Trailer hubs, switching over to oil vs grease?

I would consider annual mileage. eventualy oil bath will leak. Probly not so much with grease but grease will need to be repacked at some point. Never measured it but as I understand it grease will run hot if you put too much in there.

 

I prefer oil bath myself, BUT I always walk around and feel the hubs anytime I stop especially at night. I changed them over on my step deck and they ran considerably warmer with the oil, I still like being able to look and see if they have oil in them, over grease. If you decide to change it, do not just buy a cap and add oil, clean the bearings and start fresh, mixing it is no good.

 

I’ve heard a few that just added oil to the grease running a mixed blend with good results. I prefer the grease. Less chance of leaking. Last trailer I had a few leaky seals. My current trailer has grease. So far so good. I don’t notice any difference in temperature, I’m sure oil may be cooler. That was a concern, I felt mine last night, as I was running hard for a while. No noticeable heat. Gonna due brakes and all new seals and re pack with grease ASAP. I’m curious to see how the grease had held up.

 

I’ve read something about outer bearings running dry on older Trailers. Due to outer bearing being smaller, Supposedly the newer bearings are larger, allowing better lubrication. Info was from different fleets experience.

 

The problem they were having is outer bearing getting rusty.

 

The only reason the outer bearing would have been a grease packed bearing that was either never packed right at the manufacturer, or has been run way past the time it should have been repacked. In oil it can;'t run dry if you do your part.

The manufactures do screw up. I had to reload a stack of new trailers being delivered to the dealer, because the trailer on the ground never had the first drop of grease in it, and since there is no way to check at a pretrip it burnt the bearings and ruined one axle before the driver caught it.

 

Well look it up yourself, I don’t remember exactly where it was. The first few years of using grease resulted in rusty dry outer bearings. Newer outer bearings are bigger size about the same as as inner ones. No more problems. It made sense as oil will splash, and grease though it gets hot wasn’t reaching the higher placed bearing in the hub

 

I am not saying that bigger bearings didn't help, infact the bigger the cooler they will run anyway. But I do know that some of them if properly packed would last forever, grease packed bearings does not suppose to have to be splashed anywhere. I have pulled many dry bearings, they had all been run way past their service date, or failed real early from bad packing to start with, not only on trailers, it works the same with autos.