Bearing Failures & Hub Savers

AZ_JOE

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Phoenix, AZ
How common are well-maintained wheel bearing failures? I thought I would ask before spending $80 on four Hub Savers. IMHO, $80 for essentially washers seems high. Along this line, are there Hub Saver competitors?
 
You are going to get a lot of different opinions on this. I personally doubt there are many failures on well maintained bearings and frequent inspections of brakes.

I don't use bearings made in China, but I think if the fact were known, they are not near as much of an issue as bearings that are neglected.
 
I agree with Dryfly: properly maintained bearings will treat you well, barring failures that cannot be foreseen. IMO, the bearings/brakes should be checked out as soon as you bring the trailer home, regardless of whether it's new or used. And then every so often, I'm not a yearly bearing greaser. That way you start fresh, and have base line to work from. And I would also forego using the zerks, they simply aren't necessary and can cause a person to get sloppy with the maintenance.
 
How common are well-maintained wheel bearing failures? I thought I would ask before spending $80 on four Hub Savers. IMHO, $80 for essentially washers seems high. Along this line, are there Hub Saver competitors?
Well maintained bearings will rarely if ever fail. I would bet money that most bearing failures occur shortly after a bearing repack....and not the fault of the bearings

I wouldn't waste my money on those hub savers.
 
Agree. And the main issue is not setting the preload correctly. I hate that term. Proper bearing adjustment results in ENDPLAY, not preload. The bearings need to operarate at zero clearance when hot... If they have zero cold, then they will be too tight hot and will not survive long.
If they have the proper CLEARANCE cold, they will be at zero hot due to expansion.
 
agree, nothing replaces using the correct procedures and using quality grease when doing bearing maintenance. I do the yearly inspection and bearing repacking just because I want to inspect the brakes yearly. I've had more problems with the drum brakes than with the bearings.
The way I look at it, since you got the brake drum off anyway to check the brakes, might as well clean and repack the bearings when putting the drum back on. And when it comes to repacking the bearings I don't trust anyone but me doing the work.
 
I pack my bearings every other year. Been doing it this way on 4 trailers since '96. All are all China ones. I carry spares but have never had a failure.
There is no replacement for good maintenance.
But, then again, I have a friend that never repacked the bearings on his Lance trailer for years with no failure.
Helped him repack them last year before his trip to Alaska.
 
In addition to the 5th wheel, I own a trailered boat, a cattle trailer, a tandem axle utility trailer, and a single axle utility trailer. I owned more in the past, but I’ve cut back!

Every trailer gets a quick visual inspection several times a year for grease where it isn’t supposed to be. I generally pick a time when I’m already filthy from something, then crawl underneath them all to have a look.

They also get regularly jacked up so I can shake and spin the wheels to see if the bearings are just right.

I’m always amazed when stopping at rest stops and gas stations how many trailers I see with grease streaks across the rim. These trailers are clearly neglected and are just waiting for a breakdown.

I’m not sure on the hub saver. Maintenance and inspection should eliminate catastrophic failures. But stuff happens, and a little backup plan never hurts. I’m not sure how long an aluminum wheel is going to last spinning on a steel disc.

I’ll keep an open mind waiting on a YouTube video showing it in action.
 
I pack my bearings every other year. Been doing it this way on 4 trailers since '96. All are all China ones. I carry spares but have never had a failure.
There is no replacement for good maintenance.
But, then again, I have a friend that never repacked the bearings on his Lance trailer for years with no failure.
Helped him repack them last year before his trip to Alaska.
Alaska! Wow! For some one like me living in Phoenix, AZ Alaska would be quite the trip.
 
Alaska! Wow! For some one like me living in Phoenix, AZ Alaska would be quite the trip.
When we drove down to the Phoenix area for the winter of '23, we met a few people from Alaska escaping their winter.
One thing that stuck with me after talking with them is they all said the roads to and from Alaska are fine now but people still think that you need to be prepared for the lunar surface of the moon.
 
Proper bearing adjustment results in ENDPLAY, not preload.
Working in the automotive field as long as I have, there are so many 'mechanics' that just do not get how these bearings work.

100%, if it is a wheel hub, it probably has freeplay. That is because as the hub heats up, the clearances get tighter. When it gets tighter, there is more heat. With that heat, the bearings get tighter, until they fail.

When it comes to transmissions/differentials, as the case heats up, the clearances get looser, which is why they tend to have preload. That is my understanding on how things work.

I think the ideal set up is when the item is at operating temperature, the preload/freeplay would be darn near 0.

I have seen so many tapered wheel bearings fail because mechanics feel they need to have preload.
 
Working in the automotive field as long as I have, there are so many 'mechanics' that just do not get how these bearings work.

100%, if it is a wheel hub, it probably has freeplay. That is because as the hub heats up, the clearances get tighter. When it gets tighter, there is more heat. With that heat, the bearings get tighter, until they fail.

When it comes to transmissions/differentials, as the case heats up, the clearances get looser, which is why they tend to have preload. That is my understanding on how things work.

I think the ideal set up is when the item is at operating temperature, the preload/freeplay would be darn near 0.

I have seen so many tapered wheel bearings fail because mechanics feel they need to have preload.
Preload - does this mean the tighten the bearings too much? Or does it mean the tighten the bearings and then back off just a bit for proper adjustment/lack of freeplay?

Thanks. Just trying to understand all this.
 
Preload actually means just what it sounds like, which is what throws people: you "load" the bearing a precise amount. We did it by adjusting the bearing tightness, and used a torque wrench setting to determine when the bearing had sufficient preload, by it's resistance to turning. Or we adjusted the torque of the tightening nut from first contact.

But wheel bearings cannot have preload, they must have freeplay so the clearance doesn't decrease too much as they run. Yes, you tighten the retaining nut to the recommended setting and then back it off the recommended amount. Generally it's simply done by feel, not the best method when done by inexperienced individuals. :)
 
It's an art. Always tightened to snug to insure freshly packed bearing grease is pushed out of the rollers to insure there isn't too much freeplay then back off castle nut 1/4 turn. Never had one fail.
 
Thanks. So no change in the way I've been doing it. Tighten (not tight) then backoff a bit. It is a bit of an an art I suppose.
 
I suspect you can have a wheel bearing that is slightly loose and have it last darn near forever, vs having a wheel bearing slightly tight and have is last just a few miles.

Within reason, how much you tighten is does not matter, it's the loosening afterwords that matters. If you don't, my experience is, the bearing will not last long.

The other thing about bearing buddies is that with a properly serviced/sealed bearing, I suspect it will last as long as one in a car. I've seen front wheel bearings go well over 200k miles and not ever need to be touched. I've also seen them go less than 30k miles because some jack wagon believes that preload is a good thing. Why use a bearing buddy if you never submerge the trailer in water [like a boat]?
 
Working in the automotive field as long as I have, there are so many 'mechanics' that just do not get how these bearings work.

100%, if it is a wheel hub, it probably has freeplay. That is because as the hub heats up, the clearances get tighter. When it gets tighter, there is more heat. With that heat, the bearings get tighter, until they fail.

When it comes to transmissions/differentials, as the case heats up, the clearances get looser, which is why they tend to have preload. That is my understanding on how things work.

I think the ideal set up is when the item is at operating temperature, the preload/freeplay would be darn near 0.

I have seen so many tapered wheel bearings fail because mechanics feel they need to have preload.
A differential also changes the direction of torque. This puts a lot force into the pinion and ring gear trying to pry them apart.The case can actually stretch a little. Those bearings need a little preload.
 
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I agree with Dryfly: properly maintained bearings will treat you well, barring failures that cannot be foreseen. IMO, the bearings/brakes should be checked out as soon as you bring the trailer home, regardless of whether it's new or used. And then every so often, I'm not a yearly bearing greaser. That way you start fresh, and have base line to work from. And I would also forego using the zerks, they simply aren't necessary and can cause a person to getreer sloppy with the maintenance.
I have to disagree. On a recent trip to the midwest from the east coast we had a wheel bearing failure. The failure was not the result of lack of regular maintenance. The bearings and brakes are checked and serviced every year. The last service, bearing replacement and repacking, was performed in December of 2023. The failure occurred in October of 2024, 10- months since being serviced. The failure occured on I-10 near Pensacola Fl. We were lucky, there was a safe place to pullover near an exit. The wheel did not fall off but was only held on by the bearing nut on the axle. Maybe a rare occurance but scary when it happens. Any preventative technique, hub locks maybe, could prevent a potential disaster from happening. If we had lost the wheel in a worst case scenario I would not be responding to your post.
 
And.......what was the freeplay set at? I suspect, you don't know.

Like one service manager told me, if you did it right, it would not be back. If the bearings were serviced and adjusted correctly it would have never failed. Of course, I dealt with factory German parts when I worked on cars so the odds of a bad one was higher than you winning the power ball.
 

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