Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Bearing Question

I've got a twelve foot Big Tex dump trailer that I bought new in '07. I've made a couple cross country trips and an untold number of tips to the dump and around town etc. In all this time I've never checked the wheel bearings for looseness or wobble or even if they still have any amount of grease in them.
Nothing is smoking or anything yet but I'm starting to wonder if I should wait for something to fall off or just go ahead and replace them all or just repack to be on the safe side.

I thought this forum would give better advice than any other. Thanks in advance.

Grab the top of the tire and yank it in and out. Should hear/feel little or no “clunkage”.

How I check them anyway. You could always check temp with an IR thermometer gun.

Repack them

At a minimum you should remove them and repack them. Generally that is a once per year job, although you may be able to get away with longer (obviously). If you don’t do it in your driveway, you will be doing it on the side of the road at some point. The only time I ever lost a bearing it was shortly after I paid a shop to do the job because I was lazy and pressed for time. It is time and money well spent to do it as preventative maintenance. YouTube has info if you have never done it. Do not set them too tight, there should be some play. If you have a castle nut and have a choice between slightly too tight and slightly too loose, choose too loose. If you lose a bearing you will be lucky if you don’t also ruin the spindle on the axle, which would usually necessitate replacing the entire axle.

The trailer most likely came with Chinese made bearings...I would probably replace them with American made bearings.

THIS !!!!!!

I have an old beater of a horse trailer that I use to haul llamas. 5 or 6 years ago I needed to replace the brakes and found that they were an obsolete type and parts weren't made any more. That meant all new brakes. I decided to get new trailer axles with brakes. 3500lb axles are enough for my use and they really aren't as expensive as you might think. Of course they'll come with new bearings which solves the issue of this thread. The trailer was a bit low for bad roads so instead of the 4" dropped axles, I went with straight ones to raise the trailer. Those are cheaper anyway. When I dropped the old ones, under one of the U-bolts I found a crack in the axle going about 1/3 of way around it. A trip up a rocky road could have left me in a real mess.

About setting the bearings: I was taught to tighten them snugly then back off about 1/8 to 1/4 turn, depending on where the key hole lines up with the castle nut.

All good advice that I can take. Looks like I got a weekend job coming up. I hope I can find timkin bearings.

I apologize in advance if this post is too basic and/or covers material that you already know. I just wanted to throw it it there since you mentioned replacing all the bearings.

As long as the bearings and races are in good shape, you don’t have to replace them. I pulled some bearings from a small and infrequently used trailer that were toast, and have pulled some bearings after a decade of service and maintenance that were just fine.

I have a two axle travel trailer that sees a fair number of high speed highway miles, plus some dirt road and a lot of sitting in the off season. This past year (year 10 on the bearings) one of the Chinese bearings had a small ridge in the race, which I took as a sign to replace all four corners.

Replacing bearings is a bigger job than simply cleaning and repacking them. You have to drive the old races out with something like a long punch and install new ones. If you don’t have a tool to do that, a jumbo socket kit can work as bearing race driver. Just make sure not to nick the races. On the side of the road you are probably using the old race to drive in the new one, but it can be easy to get it stuck in there.

After you pull a hub and decide if you are going to the bearing store (look for truck and trailer parts stores) get a grease seal puller. I also get a spare hub and set of bearings, and several extra grease seals. When you repack it is best to replace the grease seals and having extras on hand will keep you from having to go to the parts store next time you do the job.

The extra hub and bearing set usually isn’t that expensive and it makes changing things out on the side of the road much easier. If you notice a hub running hot, it’s a lot easier to fix that problem with a spare hub with pre installed bearing races. I’ll pack the spear bearings and put them in the tub of grease I carry with the trailer stuff. This tip *would* have turned a 250 mile round trip and day job into a 30 minute pit stop when I lost the aforementioned bearing.

Last tip (which I never manage to follow). Don’t do the job on a 100 degree day. Good luck!

On many trailers, the hub and brake drum are the same piece. After installing it, you have to adjust the brakes, too.

Good point. Repack time is also a good chance to inspect and adjust the brakes all the way around.

Some good advice above. I would just add that I always take a quick test drive after repacking and seating the bearings. Check the temp, either by hand (be careful!) or other means. A bearing that is too tight can get very hot in a short distance. And when you're on the fence about which position to put the cotter pin though the castle nut, it's an easy test.

It’s good practice to touch all the wheels for temp at every stop. You can catch small problems before they become big ones.

I carry an infrared thermometer and shoot the hubs at every stop.

At this age and if you haven't greased em at all I would replace with a high quality bearing.

A lot easier than having a bearing seize on an axle, been there done that. Have also seen tires come off because of bearing failures.

Some of the heavy trailers I have been around have zerks just like a boat trailer. A squirt before each trip never hurts.

May just do brakes too. You're already in there, no need to make it harder than it is.

The zerks are just a cap with a zerk that replaces the solid cap. You just have to measure the axle end diameter to get the right one.

Two types have zerks. Bearing buddies don’t do much other than keep some grease on the outer side of the bearing. In contrast Dexter ez lube axles actually ‘repack’ the inner and outer bearing. They are nice and work well.

Dexters are nice if you want to replace the entire axles.

It was mentioned that you might use the old race to drive in the new one. I use the old bearing to drive in the new race. Get the race started straight, then place the old bearing in the race. Use a socket that will set on the inner race of the bearing and hammer it home.

Also use a brass rod to drive the race home by hitting on the outside edge of the race. Brass is soft and wont nick the edge of the race. Gotta be careful and keep it straight.

Which ever one is easier.

Man I never expected so much good advice on bearings. Sounds like some of you have truly been there and done that. Thirty or so years ago, I spent some of my time changing bearings on front tractors (cow [bleep] is hard on everything) so I guess I just needed a refresher course,.Thanks to all.

like U-joints replacement caps might cost a dollar more, but are worth the money.

To each their own, but I wouldn't go replacing bearings that don't need it. Definitely clean them in solvent and repack them along with new seals, but replacing them just to throw parts at something isn't needed.