Related to Rip van Winkle are you, slept over it all winter.. Now supposing there was water in them there hubs and bearings, what do you think it did all winter? A little bit of water and iron makes ferrous oxide, a.k.a rust. That rust will also attack the spindles and kinda screw things up there too. If you do them in the fall, you may save the bearings, and best of all, be ready to go in the spring when the Robins a bobbin' but your bobber ain't 'cause your trailers broke. As for bearing buddies, everyone has their opinion on them.