Trailer wheel bearings

[XV1100SE]

I have a Harbor Freight Tag-Along trailer which I got a couple years ago. With the help of MarCarl, we replaced the wheel bearing grease with good grease (better than the vasaline they ship it with). That was the first and only time the bearing grease was changed. Since then we've done MD and the WNY rally. Last summer we did 10,000km (6200 miles) with the trailer.

 

The other day when cleaning the garage I moved the trailer and noticed one of the wheels was "sticking" and wasn't turning as freely as the other. Today, I decided I'd better repack the bearings. The bearings on one side (the one turning properly) were still a nice shiny colour. The other side, the back bearings were a brown colour.

 

I've got three of the bearings cleaned and reassembled the "good" wheel. I'm trying to source a replacement for the "burned" bearing and will replace both bearings on the "bad" wheel.

 

Couple questions :

1) when putting the wheel hub back on, I tightened the hub until it was getting stiff to turn then put the cotter pin in. What is the best way to know you have it tight enough? I've done a search and most posts say the wheel should turn "freely" but with the way I did mine I can still feel some resistance but the wheel doesn't bind when turning. Is this okay ?

 

2) I replaced the zerks when I got the trailer but how much grease do you put in? When I was cleaning everything, I saw that the zerk is open to the void between the bearings (front and back) so it is about a 1" diameter and 3+ inches between bearings. Do I just put a liberal amount in or do I pack it full of grease?

 

Does anyone in Canada know if the bearings at Princess Auto would work? Canadian tire doesn't have any tapered bearings. Good place to source locally or should I just order online? The posts I've seen say that the replacement is 30205 Taper or Timken L44643.

 

For anyone that hasn't repacked their trailer bearings in a while...I'd suggest checking them.

[djh3]

My general rule of thumb for wheel bearings is tighten until you get some drag on the wheel. You dont want the wheel to wobble inside to outside, but you dont want to have to use 2 hands to turn it either.So I spin the wheel while tightening it, when it get to where I like the drag feel I usually back it up on notch maybe 2 on the castle nut. Some nuts have bigger spaces in them so cant give a definate 1 or 2. (rereading your statement it sounds like your OK)

AS for the grease zerk. I generally pump grease until I see it starting to come out somewhere. But I'm not sure if your talking about the bearing buddies on wheels or like maybe the spring perches and shackles. If its wheel bearing, you are servicing them now and repacking, so I dont think there is a need to put more grease in after you pack bearing. Those are more or less intended for boat trailers or for an occasional shot of grease in between servicing.

[XV1100SE]

I'm not using bearring buddies. There is a zerk fitting on the back of the hub that enters into the void between the bearing (front/back). Do I need to fill this cavety?

[BlueSky]

Tighten the bearing until the bearing is seated and you feel some resistance and then back off until the resistance is gone. No, you don't need to fill the entire cavity.

[djh3]

Hmmm That I dont know. I dont recall having any wheels like that other than like a wheel barrow or yard trailer. OK looked up a you tube video. To me it looks like if you have taken the front and rear bearing and wheel seals out and have repacked the bearings by hand your good to go. The zerk is so you can give it a shot or 2 of grease next year without disassembling the bearing and inner seals. So my answer to your question is NO, if you have removed and repacked the inner bearing. Make sense?

[XV1100SE]

The way I see it... the "void" spins so with some grease in it centrifical force might spread it out to the bearings...but one or two shots of grease wouldn't be enough.

 

I'll post a couple pictures of what I am talking about tomorrow.

 

Thanks for your input.

[djh3]

Check out the video. I think its the same kind of wheel. If your bearing is hand packed that should be plenty of grease. The way the fellow in the video talks the grease fitting somehow puts the grease in the area of the inside bearing. I dont think I would rely on that for greasing a "dry" bearing but if it is already greased and it is only for a refresh then maybe. Oh sorry by the way skip to about 5:18 in the video to get to where he is talking about the fitting.

[saddlebum]

You should be able to get the bearings from Canadian tire. Check the trailer section or the boating section. Or the local automtive stores.

 

 

When you install them pack the roller bearings by hand with high quality wheel bearing grease before installing them. Install the hub on the axle. Tighten the bearing nut to 50 ft pounds while turning the wheel. Loosen them one full turn. Torque them to 10 foot lbs while turning the wheel then back off 1/4 turn. You should have .001" to .007" end play as measured with a dial indicator. Basically if you do not have a dial indicator grab the wheel and try to move it in and out. You should feel no more than a hairs worth of movement and the wheel should turn freely.

 

Do not over pack the center of the hub with grease. Grease expands when it gets warm and the pressure can pop your seals.

Edited June 8, 2014 by saddlebum

[KeithR]

Keep in mind the 30205 has a 25mm bore and the L44643 has a 1" bore.....the most common (8" wheel) trailer bearing use to be the L44643 but I'm willing to bet the HF trailer has metric bearings. If you buy them other than a kit the 30205 will most likely come with the outer race but the L44643 has a couple of options size wise and are not usually included.

 

Don't buy a cheap bearing....get a Timken or NTN...something with a name on it.

 

 

Keith

Edited June 8, 2014 by KeithR

[saddlebum]

One odd thing about bearing part numbers, the part number is pretty much standard among most bearing mfr's. Be it Timken, NTN, Koyo, BCA or SKF.. and most automtive stores and some industrial stores can get them for you.

Drive out the cups and get the numbers off of them as well.

Edited June 8, 2014 by saddlebum

[Marcarl]

If you install bearing buddies then you end up filling the whole cavity with grease. This grease is under the slight pressure created by the spring that is compressed when you pump in the grease. Greasing does 2 things for you,,, it lubricates the parts and it drives out the water and dirt. That's why when you grease equipment you pump until the grease comes out, and it's best done at the end of the day, rather then the start. With bearing buddies the grease will constantly come out of the inside seal and so keep things clean, dry and lubricated. If you don't use BB and you loose the effectiveness of a seal, you'll end up with what you have.

JMHO

[XV1100SE]

Pics of what the hub looks like...

[Marcarl]

Looks like you might have got some moisture in that there hub,,,, that happens when the seal goes bad and there's not enough grease to keep the moisture out.

Just a plug for bearing buddies,,,, I love them.

[XV1100SE]

The rear bearing and seal did have what appeared to be caked on dirt. The bearing is a tan colour so I think the rear seal may have been loose enough to let dust/dirt in and with lack of grease....well you know the rest.

I'm going to replace both bearings on that side, but still questioning how much grease to put in the "void". From the pics you can see where the zerk is and where the opening inside the hub is.

[Marcarl]

The rear bearing and seal did have what appeared to be caked on dirt. The bearing is a tan colour so I think the rear seal may have been loose enough to let dust/dirt in and with lack of grease....well you know the rest.

I'm going to replace both bearings on that side, but still questioning how much grease to put in the "void". From the pics you can see where the zerk is and where the opening inside the hub is.

Couple of choices:

One is to grease the bearing with good wheel bearing grease such as Moly 60, or Lucas Extreme. You then don't have to worry about the cavity, as long as the seals remain intact. As mentioned earlier, if you fill the cavity with grease, it will get hot, expand and blow the seals. That might take some time, but you'll need to check them on a regular basis.

Second: Go with,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,bearing buddies. You fill the cavity with grease, and no moisture gets a chance to play havoc with your rollers.

[XV1100SE]

Bearing buddies go where the dust cap would go but would that just cover the outer bearings ?

Does grease from a bearing buddy get to the inside bearings?

[djh3]

Probably. The bearing buddies do almost the same thing as the zerk you have on the rear. Difference is it fills from the front. SO you pump grease in at bearing cap and it should pump grease all the way to the rear. But you still have grease forcing your seal out in the rear. If you pump more grease in it has to go somewhere, and sooner or later it goes out the seal. I would just hand pack them good and check them next winter or before the riding season starts again. Unless you put 40k on them this year chances are you wont have to pack them again next year, but it wouldn't hurt if you want to. Also wouldn't have a half tube of grease in the hub to get rid of either.

[saddlebum]

I have only ever hand packed wheel bearings be it a trailer, car or truck and never had a bearing failure, even on boat trailers that go in the water. I always use a grease designed for high speed, extreme temperatures and resists water wash out. Bearings should be checked and repacked at least once every other year. Boat trailers more often.

 

Personally I am not a big fan of bearing buddies. They are fine for someone who knows what they are doing but all too often people don't and they tend to pump in too much grease and destroy the seal. As wheel hub temperatures increase, grease begins to flow. If the seal is damaged or even popped out all that grease escapes and eventually bearing failure results. A properly packed bearing and hub assembly with a properly installed seal should not require any thing additional.

 

The only time I pack the hub full of grease is when it is on equipment which works in extreme conditions such as deep mud. In those situations the seal is installed backwards more so to keep the mud and water out than to keep the grease in and the Zerk fitting is used to constantly replenish grease that is lost through the reversed seal. Equipment such as this does not normally operate at a high speed.

 

One last IMPORTANT thing a bearing that is discolored anywhere from a straw color to blue has overheated and is toast. Replace it. ....DO NOT under any circumstance buy into the theory that if you can polish away the discoloration the bearing is still usable. This is a common statement made by mechanics who understand nothing about metallurgy. Discoloration of metal due to heat only ever takes place on the surface no matter how hot the metal has gotten, but the metal itself is affected right through the metal. The bearing has been overheated by either improper lubrication or installed too tight. As a wheel hub warms up bearings tighten up even more. If they are to tight to start with, they begin to overheat. I have seen tires on wheels catch fire because some one installed bearings too tight and this on truck wheels which do not even spin as fast as a little trailer wheel. I have seen them get so hot that spindles have snapped off hence the lost truck wheels you often read about in the paper. This is why as I stated earlier you need to have a .001" - .007" free play known as bearing lash or end play in the bearing.

Edited June 9, 2014 by saddlebum

[XV1100SE]

Great info !

Thanks !

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Saddlebum is giving you some really good info....I would heed his advise.

 

To repeat two of the points he and others have made:

 

• There should NOT be any rotating drag after you have serviced the bearing. It sounds like you had one of them a bit too tight or it self-tightened the castle nut on that one side (probably the right side) The wheel should be able to be spun freely by hand.
  
• You should be able to feel a hairs width of in/out play when service is complete. On a motorcycle trailer, with 100-200 pounds of weight on each wheel, a bit of looseness is way better than being too tight.
  

I dislike bearing buddies mounted permanently on a motorcycle trailer due to the fact that they are UGLY and they stick out too far. On a boat trailer, they are fine.

 

I use the bearing buddies to fill the entire volume in the hub, (this avoids the problem of too much grease pressure, the buddies bleed off the extra) then remove the buddies and replace with the normal, included cap, filled halfway with grease. Grease is cheap. Put PLENTY in there and you wont have a problem. Leaving an open volume of air inside the hub invites moisture condensation (rust!) as the bearing and hub cools every single time! You might have some seepage when the grease warms up. Just wipe it off.

 

Some members here are referring to the bearings getting hot and the grease flowing....they should NEVER be hot. Warm, yes. Hot, NO!

 

If they are good quality bearings, lubricated and torqued properly, they should only be warm to the touch even after riding 500 highway miles in hot summer temps. The Timkens can withstand 7500 or 10,000 RPM under full load...which on a trailer would mean you would have to be going 300-500 miles an hour to overheat them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2014 by tx2sturgis

[Flyinfool]

Saddlebum is giving you some really good info....I would heed his advise.

 

To repeat two of the points he and others have made:

 

• There should NOT be any rotating drag after you have serviced the bearing. It sounds like you had one of them a bit too tight or it self-tightened the castle nut on that one side (probably the right side) The wheel should be able to be spun freely by hand.
  
• You should be able to feel a hairs width of in/out play when service is complete. On a motorcycle trailer, with 100-200 pounds of weight on each wheel, a bit of looseness is way better than being too tight.
  

I dislike bearing buddies mounted permanently on a motorcycle trailer due to the fact that they are UGLY and they stick out too far. On a boat trailer, they are fine.

 

I use the bearing buddies to fill the entire volume in the hub, (this avoids the problem of too much grease pressure, the buddies bleed off the extra) then remove the buddies and replace with the normal, included cap, filled halfway with grease. Grease is cheap. Put PLENTY in there and you wont have a problem. Leaving an open volume of air inside the hub invites moisture condensation (rust!) as the bearing cools every single time! You might have some seepage when the grease warms up. Just wipe it off.

 

Some members here are referring to the bearings getting hot and the grease flowing....they should NEVER be hot. Warm, yes. Hot, NO!

 

If they are good quality bearings, lubricated and torqued properly, they should only be warm to the touch even after riding 500 highway miles in hot summer temps. [\quote]

:sign yeah that:

On my HF trailer with the stock HF bearings I always check them at every gas stop. They are never more than 5° - 10°F above ambient temp.

I did use the Zerk to fill the hub with grease but I made sure to leave some air in there to allow for expansion. After 3 years my seals are still fine.

 

The Timkens can withstand 7500 or 10,000 RPM under full load...which on a trailer would mean you would have to be going 300-500 miles an hour to overheat them!

Good thing he has a 2nd gen so he does not have to worry about the speed limit like the 1st gens do.

[XV1100SE]

...

Good thing he has a 2nd gen so he does not have to worry about the speed limit like the 1st gens do.

 

It isn't the capability of the bike but the bravery of the rider...go too fast and any wife sitting on the back will start poking you !

[saddlebum]

It isn't the capability of the bike but the bravery of the rider...go too fast and any wife sitting on the back will start poking you !

Only poking .....How do you get off so easy?

[thecount]

This sure has been a lecture and training guide, complete with getting a poking in at the end!

 

Roll on!

[dacheedah]

Always learned to tighten to set the bearing into the race, then back off and finger tight plus 1/4 turn. Wheel should spin freely but when grabbing the outside of the tire and pulling side to side you should have no play.