Keep loosing bearing buddy bras

I believe I had two bearing buddy covers stollen from the launch ramp last month. I got home and had grease all over two wheels from the same side. I thought it was strange since I hadn't added grease for at least 6 months. If they came off on the way to the lake, I would have noticed the greace when wiping down the boat and trailer. Anyway, I added a little grease to all the wheels and got two new covers. On the next trip, I lost two more. I think I had too much grease and when they wamred up andthey slipped off. I wiped them down real good and next thing I knew, two more were missing. They were replaced and I have lost one more sine then. I'm trying to make sure I dont have much of any grease in the bearing buddy but I always seem to have a little leak out. I heard someone mention that you can put a little silicon on the covers to help keep them in place. Any ideas??
btw... 2001 extreme trailer with dual axle, disc brakes and carries one heavy a$$ boat with lead.

Board4life
I've had the same thing happen but it's not that they are getting stollen. They get hot and the rubber gets soft and plyable and they slip off. I had this happen a bunch of times and I finally came up with a solution. Buy new ones, take your wheels completely off and put a large hose clamp around the cover, trim of the excess and put the wheel back on. The wheels center cap will cover the clamp completely so you won't even see it and you will no longer have this problem. The only down side is that you will have to take the wheel off to fill the buddy up with grease. This isn't too bad though because you shouldn't loose any grease and you can fill them up when you do brakes or replace tires or change flats. Not to mention that taking the wheel of to pack grease is a small task compared to cleaning grease off your wheels every time you tow. I did this and have yet to loose another one.

BTW
I have the same trailer.

Yep same problem, but only when towing down from Big Bear mountain. Extreme told me it happenes when the brakes get hot. Makes sense because the only time I have ever had it happen is coming back from the mountains with lots of downgrades.

Happened again on Monday. Pain in the a**.

try using a zip tie, much less obtrusive then a clamp

I love my oil bath hubs

jude
Where did you get them and how much did they cost? Do they really keep them that much cooler? After towing down the long hills to and from my lake the grease in my barring buddies sizzles and smokes(literally) if I don't have the covers on them.

Board4life,

After a lot of crappy experiences with trailers, I can give you some advice. If you have grease coming out of your hubs, whether it be from the bearing buddy or the inner seal, you have developed some bad seals. Either way, it is time to replace the seals, bearings, and bearing buddies and repack with grease. Remember this, if grease is coming out, then water can get in and that is what contaminates and eventually ruins the bearings. Once this happens it can cause a lot of damage. Losing bearing buddy bras is just the first indication that something is going wrong. Try to fix this before is is too late.

JLembas
Fluid Concepts
www.fluidconcepts.net

Fluid, You are probably right. I have never removed the bearing buddies or the bearings before. It shouldm't be that hard. Where can you find the "Bearing Buddy" name brand. I seem to only see a cheap after market at the local auto part stores.

Over Bloated
You can get the bearing buddies brand at "Westmarine.com" for a good price about, 15.00 -20.00 a pair. The front ones don't generally need to be changed if you dont have front brakes(if tandem trailer) My extreme trailer uses 1.98" buddies so I'd assume yours is the same. They are a breeze to put on... just remove the wheel, wack the old ones off by hitting the sides with a mallet and wack the new ones on using a 2x4 over the face. They are a bit tricky to get aligned straight but you'll get them. Use zip ties or hose clamps to hold the cover on since you'll already have the wheels off. Good luck!

I just gave up replacing them, i felt running in salt id better just leave them off so i can rinse the bearing buddy, im sure water was getting behind the bra.

The same thing must've happened to me over the weekend. I lost the rear bras. I thought I just forgot to put them back on after greasing my rear hubs, but they were not on my garage floor as I expected when I got home.

I think my covers are 19B. So, they are probably the 1.98 size also. What about replacing the bearings? How much of a chore is that?

OverBloated,
The Blue Malibu rides on the same Extreme trailer that you have, and has the same issues. the root cause is overheated brakes. We are trying to get brakes designed to stop a small, light car to stop a very heavy boat and trailer combonation. The brake pads used on our trailers are the same pads used on a Plymouth Sundance. The Sundance weighs in at less than half the weight of our boat and trailer package, and it has rear brakes to help.
Jerry from Fluid Concepts is correct that if you have grease leakage, you need to inspect, and replace your seals and bearings if needed.
I have found that when marine trailer grease gets super hot, it gets very thin, and the pressure of the bearing buddies will force it out - even past new seals.
In my investigations on this, I have found that the trailers that have brakes on both axles have less problems with grease leakage. This makes sense, as now you are spreading the brake load, and heat, over four brakes. Adding brakes to the other axle is my next trailer upgrade. Tony at Extreme has helped me work out exactly what I need to do this.
In the past, I have tried zip ties to hold the bra's on. They got hot and still came off. I then tried using a roll form tool in a lathe to add a ridge to the outside of the bearing buddy. This ridge gives the bra something to grab onto. I then used a hose clamp to hold the bra on. Since adding the ridge and the hose clamp, I have not lost another bra. After a tow down a long steep grade, the bra's look like a baloon - but they don't come off. To reduce some of the heat, I added aluminum air scoops to the back side of the brake rotors. It directs air into the brake rotor, and it reduces the temperature a little. I have also switched to high temp synthetic wheel bearing grease. This helped also, as the synthectic is much more stable at high temperatures. I now see much less grease making it past the bearing buddy, and into the bra. I am really careful in watching for any chance of water contamination as I don't know how synthetic grease reacts with water.
My next step is still adding brakes to the second axle.
You are not alone with this issue, hope this helps.

Geoff

My brakes were smokin' bad, but that was the first time I lost the bras. Man, what a mess.

Thanks Mr. Maus. I do have brakes in all four wheels. I have not had this problem for the last 2 1/2 years so it is probably seal/bearing related. I like the idea of adding that ridge. I just need a metal lathe now.
It sounds like you have it dialed in for the time being. Maybe you could route an A/C vent off your Dodge to your trailer brakes. That might help keep them cool. Or maybe you can get the Fresh Water flush kit for the brakes and have a switch to turn it on when going down big hills.

That is good to know about what car the pads are off of. Any particular year, and engine size so I can tell the guy at the auto parts store??? I am sure Tony will help me with getting the right pads when I need some. He is a good guy who has helped me out before.

On a similar note, I noticed the brake master cylinder (I guess that is what you would call it at the trailer hitch.) has a little more play during stops and starts. I am not sure if is related to the different angle/height of the hitch or if something is wrong with the brake system. It still seems to stop OK.

Thanks

Over Bloated,
Yor idea about a water flush kit to cool the brakes is not so far out there. In Europe, they race big Diesel trucks. To keep the brakes from overheating, they have water spray systems that constantly spray the rotors and calipers. The trucks use about a small "fatsack" each race. When the water runs out, the brakes overheat and they lose all braking.

The pads for our trailers are for any of the these cars, they all use the same pads:
1991 Plymouth Acclaim
1991 Plymouth Sundance
1991 Dodge Daytona
1991 Dodge Spirit
Note: Use only ORGANIC pads - NOT semi-metallic. Semi metallic pads rust.

I replaced mine last year and noticed that my pads wore slighly unevenly, and had some "taper". I am watching them a little closer now.

Geoff

Yeah Geoff that is exactly what I have heard. Also makes sense because I only lose mine when I am coming down from the mountains and obviously using the brakes a lot.

I always thought that if they are getting warm enough to push out the grease or pop off the bras that it was time for a re-pak.

If the grease is getting out, then water is getting in when you put-in (grease is thicker than the water). The whole point is to keep the water out (and the sand etc that goes with that).

I think what happens when they get very hot is you build up pressure and the greese gets thinner. The extreme pressure pushes the grease through the seal.

But it does not mean water is getting in. But you're right. It doesn't mean it isn't getting in at that point either. Hard to tell. If they are on the old side then I would bet you're right. The first time it happened to me, my trailer was only a month old. So I doubt it needed to be replaced already.

Sounds like I'm not the only one with trailer problems.

board4life: check your local trailer supply/repair stores for the Bearing Buddy brand. There are some other good companies as well.

We fight these problems often and we haven't come up with a good solution yet. However, I can tell you what we try to avoid and what seems to give us serious problems.

1. Don't leave your trailer in the water for extended periods. We used to do this at remote wakeboard events when there was no place to beach the boats. We would just park them back on the trailers and leave the trailers in the water. I will not do this anymore.
2. We have also had a lot of damage when coming down big hills. Now we try to let the tranny do some of the braking.
3. Bearing buddies should only be removed/installed a couple of times before replacing. They loose their tolerance and eventually start falling off.
4. Boat trailers just plain suck.
5. Oh yeah, did I mention that boat trailers suck.

Jlembas
Fluid Concepts
www.fluidconcepts.net

Amen!!!! LOL

I have brakes on one axle. I use Redeye (bra-less) bearing lubers on that axle. The Redeyes work better than BBs because there is no bra to lose, or trap water in. Get 'em at Cabelas for one place.
On the other axle I use Turbo-Lube oil filled hubs. Those are sweet. Run real cool and if they get contaminated, I just rotate the wheel, drain the 70w-90, put in fresh lube, I'm good to go. Oh, yeah: boat trailers do suck. My Swanco's (RIP) full box construction is now a rarity with el-cheapo being the driving factor in sales.

This summer the braked axle will be converted to disc brakes.



(Message edited by wakecord on July 09, 2004)

I tow with a ford superduty, and last night I decided i had enough with the traier brakes. i just unbolted the drum backing plates, and ditched them. Then I replaced the coupler with a regular fixed one. I figure with the oversized truck I will be fine on brake power.

When I decide to add brakes, it will be disks on both axles with a brakesmart type electric over hydraulic actuator. Then the brakes will be actuated with masterbrake actuator. That would stop most of the brake problems.

I also plan to tow the boat behind a 5th whell camper, and with elec/hydraulic setup, I can set the boat to start braking slightly before the camper to prevent sway.

Surge brakes just suck.

Also I think tie-down is coming out with oil bath disk brake hubs.

Electric is the way to go for control, but going without brakes until then? Dangerous, that boat/trailer will try to pass you in a panic stop

Don't get caught.

The current (Tie-Down) Turbo-Lube hubs work with discs.

(Message edited by wakecord on July 09, 2004)

You've probably thought of this...but make sure you guy's are getting the right size of bearing buddy bra's also. They make different sizes so you wouldn't want to get some that are too big.......

hehehehe....he said "bra" hehehehehe