Hub & bearing questions for Compact Jr

[john madill]

Got this Compact late last fall and hope to take it on its maiden voyage next week.

But I want to be sure the bearings are up to snuff. The nearby trailer shop wants $150 to pull, inspect, and repack the bearings. Sounds like a lot of money to me so I spent the weekend looking at youtube videos on servicing trailer bearings.

Tonight I pulled the bearings on one side and wanted to buy a spare set and seal.

Things didn't look like I expected after watching so many videos. I expected to find a seal accessible from the back of the hub but I don't seem to have that.

Wasn't sure how to extract that rear bearing. Since things look pretty good the temptation is to just put it back together and go with it. But that doesn't get me a spare set or the experience I need to do the job right.

Also, I read that greases shouldn't be mixed. What's on there now is gray. I have a half can of blue bearing grease and just bought a new can of red that I planned on using.

Advice at this point would be appreciated!

Also, will the numbers on the outer bearing be self-explanatory at a parts place like NAPA?

And it appears to be a straight spindle. Would an off-the-shelf hub unit likely work as a replacement?

thanks!!

[Darwin Maring]

Check to see if you have a Northern Tool, Tractor Supply or Pep Boys store near you. If so, take the bearing and seal with you so you can get the right part.

Bearings come with the RACE as a pair so you would need to remove the old race and put in the new one

You could purchase a Chilton's manual that will explain how to do this project. Pep Boys always have a wide selection of these.

[Bob Miller]

To remove the rear seal use an aluminum bar (or even a piece of hardwood), and tap on the bearing from the inside, through the hub, the bearing and the seal will pop out the back. Do this very gently because of the next item.

I took my Hunter Compact-II hubs to Arrow Trailer in Ontario to buy new bearings and seals. They are the biggest RV axle service shop in SoCal. But even they didn't have the seals used in my hubs and had to locate them at a seal specialty house.

As long as I was there I had them press out the old races, clean the hubs, and install the new bearings, grease, and seals,. Total labor was $28.

These are old trailers so some parts may be harder to find than others. Having a spare set on hand is an excellent idea. IF your old bearings or races are burned, pitted or damaged, don't even think of reusing them, new bearings are very cheap compared to a breakdown on the road. And, because this is new to you, let an automotive shop press out the old races and install the new ones.

[Bob Miller]

Just an afterthought, if that 3rd pic is of your inside seal, it looks like someone couldn't find the right seal and Mickey Moused the wrong seal into place. If that's the case, take the entire hub to an automotive machine shop to get it fixer correctly. Getting the correct outside diameter seal was also the problem I had.

[john madill]

From doing some online reading it seems many older trailers have one inch spindles rather that 1-1/16 or 1-3/8.

So I measured mine and it appears to be one inch in diameter. So I googled one inch 4 lug hubs and found several sites selling hub assemblies ready to go at a pretty good price.

If I find one of these will fit I may just pop them on and carry my old hubs as back-ups.

thanks again for the responses!

this address is one of many with these preassembled hubs:

http://www.amazon.com/Martin-Wheel-H4-C-PB-B-4-Bolt-Pressed/dp/B006P1QL74/ref=pd_sim_sbs_auto_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1XW58FFWDQKQR NR9G5RHkl;

[Bob Miller]

That looks like a real good price for a complete hub. I'd check where they were made, Chinese auto parts still aren't always a great bet.

BTW: The axle diameter isn't the problem with finding seals, it's the outside diameter, where it fits into the hub that's the problem.

Let us know what you find out.....

[john madill]

Stopped at several different shops today in search of a spare hub or at least spare seals.

I don't want to travel with just the active hubs, seals and bearings, I want spares.

The bearings seem to be pretty common, no problem getting a set of them.

The seal is another thing. An RV shop looked at my hub and said they didn't have anything that small. He suggested a nearby shop that specializes in bearings.

Took the hub there and he said the seal would have to be removed before he could see if they had a replacement.

There's my Catch 22. right now the seal is in place and working as it should. If I take it out i'll wreck it and maybe they can't replace it.

I'll go from two functioning hubs to one and that ain't good!

The power was out at the bearing place and they probably couldn't see these numbers I found later after scraping off some deposits.

Here's close-up photos of the letters NOK and numbers. Looks like 8998 or 8668, depending on its orientation.

I did find a spare hub all lubed and ready for $35 but the fellow there thought that on my older trailer I might have a "short" hub so his wouldn't fit.

He might be wrong though. I didn't bring the hub with me to that shop. On my hub it looks like the back projection is shorter than the front projection. On his hub they were of equal length. But that's something of an optical illusion I think. I measured his from front to back with a tape measurer through the center hole and came up with a depth of 4-1/4".

I had earlier measured mine at 4" but hadn't put the tape through the inner part so my measurement wasn't too accurate. I put a thin tape thru mine tonight and it seems to be 4-1/4" too.

Looking on line I see some "short" hubs that were 3-1/2", clearly much shorter than mine.

Tomorrow i'll take my hub back there in person. Perhaps buy one of their's it they'll take it back if it doesn't fit. they're pretty good about that, it's a marine store.

He suggested I buy a used axle from him with standard hubs for $129. I'm pretty ham handed, bearings are a struggle, can't even think about another axle though looking under the trailer it did seem pretty simple, just a pair of u-bolts holding it on to the springs.

[Bob Miller]

The axle sounds like a good deal, BUT... I'll bet it isn't a drop axle like your Hunter has.....

The bearing and seal specialty shop I went to didn't find the number off of mine in his interchange lists and had to actually measure the O.D. and then look through a data base to find one that fit. Unfortunately I didn't write down the number at the time.

If you take your hub to an automotive machine shop they should be able to remove and replace the existing seal without damage and repack-replace the bearings at the same time. It's not rocket science if one knows what they are doing.....

[Darwin Maring]

If you are careful, you can get the seal out without damage and re-use it.

[john madill]

Took my hub today to the trailer place where the fellow had quoted me $150 to deal with two hubs.

Was hoping to find the right seal there and then do it myself. The counter man who had quoted $150 saw me coming with the old hub and gestured to an open garage door and said I wanted to see the fellow there.

Nice young man, took my hub, disassembled it, produced the correct seal, pulled everything apart, cleaned the bearings, packed them and put it all back together.

I told him I wanted two extra seals, one for my other hub and one for a spare.

He asked me to bring in the other hub that afternoon as he wasn't busy.

He charged me $3 each for the seals and the invoice said $10 for grease, a total of $19.

I gave him five bucks, paid the $19 at the office, and went home and put the hub back on, jacked up the other side and pulled that hub and took it back.

He did the same to that hub and said I didn't owe anything for that one, he had figured it in the initial cost.

So basically it was nine bucks for seals and ten bucks for cleaning and packing two hubs. And I got to watch him do it so I feel pretty confident in removing seals if necessary (took a lot of hammering!) and servicing the bearings on the roadside if necessary.

Thanks to all of you for your advice!

[Bob Miller]

In other words, he just happened to have the right seals? Sweeeet.....

Being a trailer place they were more apt to have it one would think... That's all good news.

[john madill]

Thanks Bob....

I don't know how that first guy managed to come up with a figure of $150. This place mostly deals in high-end horse trailers with living quarters, over six figures.

Maybe he assumed I had brakes to deal with. While I was waiting I heard the service man talking on the phone with an insurance person in Vermont. One of his clients had a claim for hail damage to the roof of a horse trailer and he was hearing of $40,000 estimates for repair and wanted to talk with this shop who sold the trailer.

The service man assured him those estimates were pretty good. Apparently for roof repairs the unit has to be sent from Vermont to Oklahoma where the trailer was built.

Before fixing the roof the living quarters have to be removed and that costs $1,000 a foot. Then the roof gets fixed and the trailer is sent back to Vermont. Ouch!

Makes having a small, inexpensive trailer like a Compact sound like the way to go!

[Bob Miller]

Had you just taken your trailer in your would also have had the additional labor to jack up the trailer, remove the wheels, remove the hubs and then replace everything. All you had to pay for was bench time, that's a good deal.

A Compact is the way to go, unless you have a horse that is!