A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Do you guys use bearing buddies on your boat trailers? My boat has a rubber cap covering the bearings.
I noticed that my rim had a little grease splattered around when I got back from Econfina yesterday. When I examined the rubber cap, I saw a small tear. When I pulled on the cap, it tore more like it was dry rotten. That is why the grease was splattering out. Should I buy another aftermarket cap for it.....or do you guys recommend I get bearing buddies? It looks like the bearing buddy would stick out pretty far. What does everyone else do?? Thanks!
Ive run Bearing Buddies on every trailer I have ever owned.
They really don't stick out very much further than the caps.
I top off the grease periodically...Never had a set of bearings seize.
Barry Bevis, Realtor and Owner of BigBendFishing.net
I liked it so much, I bought the company
The type of axle you have usually has a grease fitting on the end of the axle when you remove that rubber cap. It is a good system, since it has a hole in the axle to distribute the grease to both bearings.
However, I would go ahead and put on a set of Bearing Buddies. Use the Brand name, the black crap at Wal-Mart is useless, and will fall off...
Also, I would replace the seals on the hubs with heavy duty double lip seals to take the pressure of the Bearing Buddies...be sure to remove the grease fitting in the end of the axle. It may be threaded or pressed in....
Dubble
The more I know about something, the more I know that I did not know as much as I thought I knew that I knew.
Dubble, when I pull the rubber cap off the grease fitting will be inside that? And where does the seal so? I just went in the garage to look and when I started pulling the black cap off, grease started pouring out. I decided I will wait until tomorrow to look. Do i just pound the bearing buddies into place? Thanks again!
Pirate,
Like Dubble said, you have what is known as an EZ Lube system. Under those little rubber caps is a grease fitting that pumps grease all the way to the inner bearing. These systems come with double wall seals to keep grease from escaping in that direction. As factory installed, these systems are incompatible with standard bearing buddies because of the large washer covering the outer bearing which prevents adequate lubrication from the outside. Instead, these axles are designed to be lubed from the inside out via the grease fitting you found. All you need to do is google EZ Lube and order some more rubber caps. Hope this helps.
I just bought 2 from Easternmarine.com, thanks again bud! I was also able to see a working diagram of the EZ lube system. Looks like a very good product!
Is it possible to bust out the seals with the EZ lube system? I have them on my trailer, and am always scared I'll put too much grease in them. They don't have the little pin size hole for the excess grease to come out that the bearing buddies have.
The EZ lube system has a spring loaded rear seal that is supposed to prevent over greasing problems.
Ther inner workings of EZ lube recirculates the grease in then out of the spindle and bearings.
In other words....squirt away. It will tell you when it is full. You will see it coming back out the front.
Last edited by Jumptrout51 on September 29th, 2008, 7:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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