What's the deal with these bearing buddies?

[moloch16]

My "new to me" boat came with bearing buddies on the trailer. I took the plastic cover off for a visual inspection and noticed the plastic cover is full of grease, and there is a lot of grease around the grease zerk. This doesn't seem normal to me, it seems the grease should be on the inside of the zerk not on the outside and in the plastic cover. Does this indicate a problem?

In the attached picture you can see what I'm talking about. Notice the grease that splattered on the wheel as I towed it this morning.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

Take it all apart clean and inspect everything.

 

[crazymanme2]

Your bearing buddy's look like mine.Mine has a rubber cover you take off to grease & you will see grease coming out when greasing.

 

[bcbouy]

looks like it wasn't cleaned out after greasing. mine ooze when i pump them full.

 

[TNtroller]

looks fairly normal, previous owner just greased 'em and put the cover back on. I would disassemble, clean and repack the bearings, and fill it up again just to be sure there are no air pockets or water inside the hub, etc.

 

[BassBlaster]

Yep, completely normal. You can take em off like said and clean em up but unless you wipe them down all the time they are gonna continue to look like that. They always ooze especially when full. Just buy some bras for them to keep your wheels clean.

 

[Hanr3]

I dont have any grease ouzing past my bearing buddies. Just returned home from a 400 mile round trip weekend outing. I have 8" tires and ran 65mph each way, hubs still cool/luke warm to the touch. Still no grease ouzing past my bearing buddies. Are you sure they are supposed to leak? I thought that was a sign they were overfilled. My understanding was you filled until the spring started to move, that indicated the hub was full of grease.

 

[TNtroller]

I dont have any grease ouzing past my bearing buddies. Just returned home from a 400 mile round trip weekend outing. I have 8" tires and ran 65mph each way, hubs still cool/luke warm to the touch. Still no grease ouzing past my bearing buddies. Are you sure they are supposed to leak? I thought that was a sign they were overfilled. My understanding was you filled until the spring started to move, that indicated the hub was full of grease.

correct on the oozzing being caused by overfilling the BB's

 

[gajet31]

I found the same thing on my wheels. At first I noticed the splattered grease everywhere. I took off the small rubber cap and grease was everywhere. After disassembling each hub and regreasing, I noticed it was still coming out of the seams. Now I have put the rubber stopper back on, and bought small rubber end pieces that cover the entire hub, which keeps the grease from splattering. It seems like a messy situation, but I believe its correct.