Greasing without a gun?

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Alright so I don't own a grease gun yet and was wondering if I can grease up recently acquired trailer bearings without it?

I have ST all purpose grease and ST Moly Lithium, which would be good for it?

Thanks for the help and advise
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If trailer bearings are regular tapered roller bearings, a grease gun would take a long time nor is chassis grease for wheel bearings. You need to pack them with grease by hand
 
Buy a grease gun. You can get a cheapie disposable for less than $20. Or you can find one that is made in the USA and will last the rest of your life.
 
Originally Posted by Fawteen
Buy a grease gun. You can get a cheapie disposable for less than $20. Or you can find one that is made in the USA and will last the rest of your life.


Or you can find one for less than $20 that lasts the rest of your life. Grease guns don't tend to wear out, because they're WELL LUBED lol.
 
As other have said, trailers typically have roller bearings. They last a long time if not abused. They need to be greased by hand with a blob of grease in your palm, pushing the bearings into it while rotating the bearing a little before each pushing. Your Dad typically show you how when you are a kid. You will need a new seal to do the inner bearing.

Now if a boat trailer then you want marine grease that says OK for boat trailers. I use the blue grease.

Boat trailers often have a bearing buddy on the axle to keep grease under a very slight pressure . They need a grease gun filled with marine grease for the bearing buddy.

People often check trailer bearings with a IR temp gun.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
If trailer bearings are regular tapered roller bearings, ...... You need to pack them with grease by hand


100%

You really MUST pack tapered wheel bearings by hand to do it right.
 
I like wheel bearing grease with lots of moly. It also needs to be "Ropy", meaning that it has real long strands of grease as you separate it. Hand packed only. As said above, you need to remove/replace the rear seal to grease that bearing. If it's a boat trailer then ignore my input as I don't know which grease you should use.
 
Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by atikovi
If trailer bearings are regular tapered roller bearings, ...... You need to pack them with grease by hand


100%

You really MUST pack tapered wheel bearings by hand to do it right.


They make a gizmo that lets you sandwich the bearing between two cones and pack it with a grease gun, but it's probably more trouble than it's worth. Your hands still get covered with grease regardless.

When I repacked my boat trailer I used the Mystic blue marine grease. It's supposed to have maximum water resistance because the hubs get immersed all the time. For my utility trailers I just use the same high temperature lithium bearing grease that I keep in my gun. I have a separate smaller gun for the boat.

People agonize over grease choices but the important thing is just to make sure there's grease in the bearing. Just about any grease will do as long as it's rated for roller bearings and high temp.
 
I had bearing buddies on a new to me camper. I did some reading, decided I didn't like them, so I went to pull them off. They were pumped up nicely, but, all the grease was on the outside bearing. They had not gotten through to the inner. Maybe there was an air pocket and the grease would eventually work over, but in the end, since it wasn't going into water I removed altogether.

My latest acquisition has a zerk in the axle, in the center, the nut and bearing go over it. It's an E-Z-Lube or similar. Not trusting it, I pulled apart the bearings once I got the trailer home. This axle is set up to direct the grease through the spindle and to the bearing surfaces. Cool. I'm not sure how much I would trust it, maybe hit it with a few pumps once every 1,000 miles or somesuch--but I think pulling apart, inspecting, and packing in some fresh grease is always a good idea. I just don't know what is a good interval for it (yeah you can read your owners manual but who wants to do that?).
 
Originally Posted by Elkins45
Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by atikovi
If trailer bearings are regular tapered roller bearings, ...... You need to pack them with grease by hand


100%

You really MUST pack tapered wheel bearings by hand to do it right.


They make a gizmo that lets you sandwich the bearing between two cones and pack it with a grease gun,

Just about any grease will do as long as it's rated for roller bearings and high temp.


The problem is that most grease cartridges for guns have grease suitable only for suspension parts. Tie rods and steering linkage joints don't get hot during use like roller bearings do which are in nearly constant motion. You need that ropey consistency specific wheel bearing grease and that is probably too thick to dispense with a gun.
 
The best way to lube wheel bearings is to pack them by hand. Using a grease gun leaves old grease in and you would stress the seal trying to get it out. Never could understand why a fitting is put on the grease cap anyway.
 
Last edited:
Responding to an old thread. As everyone has said you must remove clean and repack by hand. If its a boat trailer the bearing buddies do help but they do not grease the bearings as you would think. they keep grease under spring pressure so when you back that trailer into the water and cool them suddenly they dont develop a vacuum and suck in water. The spring keeps a positive pressure in the cavity between inner and outer bearings. On a utility trailer they may help when running through deep puddles but other than that not so much.
 
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