Any Trailer experts on here?

[Swampy]

I live in SE Florida and the roads a bit dull so the wife and I trailer to northern FL, Smokies, etc on a regular basis ... sometime we just trailer to Orlando and ride from there. Either way- the trailer probably has 5k miles on it already.

My trailer is a basic uncovered single bike all-metal designed that can handle 1400 lbs. The wheels are 20-inch (outer tire dimention) - not sure what the rims are but as you can imagine these things spin hard when I cruise at 85-90 all day.

The grease fittings are on the inside of the hubs between the axles which is tough to reach so I have thinking of adding bearing buddies (spring loaded grease pushers) to the axel ends.

These things work? Pros/cons? Any other ideas to keep this thing alive?

Thanks!

Swampy

[chinto]

I live in SE Florida and the roads a bit dull so the wife and I trailer to northern FL, Smokies, etc on a regular basis ... sometime we just trailer to Orlando and ride from there. Either way- the trailer probably has 5k miles on it already.

My trailer is a basic uncovered single bike all-metal designed that can handle 1400 lbs. The wheels are 20-inch (outer tire dimention) - not sure what the rims are but as you can imagine these things spin hard when I cruise at 85-90 all day.

The grease fittings are on the inside of the hubs between the axles which is tough to reach so I have thinking of adding bearing buddies (spring loaded grease pushers) to the axel ends.

These things work? Pros/cons? Any other ideas to keep this thing alive?

Thanks!

Swampy

Bearing Buddies work well enough to add grease, but really, you should be repacking the bearings with fresh grease every year. The bearing buddies will only add grease to the existing (possibly contaminated) grease, so although they will help ensure grease is in there, it does nothing to make sure it is clean grease.

[venturesomerite]

Agreed. It's better to have the piece of mind of knowing they are good, plus when you pack them each year you are inadvertantly inspecting them. Just a thought.

[WyredHardware]

[Astro4x4]

Well, I'm not an expert, but do pull my camper a couple thousand miles a year and as the others said, a yearly cleaning, inspection and packing is what you want to do. Bearing Buddies were designed to keep pressure within the hub to prevent the hubs of boat trailers from loading up with water and destroying the bearings. I do know people that have used them on their campers with good results, but even then they repacked every couple of years. I use synthetic bearing grease and will check the hub temperature by touch every couple of fuel stops just to make sure everything is ok. You wouldn't believe how many people I've seen on the side of the road with axles twisted off their trailer because they failed to spent an hour a year to maintain their bearings.
If you have a grease zerk for the hubs, why not just remotely mount it, so you can easily access it with a grease gun.

[Dexter]

I agree with everyone. Disassemble and clean/repack those bearings AT LEAST once per year. I would do it more often if you're putting a lot of loaded miles on it. When you lift the wheels off the ground, give them a spin to see if there is any stiffness or binding. If there is, replace the bearings. They are cheap. A bent/twisted axle and frame isn't. (neither is the bike that's riding on top)

[DumbLuck]

my little fold up 4x8 trailer (1,200 pound cap) is 30 years old now. it's been thru new sides, decking, wheels and tires, paint, and lots and lots of light kits. (i somehow always manage to smuck the left light backing it up, DOH) anywho, the very first thing we ever did to the trailer when brand new was to put on a set of bearing buddies. after thousuands of miles, gross overloading, outdoor storage, and other general abuse, i've never had a bearing problem with it. it still has the original bearings and they're in great shape. every spring they get pumped full of new grease, till only clean grease oozes out of the weep holes. they're pumped full regularly over the course of the summer, and the "rental fee" when someone else uses it is to pump the buddies full. perhaps my experience is the exception to the rule, but i love the things.

[Swampy]

thanks everyone - good stuff

[tnvatdreamland]

these things spin hard when I cruise at 85-90 all day.

I would never pull a trailer this fast with a 1000lbs of motorcycles aboard.(that would be 2, but you said 1) I would think that your asking for trouble if a trailer tire explodes.
Dial it back a little bit there brother!

[Astro4x4]

I would never pull a trailer this fast with a 1000lbs of motorcycles aboard.(that would be 2, but you said 1) I would think that your asking for trouble if a trailer tire explodes.
Dial it back a little bit there brother!

That's why I run radials on the trailer - no exploding tires just shredding bits of rubber.

[thetable]

The bearing buddy deals do not work to lube the inner bearing only the outer bearing. They do a decent enough job of that, but like everyone else has said, pull them apart and lube everything up. I do this every year on my car trailer, and it usually only takes me 2 hours to do both axles, check the brakes and replace bearings if necessary. If you don't take them apart to grease, then you can never see what kind of shape the bearings are in or what kind of shape the brakes are in, but then again from you description, it doesn't sound like you have brakes back there anyway.

As to tires exploding, if you ride you should already be in the habbit of checking tire pressures, go ahead and check them on the trailer. This is the main reason for catastrophic tire failures. Bias vs radial for a trailer is best left for another thread, but both have there advantages. I run only biased on the trailer because they have much stronger sidewalls.