are bearing buddies worth having on your trailer wheels?

[mikeSF]

I just repacked and replaced a seal on one wheel and will do the other this weekend. I am not familiar with bearing buddies. Im guessing they go inside the dust cap and somehow show when grease is needed. Are they worth having?
thanks in advance.
Mike

[CatFan]

Bearing Buddies replace the dust caps and use a spring to maintain a few PSI of pressure within the hub. That way the hub doesn't suck in water when it is cooled suddenly when you back the trailer into the lake.

When used properly, they are great.

[Beartrap]

no...they cause as many problems as they prevent....handpack your bearings with thick waterproof grease once or twice a year depending on how much trailering you do.....the grease you can squeeze thru a grease gun is much thinner than the hand packed kind plus the tendency to put too much grease in there with a gun and cause seals to blow out....

[tinfisherman]

I would say they are not needed. I have them as they came with my boat. Sometimes they are more mess than they are worth. Either way, I recommend repacking your bearings at least once a season(before the season starts) and maybe half way through if you put on a lot of miles. Grease is cheap, although the work is messy and sucks. Saves a lot of headaches though to keep them maintained.

I agree with everything Beartrap said.

[omcforever]

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by Beartrap &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">the grease you can squeeze thru a grease gun is much thinner than the hand packed kind ....</td></tr></table> Huh?????

[gcopple]

i have them, i don't use them to put grease in the bearings though. they came on the boat and i just leave them. i repack my bearings once a year and just have the bearing buddies on there because they were before. the pressure thing makes sense though, just don't overfill them if using them to grease your bearings, like said before the bearing seals will blow out.