Wheel bearing grease to oil conversion ?
 

Anyone tried it?? It seems like the way to go, Trucks and larger trailers use oiled wheel bearings rather than grease, simple visual inspection to see if water contaminated or low on oil. I found this link ....

http://www.trailerandtruckparts.com/...ls-_p_350.html

West marine has it t,o this place was cheaper

Randy

Good question, I own Prevost tour busses and in 2007 they changed over from oil hubs to a sealed none serviceable grease unit. Now we never see water and stuff like a boat trailer but the sealed units have been great for 200,000 miles so far knock on wood.

It's been talked about here before. Do a search.

General consensus was NOT do to this on trailers that are dipped in the water.

I think they are going back to sealed bearings for most commercial applications. If the oil leaks it's not long before the wheel seizes or twists off the stub. Greased bearings have a much more gradual failure.

Brian
Yes I always do a search first .... tried wheel bearings , trailer bearings, oil trailer etc. I even tried google to find the oil kits. But
thank you on the summary, that was what I was looking for...

Randy

The reason for asking was when they were hauling my Awesome they lost the center wheel on the right side some where in the mountains of Pennsylvania. The boat made the rest of the trip on 5. The wheel bearings were greased and check before before the trip (not by me). I have had problems w/wheel bearings (I am analabout greasing and checking wheel bearings) just looking for a better system....
Randy

Try term in search "oil bath".

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/t...ath-axles.html

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/t...-spindles.html

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/t...rotectors.html

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/t...questions.html

Oil is better than grease on terms of lubrication and cooling, but obviously harder to keep in, and faster to fail in case of a leak. (The Penske Racing truck fire last summer was due to a bearing fire.)

The kits that I saw to convert trailer hubs had a clear cap so you could inspect the oil. There's no reason they shouldn't work well, as long as all your seal surfaces are good, but that's where dunking the trailers causes problems.....

One thing that is overlooked is how the Castle Nut is retained. I prefer the old fashioned cotter-pin though the spindle method, but most of the new trailers with grease-zerks in the end of the spindle can't use this method. They have these Axle Tang Washers where you bend one tab over into the Castle Nut opening. I think they suck, but what can you do?

http://www.rockettrailers.com/PartsB...g%20Washer.jpg

You can break off those tabs with your Crescent wrench, and so can a little pressure/twist from a heated bearing. As soon as that tab is gone, your wheel will be gone within a mile.

Next time I redo bearings I am going to double up on the Axle Tang Washer.