Trailer Wheel Bearing Service: Repack, Replace, Adjust

A trailer bearing repack is the single most useful thing you can do for a trailer that hauls horses, equipment or a boat: typically $150 to $250 per axle, about $300 to $500 for a tandem, done at your barn or driveway. If the hubs show pitted cups or heat-blued rollers, replacing bearings and races runs about $150 to $360 per axle. We spin every wheel before we quote, so the number you get reflects what is actually in the hub.

What a repack includes

1. Lift and support. Jack stands go under the frame. Dexter’s manual is blunt about it: never jack on or support the trailer by the axle tube or the equalizers.
2. Spin and feel first. Each wheel gets spun by hand and rocked top to bottom. Roughness, grinding or play tells us whether this is a repack or a replacement before the hub comes off.
3. Pull the hub. Dust cap, retainer, spindle nut, outer bearing, then the hub with the inner bearing and seal.
4. Clean everything. All old grease out of the hub cavity and off the bearings. Dexter says not to mix lithium, calcium, sodium or barium complex greases, so the old grease has to go completely before new goes in.
5. Inspect. Rollers, cages and cups for pitting, rust, flat spots and blue heat marks. Drums for scoring. Brake magnets and shoes while we are in there.
6. Repack and reassemble. Fresh grease worked into each bearing, a new seal (Dexter says seals get replaced whenever they are removed), and the spindle nut set to the manual’s adjustment.
7. Spin again and check temperature after a short tow if you can take one.

Repack or replace?

Full ranges are on the pricing page.

Why bearings fail on Ocala trailers

Most horse trailers here do short, heavy hauls with long rests between them: the vet, the sales, the show grounds, then a few weeks parked in the pasture. That is a hard pattern for grease. It does not need miles to age. That is why Dexter’s interval is 12 months or 12,000 miles, whichever comes first, and why the 12 months is the one most horse trailers hit.

The fall matters most. A trailer that sat through the summer and then hauls to HITS Post Time Farm or the World Equestrian Center every weekend from October into April needs its bearings done before that run starts, not after a hub smokes on US 27. See hub hot or wheel noise for the check you can do yourself.

Boat trailers are a special case

Bearings that go under water are a different job. Featherlite’s own service chart says an unsealed bearing that has been immersed in water should be replaced before the next use, and 4-Star’s manual says to replace bearings promptly if immersed. Dexter notes its sealed Nev-R-Lube bearings are not designed for immersion. If your trailer backs into Lake Weir or the Rainbow River, see boat trailer repair.

Bearings, brakes and the drum

On a trailer with electric brakes, the hub is the brake drum, so a bearing job is the cheapest time to look at the brakes. We check the magnet face, the shoes and the drum surface every time the hub comes off. If they need work, that is its own line on the quote; see trailer brake repair. The bearing and brake calculator prices both together by axle count.

What we need from you

• Single or tandem axle, and the axle rating if you can read the tag (3,500 lb and 7,000 lb are the common ones).
• When the bearings were last done, if you know.
• Whether it is a boat trailer that gets dunked.
• A level spot to work, at the barn, the house or the yard.