On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:49:33 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:36:42 -0700, Rich Grise
wrote:

Steve B wrote:

I took off my wheel bearings when I bought my boat, and repacked them.
They probably have 150 miles on them since that.

IF I JACK UP MY TRAILER AND JUST SPIN THE WHEEL, what should I feel?
Should there be ANY movement where you can take the 3 and 9 o'clock
positions and wiggle back and forth?

When I take the cap, key, and nut off, and put it back on, just how tight
do
I put the nut? Should I tighten it at all with a large ChannelLock, or
just to where I can get the key in the next groove in the nut?

I'm going to take them off and have a look see, and just was wondering how
to correctly put them back on.

Whenever I did this with my car, I'd put the nut on finger tight, spin the
wheel, and tighten down the nut until there was enough drag to stop it
spinning, then back off the nut to the nearest (previous) cotter pin hole.

I can't see any reason that wouldn't work on a trailer if it has tapered
bearings.

Have Fun!
Rich

Thats exactly what I do with my trailer bearings. I have
humm..counting...7 trailers, boat, utility, welding etc etc and have yet
to lose a wheel bearing, after doing this since the mid 1970s.

And some are rather highly loaded.


Gunner

Just got a new small boat trailer (with a little jon boat) with oil
bath bearings. The caps are clear plastic and you can see the oil in
there. I'm going to have to read up on them. Supposedly they're
great for boat trailer service.

Pete Keillor