Bearing Buddy / Water crossings

[KonzaLander]

Do you run a Bearing Buddy on your overland trailer?

On a recent weekend trip with my new DIY trailer, I encountered several above the hub water crossings. While I know the hub seal is in good shape and my bearings were well packed, I couldn't shake the notion that if water made its way into the hub I would have had no idea and still had to make the 300 mile drive home. On a longer trip I could hit a deep water crossing on day 1 and still need to drive 2,000 more miles until I get home. Since my axle spindle isn't an Ez-Lube or the like, my thought is that a bearing buddy would help keep water out of the hub. A Bearing Buddy would also allow for more grease to be put into the hub, possibly displacing contaminated grease after a series of deep water crossings.



What steps do you take the ensure your trailer hubs stay well lubed and protected on long trips that include deep water crossings other than proper pre/post trip bearing maintenance?

 

[Kozysnack]

@TahoePPV ...Hey Rex what do you do? I've seen a number of photos of you dragging your trailer in water crossings.
Looks like a nice set-up Brett

 

[Sparksalot]

@TahoePPV ...Hey Rex what do you do? I've seen a number of photos of you dragging your trailer in water crossings.
Looks like a nice set-up Brett

I really haven’t had any issues. I put 30K miles on a cheap 2,000# axle. I’ve recently upgraded to a 3,500 axle to get larger bearings to allow higher highway speed. It is a Dexter EZ lube model.

 

[KonzaLander]

I really haven’t had any issues. I put 30K miles on a cheap 2,000# axle. I’ve recently upgraded to a 3,500 axle to get larger bearings to allow higher highway speed. It is a Dexter EZ lube model.

What is your maintenance regimen? How often does your trailer see over the hub water crossings? What grease do you use in the hub?

 

[smritte]

All my tapered bearings get torn down, cleaned, inspected and regreased every year (vehicles and trailers). The inside seal is replaced at that time also.
I'm not a fan of bearing buddies for a variety of reasons. The main one is people tend to over grease then not inspect them.

I do water crossings once in a while. What tears my stuff up is sand silt. I also run a moly bearing grease.

 

[KonzaLander]

@smritte Thanks for your feedback. I should note that if I pursue a Bearing Buddy it would only be used to help provide the positive pressure to keep water out of the bearing and NOT used to replace disassembly to 'lube' the bearings. Since I inspect and repack wheel bearings annually (100 and utility trailer) I am planning to include the overland trailer into the line up as well.

I run Mobil 1 synthetic wheel bearing grease in all of my wheel bearings these days. In the past I noticed the super sticky waterproof marine grease let the hubs on a boat trailer (with Bearing Buddy) heat up at high speeds, but the same hubs remained cool with basic red wheel bearing grease. What benefit does moly provide over red wheel bearing grease?

My goal is to find the best method for protecting the trailer wheel bearings on a return trip. Since home is usually 6-12 hours away on the interstate I really don't want to loose a bearing due to washed out or contaminated grease on the side of the road.

 

[Cypress]

I don't have an overland trailer, but I do run Bearing Buddies on my boat trailers. They do an outstanding job of keeping saltwater out of the bearings. I tow a couple of thousand miles a year and back it in the water a couple of dozen times and I can't remember the last time I had a bearing failure.