Grease vs. oil filled hubs

Oil filled.

 

Depends on your application. Oil and grease both have advantages and disadvantages

 

care to expand?

I got my trailer with grease hubs and am considering converting it to oil.

 

OIL!!!! U can easily see if your bearings have lube and spot problems sooner. grease will let things sneak up on you. oil lubes much better, however, u can have a seal leak and loose your oil real fast while grease will stay in. when i was in the shop grease bearings failed much more than oil. i replaced 10 grease to 1 oil. just make a stedfast routine of peekin at your oil level everyday and watch the inside of the drums and tires for signs of leaks. carry a quart of lucas engine oil additive. if you spot a leak top off the hub with lucas and it will drastically slow the leak till you can repair it.

 

Oil

Having both over the years oil is better and you can change the oil faster than cleaning and repacking grease hubs.

 

If trailer is used every day then go with oil, but if trailer will be sitting you want grease. Problem with oil is if trailer sits for a few weeks, seals dry out and you have leaks. That is why dry van companies use a lot of grease packed.

If hauling heavy weights all the time, you get more life out of grease than oil filled with your bearings. You can do both. See it all the time on buses and some new Stoughton trailers I've worked on. They coat the bearings in grease then top off with oil. Some rg trailers are that way as well.

If in the south every day, grease filled due to better control with heat. If in north, oil is better for grease will freeze at -12 and you'll have bearing loss before it heats up.

Like I said, depending on application. On failures with grease over oil, working in the shop and doing the repairs I've repaired more oil filled than grease filled. I've had more bearing failures with oil filled. Grease filled is usually improper packing during install. If you pull caps at each brake change for repack you will get better life than oil filled. Most are cheap and don't want to spend the extra hour of labor to repack the four wheels.

 

the thread is old but the question is still actual. Interesting to read:
WHEEL-END LUBE: NOT SO SIMPLE | Today's Trucking

Last 2-3 years I have seen more broken hubs that was semifluid grease packed compared to oil bath lubricated...

 

Anyone have anymore info? I have my first grease trailer ever and clueless on what to do.
If I keep the grease, what kind do you pack them with?
What does it take to convert to oil? Just new seal and hubcap?
What do I do if I want a mix? Just install oil hubcap and some oil?
It's driving me nuts I can't see in there.

 

After reading that I think I will convert to oil at the next brake job I do.