How often to do maintenance on sled trailers?

[kdawg]

How often do you guys do maintenance and what kind of maintenence on sled trailers? I pack my bearings on my boat trailer every other year just because they are submerged many times during a season. I've never had a snowmobile trailer before this one which is ten years old, but the tires are original and look to be at least 80% tread left. Also what about bearing buddies? I've heard that these don't get the inner bearing, only the outer. Any thoughts or comments?

[BoxMN]

kdawg, my snomo trailer is new to me too (2001) but I have a utility trailer that get used a lot winter and summer. I don't use bearing buddies on it. It is real old, and I used to repack bearings every third year, then I put new hubs on three years ago, and haven't done them yet. Probably will next summer. I woudl think a snomo trailer is about the same, except the tires are even a bit smaller than my 10" utility tires.

The main thing I would recommend though, is not letting tires get older than about 7 years, regardless of tread. According to manufactures, my boat trailer blowouts, the tires get significantly weaker after the 7 year mark. Ask my trailer fender about that one, ha! Three tires in one weekend, and only one was caused by stupidity (my brother, ha!).

My Dad always said, better to stay out of trouble than get out of trouble... and also whenever I have a trailer with me, I have a floor jack, not some little wimpy thing, cause when you need it, you generally "really need it" - so go loaded for bear! Also, keep a few 2x6 and 2x4 scraps, cause you never have a blowout on a perfectly flat area

That's my two and half cents

[minneman]

At 10 yrs of age "used"... piece of mind for me would require at least a clean and repack on the berrings and a set of NEW tires.

[gregg52]

i'm knockin on wood as i say this but !!

my last boat trailer a squirt of grease in the spring thats it

for 20 yrs and that trailers was in and out of the water i'd say a good deal more than most specially the first 6 yrs i had it

i was fishing tourments and the such one yr i was on mille lacs

every day from opening til bout july 15th so i think packin bearing every 2-3 yrs is over kill maybe once in 10

just my opinion

[jerkin'm]

I did mine after about 6 years and the dealer asked me why I was looking at the bearings already..He said since they don't go in the water they usually are good for 10 years...Good luck getting the lug nuts off after about 3 years of not being touched...they get VERY rusty due to the salt..those 10" tires are junk and need replacement every few years if you are really putting miles on.

[Surface Tension]

I'll take mine bearings out every few years to clean and inspect them then replace the seals. Even though its not getting backed into the water there is moister in there. Just as there is moisture in the air, a bearing left to that air will rust. On you car of truck that tiny bit of moister isn't a big deal when the bearings are spun on a regular basis. Its when bearing sit idle for long periods of time they can rust. Starts out with pitting at the point the bearing makes contact with the cage.

That is one reason your trailer bearings will not last as long as say the bearings on your car. Rim and tires size is another reason. An 8" rim will have a lot more rotations in the same miles then your 16" truck rim. Not only is the trailer tire spinning more but its spinning faster. The seal is also getting spun on the spindle.

Trailers with a little misalignment, tires that are out of round and balance also play into bearing life.

When you think of all that, then images of the guy on vacation on the side of the hwy with a shot bearing and possible spindle damage, well it wouldn't of happened if he had inspected and replaced the bearings and seals at home.

[Neiko]

I bought my Floe Pro in 1998 brand new. Used it mainly for my 4 wheeler but just got a snowmobile this year. I had to replace one of the hubs this year because of my own stupidity and didn't want to have any problems pulling the sled. I had bearing buddies on it and never even checked the bearing until last week. Just kept squirting grease in them. Both were good to go. I cleaned them up and now have a spare set just in case. A buddy from work showed me this grease funnel to do bearings with. Slicker then snot. If you manually grease your bearings get one of these from Northern Tool. I think they run around $7.