Oil Bath VS. Grease Bearing Buddies...

[Tault145]

Hey All,

Looking for some solid pro/con info on bearing buddies. Blew out trailer bearings this summer, limped home, deployed, and now finally have time to change all 4 before dragging the boat to OH from AZ... So the big question being is it worth the effort to switch to Oil Bath while I have everything torn apart. Thanks in advance for any knowledge imparted!

[Timmy!]

The one real drawback to the oil bath hubs is that the parts are a little harder to get. I've seen parts for bearing buddies at Walmart which would be pretty nice in a pinch. I have the oil bath hubs on my trailer and I haven't noticed any real difference with them.

[Iwndr]

River Runner Wrote up a great How To on the oil baths, I have Oil baths on my present trailer there have been zero issues so far, all of my previous boats and my last 3 campers have had the Grease Bearing buddies installed and I really never had any issues with them either.
Here is RR's Link
http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12469

[Dave S]

From what I have been told - If you spring a leak in an oil bath and oil runs out you are screwed, if you blow a seal in a grease axle, some grease may still stay in there to get you somehwere safe, maybe even all the way home assuming you carry a grease gun and can refill.

I never had oil-bath and contemplated changing as well when servicing my old boat trailer but decided to leave well enough alone and go with what was there.

My new trailer has non-serviceable axles, had it about 2 years and no problems so far. It seems odd to me to never have to grease any axles anymore after doing it for 20 years. Of course, I still can't get used to not "putting the engine" when we load the boat on the trailer.

[talltigeguy]

I have not seen it on this website, maybe because we have so many different trailer manufacturers, but the MC website has lots of complaints about oil bath hubs. MC makes their own trailers and they all have oil bath hubs in certain years.

Of course the OP had his grease bearing fail on him, but generally speaking they fail very very rarely and that seems to be the consensus. Oil bath hubs can have a rock flip up and crack the glass, or even just when putting a hot hub into a cold lake can cause the glass to crack. Or they might fail for no real discoverable reason.

IMHO, having seen these types of threads for years, it seems that most of us are never going to see a failure with either one, but oil bath hubs fail a little more often. And I have not had a failure with either.

[raythompson]

IMHO, having seen these types of threads for years, it seems that most of us are never going to see a failure with either one, but oil bath hubs fail a little more often. And I have not had a failure with either.

I have been the victim of a grease bearing failure. It was full of grease, the bearing just failed. The failure took out both bearings (inner and outer) blew out the grease keeper, destroyed the spindle and the bearing races. Had to replace the entire axle. Single axle trailer and discovered the failure as I was backing into the driveway.

So yeh, they will fail. I don't think it is so much a failure in the grease or oil lubrication system. I think the bearings just fail from wear. In my case the bearings were well maintained and were buddy bearings so there was no water intrusion.

[robert theisen]

It's hard to find a bearing that's NOT made in China.This is a big reason they fail.Steel Quality is not up to par with other countries.

[turbonine]

I am converting from oil bath to grease this off season. I had a caliper hang up this summer and had to contact UFP for a new one. UFP sent me out a new caliper and four bearing buddy covers for free. They said they no longer use oil bath bearings in any of their axles because of the reasons stated above.

If you blow a seal, the oil is out in a matter of seconds and your bearings burn up minutes later. With grease you get a mess but you get a warning.

[chpthril]

Regardless of the way they are lubed, these bearings require regular service. As mileage is accrued, the preload of the castle nut is reduced. This allows the hub to roll with a bit of camber. This buts the bearing in a little bind since they are not running true. This creates friction and abnormal wear and then failure.

[Carter13]

I had bearing buddies on my 06 trailer and have them on my present 05 trailer. I remove the seals, clean all the grease out, inspect the bearings and replace the grease and install new seals every spring.
I have never had a problem and tow 1500 miles annually.

[canuck]

Have the Bearing Buddies on my 22i trailer.

In the middle of July we towed the boat from Vancouver, BC to Lake Powell and back.

In Utah, the air temp was over 110 but the hubs never got hotter than 190 (used a laser temp gun to read the temperature).

[murphini]

I went FROM oil bath to grease. In 2009 I had one oil bath hub fail on my 2007 trailer and was lucky that the wheel didn't fall off. Grease bearings are a hassle, but as someone said, you can get a replacement at WalMart. They are easy to service and know the status. Oil Bearings are good until they fail or have a problem, and then it's really bad.

[ptige]

I also converted my 2007 Extreme trailer from oil to grease at the beginning of this season since I already had a shop looking at a dragging brake caliper. To me the availability of parts and the limp home capability of grease are a big plus. Also, I think the oil bath systems have now evolved into a "hybrid" grease/oil system.

[talltigeguy]

IMHO, having seen these types of threads for years, it seems that most of us are never going to see a failure with either one, but oil bath hubs fail a little more often. And I have not had a failure with either.

I better take that back...my impression must be somewhat incorrect. Seems that more people have had failures than I seem to recall.

[Tault145]

Thanks for all of the input! From what i've seen so far it looks like Im sticking with BB's. I think a partial reason for my failure was using the wrong hitch drop on that particular trip, putting extra weight on the rear wheels of the trailer. Left my normal hitch in the garage on the way to get the boat(45min trip ) and bought a new hitch in a frenzy... So knock on wood I can get the new wheel bearings/BB's thrown on in the next week or two. Might upgrade to flexible brake line too between the dist block on the axle to the brake! Haha if you take one thing apart might as well go the entire way! and hope you don't have too many xtra parts when you put it back together...