The wheels on the trailer go round and....

I have oil bath wheel bearings on the trailer, and have had very good experience with them. No leakage from the inner wheel seal. However, I do get some seepage from the center fill hole on the clear plastic cap. These are Kodiak aftermarket oil bath add ons. I suspect the leakage happens when water intrudes into the hubs through that same fill hole seal, when dunking the trailer. Even though I routinely take 15 minutes or so prepping the boat to launch on short trips, or an hour or more to launch when on long trips. So the hubs do get a chance to cool down some. The Tenney Locks boat ramp I use on Lake Mendota is 21 miles from my house. I always check the oil level in the hubs before, after, and on long trips, during, travel. Oil was full on all the hubs, and didn't show signs of much water intrusion. About 5 miles away from the ramp, while towing on one of our smaller highways through Madison, a box truck driver pulled beside me to get my attention. I rolled down my window, and while rolling 45mph down the road, he hollered and motioned that my wheel had come off! Well crap. I pulled off at the next exit, and sure enough, my right front trailer wheel and hub were gone. I never felt a thing. No pull or tug from the boat behind me, or anything that would get my attention something was happening back there. I do have a TPMS, but did not have it on for this in town trip. The spindle still had the hub rotor hanging on it, clamped between the two brake pads. The caliper and brakes were still there. But the tire, wheel and hub where gone. Now I did go back three times over the next two days to search for it. It was a brand new tire, without even 500 miles on it. And TPMS sensors are not cheap either... Never found it. I think it's probably in some bush and trees along side the road, if it came off just before the truck driver motioned me. Slowly drove the rest of the way home. By the time I got home, the rotor had fallen off somewhere, but the brakes were still on. I'm amazed that the rotor broke away from the rest of the hub, and that the only damage to the caliper was the main bracket had one of its "ears" missing and the flange that holds the caliper bracket was slightly bent. The next few days was spent cleaning up the spindle, after getting the inner and outer bearing rings off that set on the spindle. I also had to mostly cut the castle nut off. Chased the threads with a new 1-14 die, ordered and installed new hub, rim, tire and TPMS transmitter, along with Timken bearings and races for all four hubs. When I pulled the other hubs to replace the bearings, I found that two of them did have a little bit of water in with the oil. But the bearings in those hubs looked like brand new. No pitting, rust, corrosion or excessive wear. I have about 60,000 miles on this trailer now. To this day, I still do not know what caused the bearing to fail on that right front hub. I was, and maybe still a little concerned about the spindle, and have spoken with a local marine repair and trailer manufacturer here in town. He said they would not repair or replace the spindle, but rather just replace the whole torsion axle. Since doing all the repair work myself, I have put over 100 highway miles on the trailer, and everything appears to be working as it should. Hub temps are staying cool, and no leakage from the new inner seal. So, I think for now this issue is resolved, and time to get back to the motor issue.Read more