Wheel bearing

[UNDRPSI]

I would stay with the grease. You know when you repack them that you have plenty in there. if you have a leaky seal you only leak out a little grease. if you have them in oil and you have a leaky seal you may not have any oil in the hub by the time you find out you had a leaky seal. Plus grease doesn’t flow like oil and get all over your breaks shoes. They gave me the choice when I had the MoR/ryde axles installed and I stayed with grease. They found a leaky seal and replaced it. Brakes were not contaminated.

[puller f350]

I will post the outcome good or bad good I hope.

[Dave&Ginny]

I have been around oil bathed bearing on big trucks and they always had a very thin (almost paper) seal. These do not so I don't see anyway possible for them to hold oil. Don't get me wrong...I wish they did because personally I love the idea of oil bathed bearings. If I'm wrong about these....I'll be a happy camper

[Titan Guy]

The oil bath uses a different rear seal and needs to be pressed in place. Tolerance around the seal & spindle is very tight to maintain a seal. The only dis-advantage I know of is that if a trailer sits for any amount of time, the top of the bearing has no oil on it. Like Dave said, it is really used on trucks that move all the time.

[arcticman1957]

Oh my wife gave me the strangest good look the first time and now she just ignores me.

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by atom ant

I guess it may just be my ignorance, but is it just as simple as cleaning the grease and adding oil? Do you have disk or drum?

I have the Kodiak disk brakes. I was told at the Crossroads Factory Service Center last fall that if I wanted to go back to the oil bath bearing system that it would require different rear seals. The oil bath rear seals were considerably more expensive than the grease seals....if memory is correct I think that Randy said they were around $240. for a set of 4. I had always thought that the oil bath bearings would be far superior to regular greased bearings, but then I was told that it depends. If you are on the road all the time, oil bath bearings are better, but if you are in one location for long periods of time, then greased bearings are better.

You can apparently go either way with the Kodiak system. You have to decide for you particular situation.

[j1251b]

Originally Posted by j1251b

I pulled all four hubs off, all of the outer bearing races spin inside the hub. I am going to call Lippert Monday morning and ask if these outer bearing races are suppose to spin.

So I called Lippert this morning to ask about the spinning race in my hubs. The tech said that a little spin in the outer race is ok. So I said ok went to the RV store got 4 new races and installed them no more spin. I had the old race measured and was small than the new ones.

[puller f350]

We talked to RW and Lippert this morning and Lippert said that the clear caps were for oil and Black caps were for grease and that they put the wrong ones on mine, so they are going to clean the oil out and replace it with grease and paint the caps black at the dealer Wed. 9th. Then we should good for a while so we are going to Florida on the 15th. Thanks to everyone for the help.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by j1251b

So I called Lippert this morning to ask about the spinning race in my hubs. The tech said that a little spin in the outer race is ok. So I said ok went to the RV store got 4 new races and installed them no more spin. I had the old race measured and was small than the new ones.

That is plain weird! I won't claim to be a mechanic, but I did turn a wrench for 10 years at an automotive service center and a race that moved in the hub was a death sentence for the hub, because the race would spin inside the hub and continue to make the hole bigger! Knurling maybe? using a punch to dent in the race on the outside to make it tight?

[Ramblin Roadrunners]

I manage an Aamco Trans mission business for 3 more months. I agree with you Adam. I know you can Loctite them in if they are fairly snug and ping them in.

[Blue Dogs]

There is no way a race should spin AT ALL! The race is made of hardened steel the hub is made of soft metal, if both can spin what is going to get torn up? Do not accept this answer. A lot of times you get that " it's ok it's supposed to be that way" when they don't want to deal with it. You say not on mine then it gets fixed. A race that moves at all is not right and IMO the Hub should be replaced as with the race moving in it it's damaged!