Bearing buddy or not???

[Harry van der Meer]

As I was reading the articleregarding hydraulic brake installation at the Champion website I came accross the following statement:

If you are installing brakes on a "plain" spindle axle, we recommend that you use plain dust caps and not "bearing protectors" (Bearing protector refers to the spring loaded dust cap device with a grease zerk fitting in the piston.) Bearing protectors add two to four PSI of pressure inside the hub cavity and in many cases, they cause grease to leak past the seal. If sufficient grease leaks past the seal on a brake hub drum, it will centrifuge out with some grease getting on the brake shoes. Grease on your brake shoes will drastically decrease your braking capacity.

I have Fulton bearing protectors installed. I usually add grease until it comes out of the bleed holes before any trip. I have had problems with some grease coming out of the back and front of the hub splattering the boat as well as the inside of the wheels. Interestingly, one side of the trailer is worse than the other.

Champion seems to discorage the use of the protector. However, I thought these protectors are necessary to protect the bearings, especially when they get frequently dunk'ed in the water.

What are your recommendations/experiences?

[Chip Hindes]

Sounds similar to the old question of whether you'd rather die by being shot or hanged.

No brakes is obviously bad, but so is having the bearings freeze up and break the axle.

This wouldn't be a lead in to an attmept to sell you their special axle with built in bearing reluber, would it?

[Sloop John B]

Harry, I came across the same perplexing advice. When I first started out with bearing buddies, I would fill them until they practically popped off. Mac manual suggests just getting the springed plate to move a bit.

The buddy does make a decent 'dust cover'. I think they're all right as long as one is mindful not to create seal popping pressure in them.

[Harry van der Meer]

The ones I have, have a little bleed hole. I understand that this prevents build-up of too much pressure. I normally fill until grease starts coming out of the bleed hole, then wait until nothing more comes out before replacing the dust cap (which btw covers the hole). My guess is that pressure builds when bearings get warm, this pushes more grease out of the hole which will end-up un the inside of the wheel......

Is there a better solution for this????

[Jack O'Brien]

I can't be sure, because of the poor photo in the upper left corner of page 6 of the Champion catalog, but I think what I have is the "dustcap with rubber plug" for my Champion SS disc brakes. Just a simple metal dustcap with a soft rubber center that acts like a diaphram. It allows the grease and air inside the hub to expand with heat or contract when it hits cold water without leaking grease, air or water in or out. Granted, in Florida it doesn't hit cold water. Mine have never leaked and seem to work well. With lower pressure than a Bearing Buddy there is less chance of leakage past the inner seal.