Howie:
Everyone will owe you a BIG THANKS for bringing this subject back up again...do you remember me telling everyone about my Bearing Buddy Experience a couple of years ago?
I'll reitinerate...I had taken the old SLC3705 to the WW factory in Perris to have new fresh water tanks put on it (geesh...that's another story in and of itself), and they must have thought they need to grease the Bearing Buddies I had put on the rig a few years earlier. Well...we were going on our 2nd Utah vacation trip and on the way to Vegas it seemed I didn't have any brakes on the trailer. I really worried about it coming down the grade into Stateline, so we got on the phone and found a trailer parts dealer in Vegas, so we stopped, bought all new brake pads, magnets, and seals and proceeded to Mesquite, AZ, where I had lined up a mechanic to look at it on a Saturday that we were going to be there. Come to find out, each of the wheels had about 2 pounds of grease inside each drum- they used over 4 cases of brake cleaner to clean up everything and installed my new brake shoes (magnets were just fine). Parts were over $500, and the labor to make everything OK was about $700, and we didn't get to leave for the next destination until Sunday.
Being a bearing peddler for the last 29 years, I've got to tell you that MORE BEARINGS FAIL FROM OVERLUBRICATION THAN FROM UNDERLLLUBRICATION. It's because grease has a tendency to hold alot more heat the more that's in the bearing, and a bearing only really needs a costing to do it's job. Of course, I knew that, and I only pumped about two grease gun pumps in the Bearing Buddies about once a year. Obviously, the WW technician didn't...
So anyone who has this inner zerk- PLEASE just put one or two squirts in annually- it doesn't take a whole bunch. The inner seals really aren't designed to keep any more than maybe 20-30 lbs of pressure, and any more grease will just blow right by them and get all over your brakes.
Thanks again Howie!
Sean
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