Posi-Lube vs Bearing Buddies

S

Swee Pea

New member
Just had my trailer bearings replaced, repacked, and regreased. Trailer mechanic says that the Posi Lube grease feature is not as good the Bearing Buddies. The Posi Lube allows you to grease the bearings from a zirk fitting without removing the hubs from the axle. You can actually fully grease the bearings from the zirk. The drawback he says is that when the bearings get hot and you submerge the wheels (bearings) in water, the water is pulled into the grease.

The mechanic says that the Bearing Buddies keep pressure on the hub and do not allow water to penetrate and that they are a better system.

I bought a set of Bearing Buddies and was told just to remove the cap off the wheel and replace with the Bearing Buddy and fill with grease. Then I see on line that bearing buddies can not be used on a posi lube hub.

I called another place and they say that all I need to do is remove the zirk fitting on the posi lube and put the bearing buddy on, or if the zirk of the bearing buddy is offset from the zirk of the posi lube, then it is ok. Grease through the bearing buddy and it will bypass the posi lube zirk and still grease the bearings. But he says why replace the posi lube system better because it is better. Before I was confused. Now I am totally confused.

Any opinions or experience out there before I mess something up?

John
Swee Pea
 
I have owned both systems. I still pull the bearings and repack the bearings yearly. The buddy bearings can have air trapped in the middle. You really need to be sure that the entire hub is packed. The Posi-lube pushes grease to the back of the bearing, and old grease comes out around the front. You need double lip seals on the back to keep from blowing the Posi-lube bearing grease out the back. Currently my trailers both have Posi-lube systems.

Either will work fine, if you take care of them. I don't see either as a "short cut"--I do take temperature of the hubs and tires with an IR therometer every two hours when running the trailer.
 
I have had both types Bob is right you have to pull the hubs and check every so often. Yes bearing buddy are positive pressure, but when the pressure inside the hub equalizes then you don't get grease to the back bearing. So if you don't take them apart every now and then the back will burn up. It will be the bearing that falls apart first from lack of maintenance. The nice thing about the ezlube style is you jack up the axle spin the wheel and feel the bearings if there is any play and change all the grease without removing the hub. You will feel excessive play when the bearings start to wear. The double lip seal does have to be in good condition so the grease doesn't come out the back. If it does it's time to take the hub apart and replace things. I too check temperatures when I stop for gas. I think the ezlubes are much better. My new trailer has oil bathed bearings and I don't know how they compare yet. They haven't given me any troubles yet but they do seem to run warmer then grease.
 
Thats what I have on my current trailer. I jack up the axle and check for side play. I haven't seen an interval on how often to change the oil though. I'm just finishing second season. I will probably change to oil in the spring it's 80W90 gear oil.
 
But if your oil bath bearing seals fail even a tiny bit the result is catastrophic. The greased bearings can take at least some abuse and put up with lack of maintenance. The down fall for those of us with bearing buddies is overpacking the bearing buddies thus blowing out the rear seal, greasing the brakes, and eventually loosing the protective benefits of the bearing buddies.
Eric
 
Here is my particular question on this thread. My trailer on my recently purchased used 22 is an ez loader with the sure lube system (assume it is the same as posi-lube). The zerk is visible on the port side but on the starboard side the previous owner took off the sure-lube cap and put on a fresh bearing buddy. When I apply grease to the bearing buddy will it find its' way into the axle and thru the bearing as designed? The zerk on the port side is centered. I have never had a trailer with the sure-lube system so this is all still a mystery to me. In theory it seems like it would be a solid system and low maintenance.
 
We are not big fans of bearing buddies, as we've seen far too many blown out inner seals, and dry inner bearings.

The zirc in the hub is used by King, and we've seen far fewer bearing issues on that system than bearing buddies or oil bath systems.
 
we've seen far too many blown out inner seals
Click to expand...

I learned about this the hard way on my first boat back in the 70s. It was amazing how much grease I could pump into those Buddies and the pistons never moved out.:disgust

Finally learned that after the bearings are packed you don't want to "top off" the Buddies until they're nice and hot from some trailering. And by "top off" I mean about midway within the piston's range of movement. :wink
 
Lloyds, the sure lube system is intergraded into the spindle design and I believe a much better than the aftermarket systems.
http://k0swi.microlnk.com/2BUYRIGHT/MS/HUBS/Sure Lube Greasing System.htm

The excess grease exits through a passage drilled into the spindle so the chance of blowing the rear seal is lessened and you can do a full repack of the bearing without removing anything. You do need to make sure that the correct seal is used.
For the 3750lbs axel (10 inch brake) the best inner seal I have found is the CRC 2146 or CarQuest has the same seal under their brand. These are double lipped nice heavy duty seals and worth finding.

stevej
 
Thanks Steve. I am going to limp along this season and then put it in the shop and have everything dismantled this fall and see what needs to be done to put it back in perfect order.
 
Matt Gurnsey":3dimxx62 said:
We are not big fans of bearing buddies, as we've seen far too many blown out inner seals, and dry inner bearings.

The zirc in the hub is used by King, and we've seen far fewer bearing issues on that system than bearing buddies or oil bath systems.
Click to expand...

Matt -- What's your opinion of the Sure Lube system mentioned below?

Warren
 
As far as I know, I am not Matt,[but you knew that Warren] but in our experience the Surelube/Posilube is best . Cant screw em up with too much grease and fresh grease every time cause you can see it . Not bubble prone .
When the oil baths came out they had some problems , but on the newer EZ Loaders we have , they have been good . Its a visual check with them . But if they are milky [water intrusion] you better be ready to rebuild or replace on the spot .
Marc
 
Hi,
I just repacked my bearings and my Float -On trailer which came with the posilube sure lube. The axle is drilled so when grease is pumped in it gets behind the inner wheel bearing and then forces all the old grease out the front where the cover and and the grease fitting is located. In the past on other trailers Bearing Buddies which are heavy had disapeared (fallen off in transit)for one reason or another. The press fit end caps for posilube/Surelube are a pretty light pressed steel cover with a rubber insert that you remove when you want to check on things or add grease. I replaced the the pressed covers and rubber covers along with the grease seals. I also pumped fresh grease into the axle with the wheel off so I got nice blue grease coming out of the axle and no more lighter colored water contaminated grease on my newly repacked bearings. For me this is a simple setup that lets you see more of what is going on and the end caps are light weight and would seem to be less prone to falling off than Bearing Buddies on rough roads.
D.D.
 
If I understand you correctly I can pull the caps off the axles (including the bearing buddy) and pump grease directly into the end of the axle and expect grease to flow out towards me? That would definitely be a good way of seeing what is going on inside, at least more info than you had before.
 
Hi,
The grease cap which kind of looks like a bearing buddy has a removable rubber center which exposes the grease fitting which is in the center of the axle. The rubber center is about 1 1/4 inch in diameter and it allows extra grease to be pumped out until you see fresh grease pushing out the bad stuff. With Bearing Buddies the Bearing Buddy has a spring loaded plate that when it gets pushed back by too much grease and compresses the spring the plate moves back and exposes a small hole for excess grease to escape. Sometimes the plate sticks causing excess pressure to be put on the seal which then prematurely fails. With Bearing Buddies grease gets pumped in the front or the end of the axle does not get the contaminated grease out. Just my opinion here.
D.D.
 
King uses the "Super Lube" system, which has the rubber cap and flows grease through the hub to the inner bearing, and then back out to the cap.

The "Sure Lube" system flows the grease from the outer to the inner bearing and then into the axle itself.

I like the Super Lube system better, because you can see the grease movement, and adding enough grease will push all the old grease out the front of the hub.

As Marc mentioned, we saw problems in the early EZ Loader oil bath axles, but they have changed the sealing system and that has improved their performance. Condensation is still a potential problem for water intrusion into the lube.
 
Don and Brenda":2s9ejb9h said:
Any idea when EZ Loader changed their system, mine is a 2007 and no issues as of yet.
Click to expand...

Matt -- Also what are the identifying characteristics of the posilube system on an EZ-Loader?

Warren
 
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