How Often Should You Repack the Bearings on a Trailer That Mostly Sits?

October 27, 2026

Every 12 months, even if the trailer barely moved. Dexter’s axle manual says bearings should be lubricated every 12 months or 12,000 miles, whichever comes first, and Featherlite’s and 4-Star’s own schedules use the same interval. A horse trailer that does a few hundred miles a year, or a boat trailer that comes out for the summer, hits the 12 months long before the miles. A repack typically runs $150 to $250 per axle around Ocala. Here is why sitting does not let you skip it, and what to do while the trailer is parked.

What the makers say

The miles and the months are both limits. The calendar matters because grease does not stop aging when the wheels stop turning.

What sitting does

Dexter’s own storage and after-storage instructions say what a parked trailer needs:

• Before storage: jack the trailer and put stands under the frame (never the axle tube or equalizers) so the weight is off the tires; lubricate the exposed hitch and suspension parts; take the breakaway battery inside and charge it at least every 90 days.
• For boat trailers: remove the drums, clean, dry and relubricate the brake parts, and inspect, clean and relubricate the bearings.
• For oil-filled hubs: turn the wheels every 2 to 3 weeks during long storage, because the upper rollers are not in oil.
• After storage: check brake linings, drums and magnets, lubricate brake parts, inspect seals, lubricate the hub bearings, and mount and torque the wheels.

That is a lot more than “pump some grease in and go”.

Boat trailers: a different clock

A boat trailer’s bearings go under water at every launch. Featherlite’s chart says an unsealed bearing that has been immersed in water should be replaced before the next use, and 4-Star says to replace bearings promptly if immersed. Dexter says axles without its E-Z Lube feature are not designed for immersion and their bearings should be repacked after each immersion, and that its sealed Nev-R-Lube bearings are not designed for immersion at all. For a boat trailer that launches every weekend at Lake Weir, the Rainbow River or the Ocklawaha, the useful habit is a bearing check at the end of each season, not just once a year. See boat trailer repair.

Grease zerks are not a repack

Dexter’s E-Z Lube spindles have a grease fitting in the end. Turn the hub, pump grease in slowly, and the old grease is pushed back out at the cap until clean grease shows, without pulling the hub. That is a good way to top up between services. It is not a substitute for one, because a repack is also an inspection: pitted cups, blued rollers, a weeping seal, a scored drum and worn brake magnets are all things you only see with the hub off.

Dexter also says not to mix lithium, calcium, sodium or barium complex greases, and that the old grease must be completely removed when changing type. Pumping a different grease into a zerk mixes them.

Signs it cannot wait

• A hub much hotter than the others after a drive. Sundowner says to feel the hubs at fuel stops and to have any excessively hot one checked, repacked or replaced immediately.
• Grinding, rumbling, or play when you rock the wheel.
• Grease on the inside of the wheel, from a failed seal.
• Milky gray grease at the cap on a boat trailer.

See hub hot or wheel noise.

The Ocala calendar

Most horse trailers here rest over the summer and haul hard through the winter circuit, from HITS in late October to the end of the WEC Winter Spectacular in April. That puts the ideal repack date in the fall: after the summer sit, before the season’s miles. Do the brakes at the same time; the drum is the hub, so it is off anyway.

See wheel bearing service, trailer brake repair and the bearing and brake calculator.