). They came standard on my Boatmate trailer. I have had to replace an inner seal every year because of leakage. While they were under warranty, they would send you new seals, so I asked for 4 and they sent them to me. Now I have spares. If they function right, you just change the oil in them every year. There is a threaded plug on the hub you remove to fill and drain the hubs with 50 wieght oil. A hub holds about 4 oz. each. The cap has a plastic window to check the level which you keep at 100% full. With my seals leaking I lost about 10%. You will notice oil on your wheels and BRAKES before you notice the level dropping in the window. Changing the inner seal involves removing the brake calipers too. Considering all the parts involved, that price does not seem out of line. Make sure your new parts will work with the brake system you presently have. If you have any more questions, I'll check back in every now and then. On long trips the temperature of the hubs run at 120 degrees.

Edited by electricjohn
Link to comment

On my older trailer, I taped the caps(bearing buddies) to the hubs with a good quality electrical tape. That eliminated the "loosing the cap" problem for me.

Edited by electricjohn
Link to comment

We bought the bearing buddy covers (black flexible plastic) to cover our bearing buddies. Completely solved the "grease all over everything" problem...total cost was less than $10 for the four of them.

Link to comment

Thanks for the help everyone.

I do have the bearing buddy deals with the black covers size 19 I think. The problem is when the hubs get hot the covers slide off because the grease is hot. Then after they slide off I have grease everywhere. This setup works fine until I am heading down hills for instance come back from Bullard’s if I am not careful I will loose them every time.

I have changed hubs, bearing and seal numerous times on various types of vehicles so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal, I hope. I’m just not sure if I have to change all the parts including the hub or if all I need to change are the bearings and seals. I will try calling UFP tomorrow to see what they say. Does any body have the part numbers from their oil bath setups?

Thanks

Link to comment

I can't help you with that, but I can tell you that on both this boat & the yellow boat's trailers we had the oil bath hubs. Never, ever had a problem with leaks (knocking on wood as we speak). :)

Isn't Extreme not too far from you?

Edited by WakeGirl
Link to comment
I can't help you with that, but I can tell you that on both this boat & the yellow boat's trailers we had the oil bath hubs. Never, ever had a problem with leaks (knocking on wood as we speak). :)

Isn't Extreme not too far from you?

Thanks, that’s what I am hoping for with the oil baths hubs

Yes, extreme is about 3 1/2 hours south of us but they haven't been much help answering my questions. I will be trying this week again to get hold of the service manager.

Link to comment

One thing I found out about the Bearing Buddy "Bras" is that you have to make sure you are getting the right size. I bought one set, took them home and they were "too small" so I took them back and bought the next bigger size. They fit fine until they got warm from the sun of heat from the bearings, then they would fall off.

So...I went back and got the smaller size and found that they were the right ones, it just took some effort to get on the first time. After a week or so, they seem to have expanded to just the right size. They can be removed when you want them off, but stay in place well otherwise, and no grease to be found.

They come in three sizes, I think, and I needed the smallest size. Check out the info on the packages and make sure you are getting the proper size for your bearing buddies, even if they don't seem to fit right out of the package.

Edited by rts
Link to comment

Are you losing grease on all wheel or just the front axle? Is the trailer level? If the trailer is nose low, it can prematurely apply the brakes...with your hills out there the brakes may be overheating.

Link to comment
We have oil bath hubs on our Boat Mate trailer and also have not had any problem. I would recommend them to anyone.

Same here 2 years and no problems.

Link to comment
Changing to oil bath hubs would be difficult, not a quick replacement - IIRC

I'd get some bearing buddies and be done with it, they are a press-fit

Have to agree with a lot of the point brought up.

1 The change over is not cheap and you do have to replace the hub assy. Make sure if you do it, that the bolt hole pattern for the tire and hub are the same or your going to be buying new rims.

2 If your having grease coming out (from the over flow hole) all over your rim then your over filling your buddy. If your buddies are coming off then you most likely have the wrong bearing pre load.

3 Agree that you have to have your trailer level when towing.

4 Your Bra should fit tight the fist time around. Make your buddies push the bra to its limits. Shocking.gif

What do you consider over heating on the hubs? If you can't hold your hand on them, yes they are over heating, but if you just came down a large hill riding the brakes. Then thats to be exspected.

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

Just a thought. I had an 03' Extreme trailer with grease hubs and never had any problems. Just a small squirt of grease every now and then. I now have an 05' Extreme trailer with oil bath hubs and all four leak. If I had my choice I would keep the grease hubs.

Link to comment

Try this link

http://www.tiedown.com/aturbo.html

I used tiedown when I had drum brakes and converted to disk. They have great equipment from my experience. I don't know the cost or what exact size you need but you can find that out easy. I am sure they will have what you need at a much better price.

DB

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...