I had a bearing go last fall on my boat trailer after one year post-new pack job. I had a bearing buddy on the hub. Not sure if I got a bad (chinese) bearing set? I usually repack every 2-3 years due low usage. I went to the bearing buddy system because they are more durable to tap back in place. They are also a lot harder to remove as I found out. After seeing the state of the grease after one year......I may have moved into the "repack every year" camp. I started using synthetic grease. I will post my findings. Half the trailer tires have dust caps, half bearing buddies so I should be able to see what is working better.