Packing Trailer Bearings

I prefer to do it by hand then wipe my hands. Finish unscrewing the nuts on 1 wheel with the lug wrench remove them and slide the wheel off the hub.

How To Re Pack Your Boat Trailer Wheel Bearings

Jack the trailer up enough so that the tire you are working on can spin freely and place jack stand to support the trailer.

Packing trailer bearings. This means repacking trailer wheel bearings. Repack the wheel bearings with grease by hand or with a bearing packer tool. Thats what someone means when they tell you that you need to pack your bearing.

Demonstration on Packing Trailer Bearings. You do know that there is a bearing packing tool where the bearing is clamped between two cups and grease is pumped into a zerk on one cup. Repacking the wheel bearings is an important annual maintenance task for a fifth wheel trailer especially one that is lived in full-time like ours.

I have always just packed the bearing fingered a little on the races and reassembled. Where I work we pack bearings in our parts 100 full in -40 environments to displace water so it cannot freeze in the bearing cavity causing high torque. I think the only risk you run by packing them full is the seals blowing out from thermal expansion.

The safest method for knowing when to repack your bearings is do it every year or every 10000 miles whichever comes first. To ensure that your trailer performs reliably you should inspect the bearings races and seals and repack the bearings every 12 months or 12000 miles. This is also a good time to inspect the bearings and brakes.

Place wheel chocks on the side you are not working. After jacking up the trailer. Joe spells it out for you step by step making it all very easy.

With a slight coating on the axle shaft. If you have any sort of trailer whether its a large car hauler a boat trailer or a small 48 the wheel bearings should periodically be greased. The trailers hub assemblies come apart to do this.

Jack the trailer up just enough to lift the wheels off the ground. The term packing your bearing means that all of the gaps you see between the needles have to be stuffed full of grease or packed full of grease. This is because moving the bearings out and into the hub can be tightTo replace the entire bearing and hub as a whole would be less labour intensive however it would cost more to get parts.

Otherwise packing bearing cavities full of grease is a common practice to displace water. Fortunately unlike a car trailer hubs come apart extremely easily and this job isnt too bad. Take 1 wheel off the trailer to access the hub assembly.

You will need to use a lifting jack such as a bottle jack to get the trailer up off. Do not put off checking and repacking your bearings as it will save you a lot of trouble down the road. Packing trailer bearings best wheel bearings NSK 54KWH02 uses axially asymmetric races An axial load passes in a straight line through the bearing whereas a radial load takes an oblique path that tends to want to separate the races axially.

The Bearing Buddies are not meant to replace the process of cleaning or replacing and repacking your bearings. It may be messy but is well worth it time well spent. Loosen the nuts on all wheels with a lug wrench while the trailer is on the ground.

Now that we have everything cleaned up and all of the old grease out of the way. That being said packing your trailers wheel bearings can be an arduous task to do if you do not have a press. No parts are more critical for the dependable performance of your trailer than the bearings races and seals.

How to pack bearings. Next replace the hub on the axle followed by the outer bearing the washer and the axle nut. Next repack the races and the inside of the hub with grease.

While there may be people who go longer than this suggested timeframe this is the best way to protect yourself and your trailer. Youll see how the bearing is angular. Replace the inner bearing and carefully tap the new seal into place with a hammer.

Replacing the Bearing Races and Seals on a Trailer Hub. If you just bought a used trailer you should absolutely have a look at those bearings since you really have no idea how the previous owner maintained them. So the angle of contact on the inner race is.

This way the weight of the boat and trailer will prevent the tire from spinning. The first step is to jack up the trailer and remove the wheels. Before jacking up the trailer loosen up lug nuts.

This is an old school packing method. Shop for parts and tools.

Repacking And Inspecting Fifth Wheel Trailer Wheel Bearings Roads Less Traveled