Ranger trailer cool hubs

I NOW OWN A RANGER WITH COOL HUBS AND NOTICE THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE CHANGING THEM TO GREASE HUBS ,ITS A USED RANGER BUT NEW TO ME. WHY CHANGE? THANKS :confused:

Check out the Ranger forum at bassboatcentral. I also saw something about it in the trailer & towing forum.

If there is nothing wrong with your hubs and they are not leaking do not mess with them. I have a 2003 Ranger and change the oil in them every couple of years and have had no issues. From what I have read they might have not been the best designed hubs and if they go most people are replacing with the newer technology. The new ones have a grease that turns to oil when hot and then cools back to grease.

I checked out bassboatcentral and watched a video under the trailer forum and it showed everything i asked about. The only thing it didnot answer was what kind of grease to use. Thanks for all the help

If you have the cool hubs you use 50wt oil. They do not call for synthetic just regular oil.

[QUOTE=crawfish;490911]I checked out bassboatcentral and watched a video under the trailer forum and it showed everything i asked about. The only thing it didnot answer was what kind of grease to use. Thanks for all the help[/QUOTE]

A marine grade grease works fine. Walmart has a Pennzoil Marine grease I've used for years.

I too switched my cool hubs to grease. The cool hubs were not a good application for boat trailers, and a pain in the rear!

[QUOTE=artcarney_agr;490974]A marine grade grease works fine. Walmart has a Pennzoil Marine grease I've used for years.

I too switched my cool hubs to grease. The cool hubs were not a good application for boat trailers, and a pain in the rear![/QUOTE]


How in the world are they a pain in the rear? Or a bad design? You literally take the aluminum plate off with an Allen wrench. Remove the wheel. Look for the Allen head screw on the hub, remove it and spin the hub over to drain. You then replace with 50wt oil, put the Allen head screw back in, install the wheel, aluminum plate and you're done. Have been running cool hubs for a long time and never had an issue. Wouldn't own a boat without them!

[QUOTE=Tashe2;563477]How in the world are they a pain in the rear? Or a bad design? You literally take the aluminum plate off with an Allen wrench. Remove the wheel. Look for the Allen head screw on the hub, remove it and spin the hub over to drain. You then replace with 50wt oil, put the Allen head screw back in, install the wheel, aluminum plate and you're done. Have been running cool hubs for a long time and never had an issue. Wouldn't own a boat without them![/QUOTE]
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[QUOTE=crawfish;490846]I NOW OWN A RANGER WITH COOL HUBS AND NOTICE THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE CHANGING THEM TO GREASE HUBS ,ITS A USED RANGER BUT NEW TO ME. WHY CHANGE? THANKS :confused:[/QUOTE]

Most of the cool hub problems were with trailers that had tiedown engineering components. They used them somewhere around 2005 through 2008. If you have those hubs you're asking for trouble. I switched to the grease filled retro fit hubs and have had no problems. Until then I had to change my hubs several times. I carried two with me so I wouldn't get stranded. You'll also have problems with your master cylinder. You'll get good at rebuilding those too, if it's a tiedown brand. Good luck

After 14 years of NO problems my cool hubs, right side showed signs of "coffee with cream". I took the wheel off & drained the grease & refilled with synthetic 70-90 oil. A few months later the same thing occurred. I had a local shop install new seals which were a royal PIA to get from Ranger. I continued to use the boat/trailer locally until they arrived & just drained the oil every 3rd trip. New seals lasted about 2 weeks. I said that's it. Took my boat to a Triton dealer because of previous issues with my local Ranger dealer. I replaced the axle including brake assy complete.....brngs, seals, lines, cylinder....no more cool hubs....Been on for 6 months. Boat gets splashed 3X week on avg. No issues. Life is good!!

And I just noticed this post was 5 years old. Oh well maybe it'll help someone.

[QUOTE=toomanycasts;563521]Most of the cool hub problems were with trailers that had tiedown engineering components. They used them somewhere around 2005 through 2008. If you have those hubs you're asking for trouble. I switched to the grease filled retro fit hubs and have had no problems. Until then I had to change my hubs several times. I carried two with me so I wouldn't get stranded. You'll also have problems with your master cylinder. You'll get good at rebuilding those too, if it's a tiedown brand. Good luck[/QUOTE]

I have a 2008 ranger 188vx with the single axle. I had to replace the hubs on several occasions never the left one but the right side due to catastrophic failure on the side of the road usually. I would check them and they would be fine then about the time you got in a curve on the interstate going 70 boom it would collapse. in 2015 or so I called ranger for a fix because I saw that they had a viable replacement. I voiced my concerns with them and they mailed me free of charge 2 vortex hubs. They are similar to the cool run but contain a grease that turns to liquid when heated. Knock on wood I haven't had any problem with my hubs since. I would literally change the whole hub assembly on a yearly basis both sides but since I switch I haven't had any problems (fingers crossed) It is a tie down engineering problem.