Teach me trailer tires and bearings, please!

See the build thread for the trailer in question.

One of the tires is beyond shot. The other seems worth saving as a spare. Tires are 4.80x12, on a 5-lug hub. I think I can assume it's 5x4.5", because research tells me that's about the only 5-bolt pattern for trailers.

From the looks of it, it really doesn't even pay to just get new tires. New tires on new wheels aren't significantly more than just buying tires and having them mounted.

I found these on Amazon:

Trailer tires and wheels

$72 delivered is about $20 less than I can find them anywhere else on the web. There isn't much information there, but can I safely assume that one Chinese trailer tire is just as good as the next?

On to bearings. I don't have much experience with wheel bearings, save for re-greasing them on the Chevy I had as a kid.

These bearings have something I've learned are called Bearing Buddies, with zerk fittings on them. I can't see any obvious way to disassemble them for inspection. Should I even bother? Any general bearing advice will be appreciated.

thanks,

Evan

Bearing buddies pressurize the inside of the hub to keep water out when the hubs are submerged while launching a boat. They don't do much to keep your bearings lubed properly.

Sure lube hubs are gun drilled and have a grease zerk on the end to inject grease between the inner bearing and its seal. Theoretically you pump in grease and the new forces the old grease out the bearings from the back to the front. They are better, but still not ideal, and probably not what you have.

Trailer tires typically rot or weather check before they wear out, so buy from someone with enough turnover to have fresh ones.

There's also 'oil bath' bearings for heavy duty use. You honestly probably will never need those. On tires yeah you'll age them out before you'll wear them out.

Just use good bearings and grease seals(Timken, SKF, NTN, FAG, etc something American Japanese or German ) and pack them correctly. You want the space inside a bit under half full of grease.

Keep tires inflated to sidewall pressure, its to my understanding trailer tires are pretty hit or miss now no matter who made them. Some people run car or truck tires, you have to underrate them a bit but they work fine and people seem to have good luck with them when they didnt with the trailer tires. Higher speed rating too.

The theorey on bearing buddies is that you inject grease into the center, and it shoves the old grease out through a bleed hole outside the seal. They are messy, and it takes about a tube and a half of grease, because you have to fill the entire cavity between the bearings. On a boat trailer, they are ok, but anything else it seems a waste.

For some reason, trailer bearings last about 1/8th as long as the very same bearings on a car, so if you are unfamiliar with their history, pull them apart, and replace as required.

When I rebuilt my trailer last year I used:

etrailer

Probably 'cause they were the only place I could get everything I wanted exactly w/ no compromises, and w/ free shipping. I recall the weird thing was I had odd-sized Dexter axles and these guys sold the bearings and seals separately.

Good stuff, good prices.

Yeah I bought wheels/tires together off ebay this spring for my "new" trailer. Mine were 15" and were $500-shipped. There are actually two different 5-lug trailer patterns that are fairly common - 5x4.5 and 5x5(IIRC). While x4.5 is more common, it would be worth a minute or two to measure before you order the wrong size.

Just buy the tire already mounted. Check out Northern Tool if you have one near you. Their trailer section is awesome. I want to say I bought a 15" wheel/tire for my tow dolly for about $110 give or take $5. That was about 2 years ago.

My Harbor Feight 12" trailer wheel/tire combo was $65ish total before coupon. Basically the same thing in the Amazon link.

redtrailers.com

Do yourself a favor, and skip HF and buy from Red Trailer. I swapped out the entire hub assembly and now I can use off-the-shelf Timkin bearings from Wal Mart. I have not had a problem since I switched, but if I did, I could easily get up and running without waiting for special parts to arrive from China.

They also sell much better tires and accessories.

Okay, I've learned more. According to the Bearing Buddy website, the whole purpose of a Bearing Buddy is to maintain a positive pressure inside the hub. This prevents water intrusion when the axle is submerged.

If you've just towed, the bearing is hot. If cold water from the lake gets in the hub, bad things will happen.

Bearing Buddies have NOTHING to do with making sure the axles are greased. Since this trailer will never (intentionally) be submerged again, I will be eliminating the Bearing Buddies and replacing with a plain ol' dust cap.

etrailer.com is good for parts and tires. I have also used http://trailerpart.com/ and http://www.easternmarine.com/ as well with good results.

I just picked up 4 new white wagon wheels of the list of Craig for $65. Now I need 4 tires.

While we are on the subject. See the axles on my trailer? This was originally a tri-axle trailer when it was used to carry much larger boats. I was pondering moving the forward axle to where the missing axle was and leaving the rear axle where it is. Other than making it harder to turn, can anybody think of a reason not to do this? My trailer is already very tongue heavy

I would think it would be better to move the rear one to the front.

EvanR wrote: Okay, I've learned more. According to the Bearing Buddy website, the whole purpose of a Bearing Buddy is to maintain a positive pressure inside the hub. This prevents water intrusion when the axle is submerged. If you've just towed, the bearing is hot. If cold water from the lake gets in the hub, bad things will happen. Bearing Buddies have NOTHING to do with making sure the axles are greased. Since this trailer will never (intentionally) be submerged again, I will be eliminating the Bearing Buddies and replacing with a plain ol' dust cap.

If you pull the Bearing Buddies I would probably change the seals too. Bearing Buddies are bad about destroying them. I run them on all my boat trailers and they all have bad seals. The grease slung out the back just rustproofs things so I don't worry about it. I would also check the bearings closely. Water is the death of them. If there are any signs of pitting or water damage, I would replace them.

mad_machine wrote: While we are on the subject. See the axles on my trailer? This was originally a tri-axle trailer when it was used to carry much larger boats. I was pondering moving the forward axle to where the missing axle was and leaving the rear axle where it is. Other than making it harder to turn, can anybody think of a reason not to do this? My trailer is already very tongue heavy

If you are going to tow a lot, I'd just fix it. A couple of jack stands and you can find the proper center for the axles.

If you are just towing around town, to the landing and back, I would just leave it alone. Spreading the axles that much is going to make it scrub the tires badly. The axle with the least amount of weight is going to eat tires.

What does the boat weigh. I know sail boats are pretty heavy due to the keel weight. A 3000 pound boat with a 1000 pound trailer is going to put your tongue weight in the 400-600 pound range.

that is pretty close in weight.. and I am intending on taking the trailer to a friend of mine who's father was/is a master machinest to see about cleaning it up and reinforcing it. My big thing is.. I want to tow this boat to florida and back once a year, so highway stability and ease of traveling on it is primary

Toyman01 wrote: If you pull the Bearing Buddies I would probably change the seals too. Bearing Buddies are bad about destroying them. I run them on all my boat trailers and they all have bad seals. The grease slung out the back just rustproofs things so I don't worry about it. I would also check the bearings closely. Water is the death of them. If there are any signs of pitting or water damage, I would replace them.

Now that I've studied all the pricing, and everything seems dirt cheap, I fully intend to replace everything from the stub axle out. All bearings, seals, races, everything.