1989 Avion 34XB project

[Overdrive]

Thanks for the update and welcome back. Sounds like you're making some good progress. Regarding the bearing buddies, someone once recommended not using them on a trailer with brakes. It's been awhile, but I believe their concern may have been that grease could potentially get on the brakes when pumping it. Is that a possibility? Their other justification was that a once a year or two repacking of the bearings was a good opportunity to inspect the brakes.

I had them on all my other trailers with brakes both boat and horse trailers. What I found out is that a little goes a long way. Most people tend to go nuts pumping grease in there. You just need to pump it til the bearing buddies pop back out. Most tend to keep pumping additional grease. It usually squirts out the rear hub seal when you go nuts with grease.
I usually hand pack and then squirt a few pumps before a long trip is all you need. I don’t like mixing grease brands.
Bearing buddies aren’t a substitute for packing bearings. I usually go through and repack every 10k. I run a hub mile meter on one hub and I replace the hub rear seals. I usually buy enough to last a while. Seals are cheap. I usually carry a spare hub with bearings.

[KYAvion]

What if your not pulling your trailer those distances, then how long would you wait to repack?

[Overdrive]

What if your not pulling your trailer those distances, then how long would you wait to repack?

Initially I usually clean and repack (or replace bearings AND race if the bearing seems overly loose or I see flat, drag marks , blued areas or shiny wear spots) bearings and adjust then I check after a test drive. Then it’s just inspect and adjust as needed. The drum is basically the hub but it’s good to check the brakes anyway. I usually do a bunch of stuff twice a year on my trailers. At the minimum I would at least inspect yearly if I didn’t drive the trailer a lot. I usually carry a extra set of bearings races and a bunch of double lip rear seals. Pretty cheap really and it’s nice to have stuff on hand rather than hunt around.

I’m gonna have some back up lights in my bumper project tomorrow to show and tell