Thread: Boat trailer wheel bearing maintenance

Could not agree more. After being stuck on a ramp at Jervis bay with a collapsed bearing on my boat trailer I now religiously change the bearings and seals every year before going away and top up and check the grease in between this.

I have tried many differnet seals and they all leak after some time so the way to go is change them regularly and have no problems

Totally agree with changing the bearings on a regular basis. A mate used to use Durahubs and he is always "at me" to put them on the boat-trailer.

However, after seeing the consequences of the Durahub oil-reservoir falling off I am not brave enough to give them a go.

It just seems simpler, but more labour intensive, to replace the bearings each year.

I'd like to hear what you blokes have to say about the Durahubs though.

When I get my boat over here I will be building an offroad boat trailer. I plan to use landy hubs for the rear axle, and have the axle partially filled with oil - as per oiled landie hubs.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

When I get my boat over here I will be building an offroad boat trailer. I plan to use landy hubs for the rear axle, and have the axle partially filled with oil - as per oiled landie hubs.

Do it once and do it properly. Landy hubs and axle certainly sounds the go.

Originally Posted by Barra1

Do it once and do it properly....

That is the plan!

Originally Posted by isuzurover

When I get my boat over here I will be building an offroad boat trailer. I plan to use landy hubs for the rear axle, and have the axle partially filled with oil - as per oiled landie hubs.

are you using a landie housing?

good idea and cheap if you have a housing laying around, i thought about this option for my trailer but went with 50mm x 50mm solid square axle with a pair of flanges welded on the end to suit defender stubs.....

Originally Posted by weeds

are you using a landie housing?

good idea and cheap if you have a housing laying around, i thought about this option for my trailer but went with 50mm x 50mm solid square axle with a pair of flanges welded on the end to suit defender stubs.....

I will probably use hollow bar, about the same diameter as a landy axle (~80mm). Some states don't allow car axles to be used as trailer axles (strange, but them's the rules...).

Weight for weight (and the same material), hollow bar is stronger than solid (As you need a bigger outer diameter to get the same weight).

Ben,
your ideas are perfect! Hollow sections make great axles.

& when it comes time to set up the semi oiled hubs.

-Grab an old pair of landie drive flanges - dead ones are fine.
-Chuck then up on the lathe and broach the splines out with a boring bar.
-Then buy a pair of NB32 (from memory-may be NB40) pipe caps and weld them over the lip for the plastic/rubber cap.
-You can then drill and tap the pipe cap for a fill hole. Offset it so you can half fill the hub and stub. I fully grease the bearing and then fill the hub with heavy weight oil (LSD 140 - double lip hub seals of course).

So you now have bearings that will last for ever even when immersed

& importantly

If you ever blow a diff or CV on the County. Pull the appropriate drive shaft and swap driven flanges for trailer flanges. The broached out trailer flanges wont drive the broken bits. Heaps quicker and cleaner to swap flanges and get moving again than pull out broken bits when your in the scrub... fix the broken bits at camp around a beer once you have parts available.

But I guess more importantly Murphy would say that by carrying a set of broached drive flanges will mean you will never need them Its worked for me for 8 years or so!!!!

Steve