yea, I get that it makes reasonable sense shop-time/hr.-wise

but I just couldn't stomach paying that kinda money for labor that's stone-simple and I can do myself.

No offense intended. If I was too busy making the kind of discretionary income that would make this make sense, well...I get that.

As Mentioned already:

TIMKEN USA only on the bearings.

DO NOT use Chinese.

Mystik JT6 Green Multipurpose Grease is one of the BEST you will ever use. I've sold it now almost 25 years and every customer that tries it likes it. Of course there are many great grease products on the market but we have towed our three boats a combined 75,000 miles and never a failure.

Timken Cups & Cones

Mystik JT6 Green Grease

C/R (now SKF), National (now Timken) or TCM oil seals.

It is a very straight forward proceedure and the final adjustment is the most critical part. tighten the nut down hard to seat the bearings and races then back it off until you hav just the very slightest movement as you put one hand on the bottome of the tire and the other hand at the top of the tire. Of course the tire should spin freely but you need just a very little play to allow for heat expansion of the bearings.

Good Luck

Doc,
Good to know you can get the Timken bearings. Now the problem is how to remember this for next year if I need some.
Dave

How much should the Timken bearings cost? The guy at Trailer World told me he could get these but the Chinese bearings were just as good and they were 4 times as much. I don't have the numbers right now but I just want an idea.

If the Timkens are 4x as much he must be selling them for about 2 bucks a piece. I went to napa and they wanted just as much for the imports as timkens. If you really want to skimp out you could go to West Marine and get the hub kit for about 15 bucks a hub I think.

The good bearings aren't that expensive, you gotta look at the big picture. You can save a few, literally it would be a few dollars per bearing or you can spend a couple hours on the the side of some busy interstate in the baking in the sun after you use the cheap bearings? Which sounds better? And you don't have very many opportunites anymore to buy american, may as well take advantage of it when you can.


I don't remember exactly but I think bearings, races, seals and grease for a dual-axle and an extra of each part was less than 150 with shipping. Not bad at all.

If you have the standard 1-3/8ths and 1-1/16ths spindle here are you part numbers:
L44649 - outer cone
L44610 - outer race
L68149 - inner cone
L68111 - inner race
470460 - grease seal

I'm going to get the better bearings, I just want to know approximate cost, he told me he'd have to look it up, but it would be about $40 per bearing compared to the $10 for the Chinese.

If you can get the Timken part#, shop around. Dont get the cheap bearings. If you do, all this effort will be worthless. Been there done that...and got the T-shirt.

$40? You're getting boned. I just bought a set of Freightliner hub bearings from the Freightliner dealer- they discount to no one. The races are about 6" OD. They were only $43.