Pack Your Bearings Before You Pack Your Bags

Raise your hand if you actually re-pack your trailer’s wheel bearings once a year as recommended. Yeah, repacking bearings by hand can be a greasy mess — who really wants to put globs of grease in their hands, except my three-year-old?  Do yourself a favor and pick up a bearing packer like this one from Lisle for $8. A bearing packer evenly injects new grease into the bearing, which forces out the old grease and flushes out any other contaminants.

The cones of this bearing packer only measure 4-1/2″ in diameter, so it won’t handle bearings with an inner diameter that’s any larger — but face it, you’re not doing trailer wheel bearings at that point.

To repack a bearing, place it between the plastic cones, tighten the top cone so the cones capture the bearing snugly, and start pumping grease through the fitting on the top. Stop when only new grease comes out of the bearing.Who are we kidding?  Even with this tool, you know you’re going to be covered in grease anyway — but at least it’ll make the job easier.