1 mile from the ramp and a bearing/hub failure!!! #$%^@&!!! Was a perfect afternoon for boating too. 95 deg and calm, would have been nobody on the water, took the afternoon off. So now boat and trailer are at a shop and he promised it will be ready in the AM.

I felt like it was dragging a bit and stopped and looked after a couple miles and all looked good. I even shooke the wheels and the felt solid. a couple miles later some guy on a bike said my wheel was smoking. $%^&#@#!!!! Oh well, that's boating.

Only one mile away?

Hose it down, have some lunch, and proceed at 25mph to ramp!

More seriously, did you have Buddy Bearings? Just curious...if not, when was last repack of bearings?

Bad bearings don't smoke, but hot brakes do...

Make sure your mechanic figures out if:

(A) a bearing went bad, leading to the brakes dragging and smoking...

-or-

(B) your brakes were hanging up (and smoking), and the extreme heat turned your axle grease into water, causing your bearing(s) to fail.

If it turns out to be hanging brakes, be sure to have the spindle alignment checked, as it's possible there was enough heat to bend your spindle.

Bummer...hope you are up and going again soon!


Interesting. I knew brakes would smoke but not that bearing wouldn't.

Good call, FB, that also explains why he was able to feel it dragging.

My bet is PM or Monday after he gets some parts.

Seems to me that extreamly hot bearings will cause the grease to burn. Burning grease should smoke!

hot bearings turn the grease to a liquid, the liquid grease runs out. The bearing gets hotter and fails. Never seen grease smoke on a failed bearing.

I think MarkHB is right.

Check the brake surfaces closely for glazing and heat cracking of the friction material and discoloring/blueing/heat checkering on the steel parts. Also for warpage.

Suspicion is a hung-up brake cooked the bearing.

I had similar happen this weekend coming home from launching the boat. Brakes were locked off, and I had one smoking coming into the driveway. I haven't had a chance to tear into it, but odd occurence.