Buddy Bearings or Sealed?

[Murphinator]

I just converted my the drum brakes on my twin axle trailer to Kodiak discs. Huge improvement. I still can't believe how much better they stop the trailer. I do have a question though. I replaced all four hubs as well since the old ones were about 3 years old and getting pretty rusty. The shop that did the work removed my buddy bearings and replaced them with a sealed caps. They claim that sealed is a better way to go: 1) because many customers end up blowing out the seals by putting too much grease in, and 2) with the buddy bearings you tend to accumulate old grease and you're actually better off just pulling the hub once a year and repacking the bearings with fresh grease.

Is this BS? I trailer my boat every time I launch it and take at least 2 long (4 - 5 hour) trips per year. I'm pretty meticulous about keeping the hubs greased up and am comfortable doing so without blowing out seals. I'm really worried that with the totally sealed caps, I'll end up burning out a hub due to insufficient grease. Can I really wait a year before repacking?

ChrisF, who in the Tampa area did your brake job?

[ChrisF]

I am interested in more details regarding your change from drum to disk brakes. Were these hydraulic surge, drum brakes that you changed over to stainless disk brakes? I have been considering doing that for some time. Any tips?

langski93

Yes, they were hydraulic surge drum brakes. Trailer is a dual-axle Magic Tilt. I replaced them with set of Kodiak disc brakes. I went with the all stainless kit (Rotors, calipers, and mounting brakets), which is expensive (like, 3 times as much as their non-stainless kit), but they're supposed to hold up extremely well in salt water. We'll see....

I also replaced all four hubs and my master cylinder was shot so I replaced that too. It's just as well they replaced the master cylinder because master cylinders designed for drum brakes have this little thimble diaphram thingy in them that keeps a slight amount of pressure in the line. This is good for drums, but not for discs. If you leave it that way, the pads will always have a slight pressure against the rotors and the wheels will not turn freely. What they typically do is punch a hole in the diaphram thingy when they do the conversion from drums to discs so this doesn't cause a problem. Since I was replacing the master cylinder anyway, they just purchased a cylinder designed for disc brake use (exact same part, just without the thimble diaphram), so no punchout was necessary.

I only put brakes on one of the two axles. Apparently there's a law in FL that new dual axle trailers in that weight class must be sold with brakes on all axles, but since mine was just an upgrade to an existing trailer sold prior to the law, I was grandfathered in. As I said in my OP, I couldn't be happier with the stopping performance. Even with the discs on one axle, the truck/boat combo stops almost as good as the truck by itself. I still can't keep the grin off my face every time I pull the boat.

I see no reason there should be any difference in stopping performance between the stainless and non-stainless (SCAD) kits. So if you don't have the cash, go for the SCADs. For the price, you could probably replace them a couple of times and still come out about even. It's just a little more of a hassel.

[ChrisF]

ChrisF, who in the Tampa area did your brake job?

Rentz Truck and Tailer Rental in Clearwater Florida. They were easy to work with, took good care of my boat, and I'm very happy with the results. I was skeptical about the dust cap thing, but so far it hasn't been a problem. Absolutely no problems pulling the boat across the state a few weeks ago. Time will tell I guess.

[Top Knot]

I've decided to stick with the dust caps and see how it goes. I'm pulling the trailer across Flordia (Tampa to Florida City) at the end of this week. I'll be checking the hub temps when I stop for gas. Hopefully I can avoid any drama.

Chris, seems that you are stressing over nothing. If the shop that did your work knew what they were doing, you should have nothing to worry for quite a while. If you are comfortable with BB's, by all means put some on.

[swearle]

I have towed my 24' Grady White from New Orleans to the Keys every year for the last 15 years, (~20 hours each way), so I've spent a lot of time working on the best bearing system. Here's what I've found. Buddy Bearings are great, but you should use the ones with the relief hole that prevents over-filling. I used to drill my own holes; now they are available from the factory. I also only use the red grease called "Red and Tacky #2". I have been fortunate to never have a bearing failure, but before using the Buddy Bearings and this grease, I would find bearing damage during the annual bearing replacement. Since making these changes, I only pull the bearings every 3rd year and have not found any damaged bearings.

I just bought a catamaran with the posi-lube spindles that allow you to inject grease through the spindle to the back bearing and seal area. These are great, but did not have the clearance to allow the use of Buddy Bearings. I modified the spindle by pulling off the grease fitting, then installed the vented Buddy Bearings. I keep an extra grease fitting for my grease gun that can be pushed into the spindle when I want to "repack" the rear bearing. Works pretty well, just a little messy. So far, I've made a couple of trips of about 8 hours with this system, seems to work very well.

I'm always looking for new and better ideas. I hope this helps someone....good luck!

[Mal de Mer]

I am interested in more details regarding your change from drum to disk brakes. Were these hydraulic surge, drum brakes that you changed over to stainless disk brakes? I have been considering doing that for some time. Any tips?

langski93

Lang, I did my own on my Loadrite...actually, I made a 2 axle with stainless discs from a single axle with NO brakes....it wasn't hard at all....Got all my parts from Champion trailer...once installed, the stability was great and the braking was almost too good,,,and that was on only one axle, not both........it was a Tie Down Eng set up and were surge brakes.......

[DFreedom]

I have the axles with the grease fittings on the ends and a dust cap with a rubber plug that you pull off to grease the bearings. They have worked real well for me.