My Bearing Buddies are not holding grease!

[haknslash]

I've noticed this year while doing my prechecks that my hubs keep showing they need grease. So this morning I cleaned them before leaving for the lake, added grease and away we went. I get home from the lake to check on the hubs and sure enough a lot of grease has squeezed out past the piston. It's doing it on both hubs!

Anyone else had this issue? Is this something that would fall under my YES warranty or do I just need to buy new bearing buddies? Seems strange both are doing this from 2016 when I bought the boat. You can see some of it is gray from I'm guessing water contamination. Never removed hubs before so not sure what all is involved.

Passenger side...



Driver side....

 

[haknslash]

I posted this on the FB group and got some good responses. I think I've been overfilling them. I'm going to remove them, inspect the bearings and may do a total rebuild on them if they show signs of excessive wear or rust. One of the members posted a great video. Seems simple enough to tackle.

 

[Gym]

Hopefully your rear seal is not leaking

 

[haknslash]

I've checked to see if any grease is on the back of the wheels or hub and looks fine on both sides.

 

[Chip F.]

That's a great tip about buying the whole assembly. Put the new one on then rebuild the one you pulled for a spare.

 

[Augieol65]

I posted this on the FB group and got some good responses. I think I've been overfilling them. I'm going to remove them, inspect the bearings and may do a total rebuild on them if they show signs of excessive wear or rust. One of the members posted a great video. Seems simple enough to tackle.

Thanks for posting this my bearing buddies look identical to yours. I must just be over filling them because I would pump them up till the spring was completely compressed.

 

[haknslash]

Thanks for posting this my bearing buddies look identical to yours. I must just be over filling them because I would pump them up till the spring was completely compressed.

Yea I was filling them based off some old bearing buddy video I saw on YouTube where I could have sworn it said to keep pumping until the spring doesn't compress or wiggle from side to side if you push on the piston/diaphragm. Guess it's wrong and too much. Someone on the FB group also said these are knockoff Bearing Buddies and he had the same issue. He replaced them with genuine Bearing Buddies and hasn't had the issue since. I don't know if they're real or not. Wouldn't surprise me if they were knockoffs to save a few bucks at Shorelandr.

 

[Augieol65]

Yea I was filling them based off some old bearing buddy video I saw on YouTube where I could have sworn it said to keep pumping until the spring doesn't compress or wiggle from side to side if you push on the piston/diaphragm. Guess it's wrong and too much. Someone on the FB group also said these are knockoff Bearing Buddies and he had the same issue. He replaced them with genuine Bearing Buddies and hasn't had the issue since. I don't know if they're real or not. Wouldn't surprise me if they were knockoffs to save a few bucks at Shorelandr.

Oh good point I bet your right they just say “stainless” on them not name brand for sure. Probably will upgrade mine then just to insure water isn’t sitting in there.

 

[RedBarron55]

When I fill mine at a certain point there is a small hole that bleeds grease and at that point I quit pumping.
One thing to note the bearing buddies ant all of the systems that completely fill a bearing cavity will increase the heat in the hub and grease.
Bearings really should not have the bearing filled with grease for best lubrication because the grease cannot really rotate with the bearing, but must be mostly pushed out of the race with a small amount left to di the lubrication.
Bearing housings packed full of grease will get hot and the grease will expand and blow out the seals and in the extreme case get hot enough to cook the grease to where it will not lubricate and the grease will cake and not lube and then it is bye bye bearings!
If the bearing buddy (or knock off) does not have the relief port or it is blocked then you might have a problem.
I always check the hub temps when I have towed a little ways and for example with EZ Lube they run hotter until the excess grease has been pushed out.
With the bearing buddy type with the spring if it is jammed out to where the spring is completely compressed there is no room for the hot grease to go!
This is why the real thing has those little grease relief ports.

https://www.bearingbuddy.com/how-bb-works

 

[haknslash]

Thanks for that link @RedBarron55

It seems the old video I watched was completely wrong. I want to say it was an etrailers video. After reading your link it says right there I've been doing it wrong and have been overfilling.

"located in the center of the piston. Lubricant level (and pressure) can be checked quickly by pressing on the edge of the moveable piston. If you can rock or move the piston, the hub is properly filled."

So all this time when I check them to see if they move I've added more because I thought I was loosing grease lol. I wonder now if mine have simply just squeezed out what it didn't need and what I'm seeing isn't water that has leaked past the piston but rather water that has just mixed with the squeezed out grease since the dust cap doesn't really seal the hub when entering water. Can you take a pic of your relief port? I will have to clean mine real good now in order to even find it, if mine even have one. If they do have he port should I just clean them really good and see how it goes? Thoughts?

 

[GoVols01]

I check my hubs when towing by feeling how hot they are near the lug nuts. Mine have been hot to the touch at times, but never so hot they'll burn me. Is it normal for that area to get hot to the touch?

 

[Cambo]

The bearing buddies really work my 2005 trailer had to be rebuilt from salt water use. New axles leaf springs breaks tires bunks and tongue. the only original parts are the lights and frame. I never re packed the bearings just added grease the bearings and grease were still in good condition when we inspected them. This was a few trips from Long Island to Vermont and mostly local rides to boat ramps from 10-50 minutes away

 

[Matt Phillips]

Looking at your pics, it looks like you've filled them too full. The guys at the trailer shop I use said that you "want to fill them enough so the spring starts to collapse toward you, but not all the way. You should be able to wiggle the center portion of the hub when there's grease in it. If you can't wiggle the hub center, you likely need to add some grease."

As standard maintenance on my trailer, I have the bearings repacked every two years and also have the brakes bled. Since my average towing day is about 200 miles, this is a good interval for me to get that maintenance done. On the old MFI trailer, there were some shackles on the leaf springs that also needed to be replaced.

Oh yeah...on my Shorlandr, there is also a grease zirk up between the wheels...don't forget to hit that one occasionally. If you haven't seen it or can't find it, take a peek the next time the boat is off the trailer...it's easier to see from that side.

 

[RedBarron55]

The hubs will pick up heat from the brakes, but the hubs on unbraked wheels might be warm, but not hot.
Usually the hubs are cooler that the tires, but warm.
If there is too much grease the hubs will run hotter than they should.
The Bearing Buddies should not compress the springs too much because the grease has to expand as it warms up and the grease that you might think is what you need within the bearing really cannot stay there and churn around with the rollers.
If the grease is packed 100%and cannot be pushed out by the rolling elements it will churn, get hot and drive the suspended oil out of the clay and soap that suspends it and the bearing will not be lubricated and fail.
The bearing buddy literature states that the grease plunger and all is there only to provide ~3 psi more pressure within the bearing than outside so that what is outside will stay outside.
That includes water.
As to the belief that hot grease in the hubs is suddenly cooled in the water and sucks water into the hub is not correct because if the hub is that hot you already have a problem.
The spring loading takes care of any expansion or contraction that might occur, but that should be very little.

 

[haknslash]

An update to this thread. Today I went to the lake and inspected the hubs after driving an hour down the interstate and country back roads to the ramp. Both hubs looked fine and did not shoot out any grease so I think it's say to say I was just overfilling them.

 

[Daron]

So I just spent a couple of hours researching bearing buddies and how to service them properly. My boat is brand new but I have learned from this forum that THAT means nothing, fresh from the factory doesn’t mean SQUAT!!! Yamaha shipped my boat out from the factory with NO ANODES for the pump housings, for starters. So I checked my buddy bearings today and I think they were underserviced. My BB’s don’t have the “weep hole” for excess grease to come out of. According to all the research I did the flat plate behind the spring should be able to tilt and rotate, but not pushed all the way out to the outside wall of the BB. My BB’s were all the way flat inboard against the bearing, with no ability to “rock” the plate around. So I hooked up my grease gun with Lucas Marine Grade Grease and pumped away. I was shocked to see that it took quite a bit of pumps to get the washer plate to actually start moving outward. All four were like that, so I serviced them all to where they can rock/tilt a bit and then stopped before the plate pushed all the way outboard (fully compressed spring). Between Shoreland’r and Yamaha QC departments that should be a major area to check. I’ll check them after my next trip to see if any excess purged out like yours, but I’m pretty confident I didn’t overservice them. Time will tell now.

 

[Matt Phillips]

That's not totally surprising that they needed grease. They are pre-lubed at the factory and after sitting around, it's not uncommon for them to need some. You drive them around another 20-50 miles and they will need some more grease. so long as you have some give in them, they are good. As the guy at my local trailer shop said, "the best time check them is at the lake before you dunk the trailer. That way the grease is warm and you can make sure there's enough pressure to keep seepage out."

 

[jeff_s]

I have my boat on my trailer and the trailer lifted off the ground sitting on dunnage. After reading this thread, I decided to check my wheels on my 2017 Shorelander (21' AR210). Sure enough the back tires on each side dont spin as freely as the front two and the bearings don't sound too hot. Grease level seemed fine, but I'm going to replace the rear hub assemblies.

Any ideas on how to properly identify the correct hub assembly to buy?

 

[Daron]

I have my boat on my trailer and the trailer lifted off the ground sitting on dunnage. After reading this thread, I decided to check my wheels on my 2017 Shorelander (21' AR210). Sure enough the back tires on each side dont spin as freely as the front two and the bearings don't sound too hot. Grease level seemed fine, but I'm going to replace the rear hub assemblies.

Any ideas on how to properly identify the correct hub assembly to buy?

First of all are you sure the brakes are fully released, might not be a bearing problem, just the brakes grabbing. If you’re sure it’s the bearings then maybe check the manual that came with the trailer, or call Shoreland’r or etrailer.com and they could walk you through the parts/process. etrailer usually has good prices.

 

[MidnightRider]

Yea I was filling them based off some old bearing buddy video I saw on YouTube where I could have sworn it said to keep pumping until the spring doesn't compress or wiggle from side to side if you push on the piston/diaphragm. Guess it's wrong and too much. Someone on the FB group also said these are knockoff Bearing Buddies and he had the same issue. He replaced them with genuine Bearing Buddies and hasn't had the issue since. I don't know if they're real or not. Wouldn't surprise me if they were knockoffs to save a few bucks at Shorelandr.

Yeah shorelandr trailer doesn't come with Bearing Buddies, I'm not sure who makes their bearing "protectors" but Shorelandr sells them on their parts list and they are not Bearing Buddies. My experience though is they work just fine if they are filled correctly. At least this is my experience with my shorelandr trailer.