Advised not to repack bearings???
Two years ago, and with our previous trailer, we had a miserable and expensive bearing failure while 4k miles from home. At the time, we had buddy bearings and were under the impression that they did...
Forum Discussion
Like a toilet dumping into a capped 4" sewer.
On the large side of the inner bearing a full lip seal rests. It seals against the spindle. Force grease THROUGH the bearing? Shirley You Jest...the process can replace grease in the space between bearings. While hoping the pressure build-up isn't great enough to compromise the rear seal. Whomever claims such a mechanism can rid even the outer bearing of all contaminants is either a dreamer or a con artist.
Ever do a wheel pack? I washed the bearings in clean solvent then air dried them without spinning them. Then I flushed the bearing with brake clean and felt GRIT on my hands from the flushed brake clean. Invariably.
When no more grit emerged, I would then pack the bearing in a cone wheel bearing packer.
Filling the center of the hub is about the stupidest idea I have ever heard of. grease does not move and if it does it will be by centrifugal force to the outside of the hub. If grease moves it is defective junk
The idea of filling the center of the hub came from hectorite clay based grease which bled (wicked) base oil through a trail of clay to the bearing. Thick don't mean squat...its the oil that does the work just as it does in oil filled Stemco diesel truck front axle and trailer bearings.
When clay based grease was finished wicking, it left modeling clay stiff residue which had to be knocked out of the hub cavity. Early Delco ball bearing grease was clay based, When packed correctly the bearings lasted much longer than prelubed sealed bearings.
That's history. Clay base greases are of the era of tar-top batteries.
Today's greases have to be inserted within the bearing AND STAY THERE. When the hub cover protected (sealed) the outer hub the rawhide seals the inner bearing.
A suitable grease REPELS water. It rejects it utterly and cannot meld with water ever. If water manages to penetrate the hub cap, it wont stay there for long and even if it does, it cannot get anywhere near metal. A good grease can have a half-pint of water in the hub, and it laughs it off. There's no foaming, no mixing, the water stays as a bubble forever kept away from metal. Usually it leaks out of the bearing hub through ten micron size metal irregularities.
Using suitable grease foreign matter cannot pass the hub cap. Never. Water finds it's way out but grit and dust is infinitely larger. So foreign contamination is what, 90,000 times less than it would be with a compromised hub seal?
New wave metal complex greases do not migrate. They do not wick base oil. If the grease is not present on and within the rollers and cage it never will be. You can place 10,000 tons of grease next to a bearings and it will contribute absolutely nothing.
So externally lubed bearings rely on grease displacement to attempt to purge contaminants out of the outer bearing? Contaminants that would not be there in the first place if the hub itself had a proper seal?
The only philosophy that makes sense here would be the engineers are convinced garbage grade grease will (inevitably) be used. Total snot that DOES homogenize with water, does form a muck and does lose a majority of its lubricity.
1940's and 50's thinking and technology that is now utterly and totally made obsolete when super greases are used.
Excellent grease and excellent sealing is light-years more secure than external lubing to purge grease. When not if water enters the hub and homogenizes with garbage grease how does the inner bearing fare..............hmmmmmmm?
When I was going to college, Shell Oil Co. bragged about their 4-Ball-wear-test which is an excellent test as is still being used. We went to school and learning how grease worked.
In 1978 when Lubrication Engineers revolutionized grease with it's Almagard and gear oil with Amasol, I stood amazed. Old conventions had to be tossed aside. Boat trailer manufacturers dare not seal their assemblies with closed hubs because sure as hell a knucklehead will use 39 cent grease. Externally greaseable RV hubs are exactly the same way. Sealing meant failure because too many owners are too cheap or too lazy to do-things-right and stick with garbage lubricants. Actually shops are to blame "Me? Spend five hundred dollars for a quarter-drum of grease when Snot-O-Rama has quarter drums for $79.95 ???"
Keep contaminants OUT OF bearings and use grease that stays put and reduces friction. Lest you think I am a shill for Lubrication Engineers, CHEVRON has a grease called RED GREASE which is a clone to Almagard.
There is JP-7, there is a blue goo, available from home dealer garages that is pure garbage even worse than parts-store grease. There are only two consumer available greases on the face of the earth that actually do what grease should do.
It's a free world. Do what you gotta do, but don't complain about it. The answer is in my response, but I wonder about the percentage of people who read this then sneer at it.
Meanwhile I'm done responding to grease issues. I did my job and said what I needed to say.
On the large side of the inner bearing a full lip seal rests. It seals against the spindle. Force grease THROUGH the bearing? Shirley You Jest...the process can replace grease in the space between bearings. While hoping the pressure build-up isn't great enough to compromise the rear seal. Whomever claims such a mechanism can rid even the outer bearing of all contaminants is either a dreamer or a con artist.
Ever do a wheel pack? I washed the bearings in clean solvent then air dried them without spinning them. Then I flushed the bearing with brake clean and felt GRIT on my hands from the flushed brake clean. Invariably.
When no more grit emerged, I would then pack the bearing in a cone wheel bearing packer.
Filling the center of the hub is about the stupidest idea I have ever heard of. grease does not move and if it does it will be by centrifugal force to the outside of the hub. If grease moves it is defective junk
The idea of filling the center of the hub came from hectorite clay based grease which bled (wicked) base oil through a trail of clay to the bearing. Thick don't mean squat...its the oil that does the work just as it does in oil filled Stemco diesel truck front axle and trailer bearings.
When clay based grease was finished wicking, it left modeling clay stiff residue which had to be knocked out of the hub cavity. Early Delco ball bearing grease was clay based, When packed correctly the bearings lasted much longer than prelubed sealed bearings.
That's history. Clay base greases are of the era of tar-top batteries.
Today's greases have to be inserted within the bearing AND STAY THERE. When the hub cover protected (sealed) the outer hub the rawhide seals the inner bearing.
A suitable grease REPELS water. It rejects it utterly and cannot meld with water ever. If water manages to penetrate the hub cap, it wont stay there for long and even if it does, it cannot get anywhere near metal. A good grease can have a half-pint of water in the hub, and it laughs it off. There's no foaming, no mixing, the water stays as a bubble forever kept away from metal. Usually it leaks out of the bearing hub through ten micron size metal irregularities.
Using suitable grease foreign matter cannot pass the hub cap. Never. Water finds it's way out but grit and dust is infinitely larger. So foreign contamination is what, 90,000 times less than it would be with a compromised hub seal?
New wave metal complex greases do not migrate. They do not wick base oil. If the grease is not present on and within the rollers and cage it never will be. You can place 10,000 tons of grease next to a bearings and it will contribute absolutely nothing.
So externally lubed bearings rely on grease displacement to attempt to purge contaminants out of the outer bearing? Contaminants that would not be there in the first place if the hub itself had a proper seal?
The only philosophy that makes sense here would be the engineers are convinced garbage grade grease will (inevitably) be used. Total snot that DOES homogenize with water, does form a muck and does lose a majority of its lubricity.
1940's and 50's thinking and technology that is now utterly and totally made obsolete when super greases are used.
Excellent grease and excellent sealing is light-years more secure than external lubing to purge grease. When not if water enters the hub and homogenizes with garbage grease how does the inner bearing fare..............hmmmmmmm?
When I was going to college, Shell Oil Co. bragged about their 4-Ball-wear-test which is an excellent test as is still being used. We went to school and learning how grease worked.
In 1978 when Lubrication Engineers revolutionized grease with it's Almagard and gear oil with Amasol, I stood amazed. Old conventions had to be tossed aside. Boat trailer manufacturers dare not seal their assemblies with closed hubs because sure as hell a knucklehead will use 39 cent grease. Externally greaseable RV hubs are exactly the same way. Sealing meant failure because too many owners are too cheap or too lazy to do-things-right and stick with garbage lubricants. Actually shops are to blame "Me? Spend five hundred dollars for a quarter-drum of grease when Snot-O-Rama has quarter drums for $79.95 ???"
Keep contaminants OUT OF bearings and use grease that stays put and reduces friction. Lest you think I am a shill for Lubrication Engineers, CHEVRON has a grease called RED GREASE which is a clone to Almagard.
There is JP-7, there is a blue goo, available from home dealer garages that is pure garbage even worse than parts-store grease. There are only two consumer available greases on the face of the earth that actually do what grease should do.
It's a free world. Do what you gotta do, but don't complain about it. The answer is in my response, but I wonder about the percentage of people who read this then sneer at it.
Meanwhile I'm done responding to grease issues. I did my job and said what I needed to say.
