Bearing Buddies- on my trailer

Denali n DOO

Original poster
Member
May 22, 2012
5,596
Does anyone know about Bearing Buddies, they are spring loaded and keep the bearings packed in grease. I might have used the wrong grease gun and put low temperature snowmobile grease in them. If I keep filling with wheel bearing grease and letting it seep out will it replace the old grease? Any ideas?
 

McGMT

Member
Jun 17, 2012
621
Denali n DOO said:
Does anyone know about Bearing Buddies, they are spring loaded and keep the bearings packed in grease. I might have used the wrong grease gun and put low temperature snowmobile grease in them. If I keep filling with wheel bearing grease and letting it seep out will it replace the old grease? Any ideas?

I would imagine if you push in good grease the old should work its way out if it seeps out the back, Just run it through till you think the amount that would fit in it has come out the back and kablam your good to go..
 

Denali n DOO

Original poster
Member
May 22, 2012
5,596
McGMT said:
I would imagine if you push in good grease the old should work its way out if it seeps out the back, Just run it through till you think the amount that would fit in it has come out the back and kablam your good to go..

Thankyou.
 

n0kfb

Member
Dec 8, 2011
104
Denali n DOO said:
Does anyone know about Bearing Buddies, they are spring loaded and keep the bearings packed in grease. I might have used the wrong grease gun and put low temperature snowmobile grease in them. If I keep filling with wheel bearing grease and letting it seep out will it replace the old grease? Any ideas?

I would not recomend them, with the possible exception of a boat trailer. The spring-loaded grease will get pushed past a slightly defective rear seal and get all over the place, including the brakes if yoru trailer is equipped with them.

-- Dan Meyer :coffee:
 

Denali n DOO

Original poster
Member
May 22, 2012
5,596
n0kfb said:
I would not recomend them, with the possible exception of a boat trailer. The spring-loaded grease will get pushed past a slightly defective rear seal and get all over the place, including the brakes if yoru trailer is equipped with them.

-- Dan Meyer :coffee:

I like them because of all the slush, snow and salt that the snowmoblie trailer sees alot of. Plus, if I do have a defective rear seal at least I known I got more grease being applied to it. A dry bearing would really suck. I don't have trailer brakes but I know now to look for a mess of grease indicating a rear seal is going. Thanks for the input!
 

blazinlow89

Member
Jan 25, 2012
2,088
I installed them when I replaced the wheel bearings on my camper. Worked great, would give them a lube job at the beginning of the season and a few squirts here and there. Did a complete grease change once in the 3 years before the lift system broke.

This winter will be balls to the wall with turning it into a utility trailer.

As for purging the old grease, they use the same concept on aircraft grease points. Pump grease until the old starts to come out, then keep pumping until new grease shows up. Easy on some things, PITA on a CH-53E, we put 5 tubes of grease into the main rotor swashplate one day. That is alot of pumping.

Just keep pushing out grease until it changes consistency or color and wait until only the right grease comes out.
 

Denali n DOO

Original poster
Member
May 22, 2012
5,596
blazinlow89 said:
I installed them when I replaced the wheel bearings on my camper. Worked great, would give them a lube job at the beginning of the season and a few squirts here and there. Did a complete grease change once in the 3 years before the lift system broke.

This winter will be balls to the wall with turning it into a utility trailer.

As for purging the old grease, they use the same concept on aircraft grease points. Pump grease until the old starts to come out, then keep pumping until new grease shows up. Easy on some things, PITA on a CH-53E, we put 5 tubes of grease into the main rotor swashplate one day. That is alot of pumping.

Just keep pushing out grease until it changes consistency or color and wait until only the right grease comes out.

Perfect, I kept pumping in new grease until I saw it coming out, took a lot of pumps to do it. Glad I did this cuz that old grease must be low temp grease cuz it was so thin and first bit was like oil.

Thanks.
 

northcreek

Member
Jan 15, 2012
3,310
WNY
If I'm not mistaken the spring loaded reasoning is not to pack the bearings since bearings run hot with too much grease.The spring loading is actually a way to let the bearing cavity breathe so as not to suck in water when you back your road warmed hubs into cold lake water,the quenching would normally create vacuum and suck water past the seal but,instead the spring loaded diaphram breathes(moves) to relieve vacuum...Mike.

ps I have had bearing buddies and do not think that they are worth the money.They are heavy and rely on the same narrow fit that holds the light tin cups on.I have lost several and have gone back to plain cups.Annual bearing checks give me more peace of mind.
 

blazinlow89

Member
Jan 25, 2012
2,088
I have had mine on for over 6k miles, 3 season with no problems of them falling off, or getting damaged.

As for grease heating up the bearings, the grease that gets slung out is a way for them to dissipate heat. It will bring out contaminates, heat and grease that has lost its lubricating ability. If you have too much grease on a bearing, it will find its way out.
 

northcreek

Member
Jan 15, 2012
3,310
WNY
blazinlow89 said:
I have had mine on for over 6k miles, 3 season with no problems of them falling off, or getting damaged.

As for grease heating up the bearings, the grease that gets slung out is a way for them to dissipate heat. It will bring out contaminates, heat and grease that has lost its lubricating ability. If you have too much grease on a bearing, it will find its way out.

Yes, some people never lose them but, it's happened to me twice on two different trailers so you might want to keep an eye on yours.

True that the grease will find a way out,this usually happens when the bearing gets so hot that it destroys the seal and can then exit.

We changed the many bearings on our disc harrow from greaseable to sealed bearings because of the high bearing failure rate that we were having.We were pleasantly surprised to find that we rarely have to replace them now.Seems that they were getting overgreased and we think also that dirt was getting pushed in from not wiping off the zerks before greasing.More is not always better....Mike.
 

blazinlow89

Member
Jan 25, 2012
2,088
That is the biggest reason for dirt getting in to a bearing. Improperly greased bearings are another reason. I will agree I do not think the springs are for the grease, the main reason is the spring pushes out ward if I remember correctly (its been a while).

We have an older helicopter that is extremely sensitive to pressure from a grease gun. We have had the seals push out with minimal pumping. On all of the helos we purge the grease on every bearing, fitting etc.

As for the grease seaming like oil that is natural from the grease breaking down.
 

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