Oil flooded trailer bearings

[Texas Diesel]

I saw an ad recently for a kit to convert your trailer bearings from grease to oil flooded trailer bearings. Anyone know where to get more information?



TIA

 

[cwienenga]

try

www.tiedown.com



Turbo Lube Hub Kits

 

[JWhitcomb]

I became aware of these a while ago and plan to put them on my boat trailer. I talked to lots of people and did not discover any drawbacks. It turned out that some of those I talked to have them on big rigs. Biggest concern is to make sure your seal is in good shape.

 

[cwienenga]

oil bearings

I work on semi trucks and all have oil bearings on steeraxle. I also thought about it on boat trailer,you can see oil level in glass and if water entered oil gets cloudy, the only problem we have is a lot of the time the plastic glass gets cloudy from heat, I don't know about these. the trucks have a rubber plug you can pull to see the level or add oil, (if the glass is bad).

the other concern is if the oil seal works to keep water out and not just the oil in.

cliff

 

[Shelby Griggs]

I am thinking of replacing my stock hubs on my Wells Cargo with the Turbo Lube Hubs. It has been about 18 months since this post was last active. Does anybody have any additional comments or results? This looks way better than always greasing and is fairly cheap at around $100 for a pair of these hubs.



Shelby

 

[Casey Balvert]

The only downside is that if you have a seal go bad and the oil leaks out, bearing failure quickly follows. Grease is a more forgiving as it doesn't leak out as fast. Other than that, if one is vigilant bearing life is significantly increased.



Casey

 

[WNowlan]

IMO... grease is the best option. If properly done the grease will outlast the seals in an oil bath.



This is especially true on a boat trailer application. The grease is designed to keep water out of the bearing. Gear oil will mix and cause big problems. Just think in these terms. You have hot oil and the pressure inside builds. You then emerse these hubs into cool water. The pressure change will draw the water in past the seals. The gear oil will not leak out but then you have a mixture.



A 5 maybe ok but you do have that possibility of a seal failure and a cooked bearing.



The second most common cause a grease lubrication failure is from too much grease. This causes channeling and then excessive heat and then failure.

 

[RustyJC]

Finally!!!! Oo. Our new 5th wheel has the Dexter Nev-R-Lube axles that use sealed tapered roller bearings. Those of you with Dexter axles might check with Dexter to see if your axles/hubs can go with this design.



Rusty