Can a grease hub be converted to a oil bath hub

spock123 · 03-25-2017, 04:07 PM

I'm at a campground and was talking to another camper and he was telling me about oil filled hubs. He said he was going to install them on his RedWood. Has anyone done this?

bob caldwell · 03-25-2017, 04:08 PM

Big truck stuff....

dieselguy · 03-25-2017, 04:16 PM

Big truck stuff or not ... I've been running oil bath setup for about a year with no worries. If it works for millions of miles OTR it'll work for our RV's. No more digging out the old grease and repacking. The rear seal takes a bit more patience to install, but no biggie. I'm not compensated by this outfit what so ever, but here's a good link.
https://www.pacifictrailers.com/coll...s-5200lb-axles.

bob caldwell · 03-25-2017, 04:21 PM

Didn't say it wouldn't work, but would be watching for leak generated by brake heat seeing how there's less airflow with smaller wheels

dieselguy · 03-25-2017, 04:41 PM

I run the TST tire monitor system. Although when I converted to oil bath ... I also converted to disk brakes ... I've not seen a temp difference to be worth speaking of. I will acknowledge that if I loose the oil, I'll be on the side of the road compared to a greased bearing seal failure. However ... asking around, I just couldn't find that many truckers with wheel seal failures so I went with oil bath. I carry an extra seal and bottle of oil with all my other regular essentials.

bob caldwell · 03-25-2017, 04:44 PM

Stuff more then likely built better these days and better materials

Iwannacamp · 03-25-2017, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dieselguy

Big truck stuff or not ... I've been running oil bath setup for about a year with no worries. If it works for millions of miles OTR it'll work for our RV's. No more digging out the old grease and repacking. The rear seal takes a bit more patience to install, but no biggie. I'm not compensated by this outfit what so ever, but here's a good link.
https://www.pacifictrailers.com/coll...s-5200lb-axles.

Hmmm. Cheap enough.

Jay2504 · 03-25-2017, 08:23 PM

After packing wheel bearings on my first 2 boats that I owned, I installed a product called Liqua-Lube on the third. My third boat had the grease fitting in the center of the spindle like my camper does. You take out the fitting and clean out the grease from the center of the spindle. Then drill with the bit provided three holes on the flange and screw the cover on with the screws from the kit. I did not use their water soluble 40 weight oil and instead used syn 85-90 gear oil just like we use in truck hubs. Went 5 years without touching them. Unlike RVs boat trailers are completely surmerged under water every launch. The only thing that is required is that the flat outer edge of the hub must be 1/4 wide or more to have room for screws that hold the cap on. I haven't checked our unit yet because grease will probably work if I don't "dunk" the wheels. The guys with heavier 5th wheels might look at that option. The rear grease seals were the same double lip seals that I was using. Jay

18CrewDually · 03-25-2017, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dieselguy

Big truck stuff or not ... I've been running oil bath setup for about a year with no worries. If it works for millions of miles OTR it'll work for our RV's. No more digging out the old grease and repacking. The rear seal takes a bit more patience to install, but no biggie. I'm not compensated by this outfit what so ever, but here's a good link.
https://www.pacifictrailers.com/coll...s-5200lb-axles.

Thanks for the link. That's a nice setup they offer.

Filterman · 03-26-2017, 10:00 PM

This makes soooo much sense. Switched from grease to oil Bath trailer seals in the trucking industry 40 years ago and pretty much ended bearing problems. If these guys have thier act together I'm going to see if they have a kit for my axles. Would save the annual messy job of cleaning and repacking bearings.

Comanchecreek · 03-27-2017, 09:05 AM

Interesting, would love to hear of any failures with that type of system. Never had an issue with grease setup when maintained properly except the occasional rear seal failure. Not that expensive either.

Four22 · 03-27-2017, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dieselguy

Big truck stuff or not ... I've been running oil bath setup for about a year with no worries. If it works for millions of miles OTR it'll work for our RV's. No more digging out the old grease and repacking. The rear seal takes a bit more patience to install, but no biggie. I'm not compensated by this outfit what so ever, but here's a good link.
https://www.pacifictrailers.com/coll...s-5200lb-axles.

Be careful with these. I installed them on my tandom axle boat trailer... 2 sets... first set contacted the washer on the outer bearing and put aluminum shavings in the oil....(watch the washer diameters...) second set had water in them the first time I launched. It's a good idea but I didn't have good luck with them at all.

The one draw back that I saw was there was no positive retention, only friction. What happens if one come off going down the road and all the oil runs out?

Not saying their not a good idea, just didn't pan out too well for me.

jeffnick · 03-27-2017, 02:07 PM

I wonder how many bearing problems are actually the result of grease?

bob caldwell · 03-27-2017, 02:26 PM

Lack of it.....

jeffnick · 03-27-2017, 05:18 PM

Four22 - If you lose an oil bath and catch it in time, you can always pack it with grease - but that's not likely. Best case you'll catch it before it destroys the spindle and then replace the bearings and pack them with grease, because hardly any parts store has parts for an oil bath hub...unless of course you care to wait for a shipment of your oil bath parts.

I understand that lack of grease can cause a problem, but how often does the grease disappear from the front of your truck wheels? Grease isn't consumed - it doesn't need to be replaced periodically.

I like to jump on anything new if it makes sense, but oil bath trailer hubs seem to be a solution to a problem that I don't have.

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