What do I need to check/do and how do I go about doing it? Got my first boat this past season and the trailer held up just fine all summer/fall without any work, but I want to make sure I'm good to go for the start of this season. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Does the trailer have Bearing Buddies?

If so, all you have to do is use a grease gun and pack them with a shot or two of grease a couple times per season.

Everything is good unless the bearing is making noise or is hot to the touch after towing.

http://www.bearingbuddy.com/

From what I can recall, having not looked at the trailer for a few months, I don't think I have anything like that.

How would you recommend packing and greasing the bearings? I wouldn't even know where to begin.

I just spent some time using the old Google machine and found a lot of good info. I suppose I should have done that prior to asking  :-[

You'll want to find out what kind of bearing housing you have, Bearing Buddy, etc, and go from there.

What year, what brand trailer?

At least once a year, and before any long trips, I will jack each wheel up and grab the tire tread and try and wiggle the tire. You want to make sure there is a tiny bit of "play" but no more than that. If there is too much "play" you can tighten them a 1/8 or a 1/4 of a turn...or however much it takes to get them so they only have a tiny bit of wiggle. Afterwards, I grease them up good and then put the covers back on. A little bit of simple maintenance goes a LONG way with bearings nowadays.

Did you buy the boat and trailer used? If so, I would tear it apart and manually pack the bearings now. Going forward, even with bearing buddies I manually pack my bearings once every year or two depending on how many times the trailer is in the water. The bearing buddies are a way to keep most of the water out but injecting grease through the zerk fitting on them is not as good as a thorough packing. Use the zerk fittings throughout the year but pack the bearings manually at least once every year or two.

There are some great (and some not so great) videos on You Tube that show step by step how to inspect/repack/replace bearings. Just search "boat trailer bearings". The best one I saw was about 8 or 9 minutes long and was two guys working on a trailer w/ small job boat (can't recall the name).

I just replaced mine after 5 years of use and have bearing buddies. Their website recommends checking/repacking bearings every 10,000 miles.

If you don't have buddies I'd remove/inspect/repack the bearings each off season. Its really the only way to know you are good to go. Its fairly easy once you see the video provided you have average mechanical skills.

Every chance you get when trailering touch the hubs, they should be warm but not so hot that you can't keep your hand on them. If your trailer has disc brakes you may not be able to detect the tell tale wobble or drag or growl of a bad bearing as soon/easy as a trailer without brakes.

One last tip, when you disassemble the hub, the bearings will have the part number printed on them so you will know what to buy for replacement.

They make a 2 piece bearing greaser but the old fashion way was big glob of grease in your palm and rolll the grease in. I have found a trick to use a thick ziplock bag with a good amount of grease,  put the bearing in the bag and twist or get all the air out then force the grease into the bearing much cleaner than in the hands. I also think it forces the grease in better.

Thanks for all the tips guys. I picked up some bearing grease so hopefully I will get to work on these bearings this weekend. Hope I don't come back with more questions...

waterproof grease right?

Don't forget quality seals.

Will I have to wait until I get the hub off and bearings and seals in my hand to determine what size seal I will need, or are there standard sizes?