bearing buddies

Thanks to all of you that replied. I decided to go without and just repack the bearings once a year and not mess with the buddy. Thanks again.

D & M wrote:
People that have them swear by them. I can see the usefullness on trailers with really small wheels or boat trailers where the hub gets submerged. But in reality, there are thousands of trailers that don't have them. And cars put way more miles on their bearings without getting repacked or having bearing failure.

But, hey, they are inexpensive enough. Get a set and put your mind at ease. Just be careful not to overpack the hubs and pop the grease seal.

They are great for Boat trailers, but I am just old and stubborn, RV wheel bearings need to be inspected and repacked!! To me just the way it is, not that hard just did mine today in about five easy hours in the storage lot with hand tools. Granted the right hand tools make a difference!!
Let's see 6 Ton safety Stands, 12 ton bottle jack, 250 ft,# and 250 in # torque wrench's. 1/2" breaker bar, correct6 point sockets.

Pros and cons and background.

The bearing buddy was designed for use on boat trailers that get backed into the water.. Here is the problem.. As you toold own the freeway the bearings get quite.. Warm (Hot is the word) then you back into the water they cool quickly and wind up sucking in water, dirty contaminated in many cases water, this is a very bad thing for the bearings.

Pros.
The bearing buddy due to it's design keeps the grease on the inside and the water on the outside... where it belongs.

In addition smaller wheels on boat (And some RV) trailers spin faster and thus need to be re-packed more often.. The bearing buddy packs as you drive and makes it very easy to add more grease when you stop.

Cons: Due to the constant and increased pressure on the rear seal they can cause standard low-end seals to blow and grease up the backside of the wheel (Bad) of course bearing buddy seals are designed to prevent this from happening.

Question: Would I use them on a trailer: Answer: YES, in fact, I did.

Bearing buddies are typically used on boat trailers for small boats that routinely get backed into the water many times in a season. Those trailers rarely have brakes, so a little leaking grease isn't a concern. Larger boats are typically launched once for the entire season and are less likely to have bearing buddies on their trailers.

If you plan on adding them you need to replaces the rear seal with a double lip seal… the newer ones are designed to maintain about 3 PSI of pressure to keep water from entering then the axle cools quickly from being submerge in water… the newer ones also have weep drains that will ooze some grease when full… the older ones didn’t have this feature…
Care and closely following directions will yield good results, but (mostly) improper use and the older style have ruined more seals the anything…

The Dexter has channels in the bearing surfaces to spread grease back and front . The Buddy puts grease in the front and applies a little pressure with a spring cup to work the grease towards the rear . When putting grease in the Buddy you watch the front cover and it will slowly move forward , letting you know the bearing cup is getting full . Stop then !

They have no effect good or bad on the axles. They will blow out the inner bearing seal and grease either your brakes or the back side of the wheel/tire.

The EZ lube type system is entirely different and work well if you follow the instructions.

Rickkessler54 wrote:
What's the deal with the bearing buddies or they good or bad for the axles?

There's also a system called Dexter EZ Lube which is a different setup used on RVs. Bearing Buddies are commonly seen on boat trailers.

There purpose in life is to maintain a small positive pressure inside the wheel hub in order to keep water out. In order to do that the hub really needs to be completely full of grease so the hub is well lubed. Other than that they do nothing to aid in lubrication nor do they hurt either. I have always had them on all my boat trailers and like has been said, a little too much grease and they are gone... They can be messy as sometime they will leak grease when they get warm and if the seals are not perfect the slight pressure will force grease out of them all over your brakes.

I agree with the "mainly a boat trailer thing" I have them on
my boat trailers, but never my campers.
Brian