Troubleshooting Driver Side Hub Getting Hot on PWC Trailer

Question:

I have 4.80 - 8 Loadstar wheels on my PWC trailer Titon Wave, bought brand new July 2018. I travel often times 150-300mi from home with this trailer at 80mph when on the freeway. Ive even taken to Florida this last spring. Prior to this trip I learned more about monitoring and maintaining trailer hubs grease gun, spare hub and bearings where brought for safe measure. The first hour into this trip I feel both hubs and the driver side is quite hot to the touch. I pumped it with grease at my next stop and hoped for the best. This caused much stress during this trip now knowing the potential failures that could occur. I checked both wheels again prior to departure for home and again pumped new grease in. In all no hub damage on this trip, but just one blown tire 30mi from our hotel one dark and rainy evening outside Nashville Could a hot hub have caused this? This trip has prompted me to open up each hub to inspect all bearings and replace with new grease. My first trip out after this, Im still getting a hot driver side hub though, not quite as hot. Regardless, the concern continues. Would increasing my tire size of 4.8-8 to 4.8-12 resolve my concerns over the hub getting overheated?

asked by: Erik W

Expert Reply:

While you certainly could upgrade to larger tires if you wish, the current size on your PWC trailer wouldn't contribute to a hot hub assembly, especially considering it's only on one side of the trailer.

You have already done a really good job of trying to pinpoint the cause for this by pulling the hubs, inspecting the bearings, and re-greasing everything. There are a couple of other things you can check that could be creating the type of friction that heats up a hub/wheel assembly like this.

I first just recommend that the hub isn't too tight on the spindle, at least compared to the passenger-side assembly. You can simply back off on the spindle nut just a tiny bit to see if this helps.

Something else that can cause this friction is a spindle that's slightly bent. Unless it's prominently bent or you have really good eyes, this might be hard to test yourself so you may want to take the trailer up to a local trailer shop to have them look at it and the overall suspension setup to make sure everything is lined up correctly. A bent spindle could cause the tire to basically scrub along the road during travel.

expert reply by: Chris R