Wheel Bearing Grease Seals

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
I'm planning on doing bearing maintenance in a couple weeks so I went shopping for a better price for CR seals. Here is where I placed my order. CLICK HERE
 

SouthernNights

Past South Carolina Chapter Leader
Thanks for the info. I am going to repack my bearings next month. The last time I bought those seals from NAPA they were just over $20 a peice. This will save a couple of dollars.

What did they charge you fior shipping?
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Thanks for the info. I am going to repack my bearings next month. The last time I bought those seals from NAPA they were just over $20 a peice. This will save a couple of dollars.

What did they charge you fior shipping?
$10.46 to Mission, TX A bit pricey for a few seals but still saved about 25 to 30 bucks. No sales tax
 

Wharton

Well-known member
Are we all talking about the same thing? Why would the seals be $20 at several places and oly $1.95 at etrailer????
 

lwmcguir

Well-known member
You want to use a minimum of a double lip seal. Never use a single lip for a camper or any other trailer.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Are we all talking about the same thing? Why would the seals be $20 at several places and oly $1.95 at etrailer????
It has to do with a few things. Made in USA, frame thickness and structure, type of material used to manufacture the seal and the lip with the spring for better pressure against the axle seal surface. Many years ago I used to work for Chicago Rawhide in Elgin, IL. I guess you could call it brand loyalty. It would be interesting to see the CR seal next to the etrailer seal side by side for a true comparison. I guess I'm not ready to take a chance on a 3 dollar seal yet.
 

SouthernNights

Past South Carolina Chapter Leader
Ray, I will let you know. i just ordered the 10-36 seal from e trailer. I have the C/R in now. When I get them out I am going to get my mics out and found out what the difference is. If I dont like the etrailer seals, I will go get some C/Rs from Napa.

I am curious to see if there is any difference in the frame.

I will say the service is outstanding. Within, 30 minutes after I ordered them, they sent an email that they had been shipped. That was after 2 other emails about placing the order, then confirming the order.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
Personnaly I don't realy care about the quality of seal on grease. The grease does most of the sealing anyway. If used on oil it is a completly different story. The method of applying the grease to the axle is what is very important.
Mine were all pushed out when I received my trailer and I just pressed them in again an have no problem with my hubs for the last 8K miles.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Ray, I will let you know. i just ordered the 10-36 seal from e trailer. I have the C/R in now. When I get them out I am going to get my mics out and found out what the difference is. If I dont like the etrailer seals, I will go get some C/Rs from Napa.

I am curious to see if there is any difference in the frame.

I will say the service is outstanding. Within, 30 minutes after I ordered them, they sent an email that they had been shipped. That was after 2 other emails about placing the order, then confirming the order.
Thanks Larry! I hope I don't have to eat any crow. Not like that hasn't happened before. ;-)
 

Wharton

Well-known member
How often do you replace the seals? We are planning do do our own maintenance and have EZ-Lubes. WE aren't planning on a full repack at this time, just use the EZ-Lube functionality. Trailer only has 8000 miles on it.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
I traded my last trailer after 15 years and changed the seals once and repacked at that time. I had over 80K miles on the unit. I am not saying to do the same but good maintenance will go a long way.
With the EZ-Lube we have a great opportunity to repack more often by greasing the hubs the right way.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
How often do you replace the seals? We are planning do do our own maintenance and have EZ-Lubes. WE aren't planning on a full repack at this time, just use the EZ-Lube functionality. Trailer only has 8000 miles on it.
When I had the EZ lube hubs, I would do a full repack annually. While the EZ lube feature may sound pretty cool, you have to be careful not to overdo it when adding grease through that zirk. Too much and you can pop a seal or potentially contaminate the brake pads and brake magnets.
When Mor-ryde did my IS system, the EZ lubes were removed and replaced with conventional hubs. Annual repack is still suggested and I replace the seals every time. There is a technique of removing the rear seal by using the axle nut & washer to "pop" out the rear seal. I used to do that with lightweight trailers and re-use the seal. I don't do that (re-use the seal) with the Bighorn.
 

lwmcguir

Well-known member
Personnaly I don't realy care about the quality of seal on grease. The grease does most of the sealing anyway. If used on oil it is a completly different story. The method of applying the grease to the axle is what is very important.
Mine were all pushed out when I received my trailer and I just pressed them in again an have no problem with my hubs for the last 8K miles.

I am way more concerned about dust/sand/moisture getting by the seal and into the grease/bearings than I am of the grease gettin out. That is where the better quality seals shine. We have found this out many years ago on farm implements and trailers that live on the ranch.
 

lwmcguir

Well-known member
The only time you should have to replace good quality seals is when you remove them, loose a bearing, or notice the lip is worn/torn. Otherwise as Laurent said, they should last many years. The exception is when you remove the seal to repack. Replace it. That is why all the trailers we run now have EZ lubes or somthing similar.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
With easy lube, you need to learn how to grease the hubs and they will serve you well. I had to repair my 4 wheels because a technician greased the hubs while pushing the grease through the seal and they poped out. I applied the grease procedure we did to our equipment at the mill and it works very well at removing the old grease and leaving the hub freshly greased. I heard of many owners just pumping a few shots of grease at different interval and they think they are doing the right thing.

The bearings will not circulate the grease unless they are rotated as they are designed to do. When grease is pumped in the axle thru the zirk, the grease flows to the inside of the larger bearing and will take the easy route right through the seal or even push it out. If you rotate the bearing while slowly and lightly pump in grease with light load on the greasegun the grese will be pushed by the rollers through the bearing and on in the cavity and pushed through the rotating ouboard bearing on out the rubber face shield at the end of the axle shaft.

I did experiment with one hub only until the grease was comming out the shield and then removed the hub to check and everything was great inside. So I completed with the other 3. I am very confident at the pressure required to push the grease without hurting the seal, and its very little force. If the pressure on the gun increases you have to let the wheel rotate untill the pressure eases off on the gun and resume greasing.
 

Birchwood

Well-known member
I just finished changing the wheel bearing grease on the four wheels of my Landmark.I removed the wheels and hub covers
so the front bearings would be visible and more importantly wipe the used grease as it is pushed through the bearings.
I used a red grease so it would be more visible when the used grease was completely gone.I used about half a tube of grease on each
hub.There was no pressure when pumping the grease through the bearings.I would assume if the grease doesn't show on
the outer bearing after several pumps your inner seal is gone and then you have to go in and clean up the mess.
Removing the bearings and repacking is a waste of time (thats why they call it Ultra Lube)
 

SouthernNights

Past South Carolina Chapter Leader
I am finally getting around to putting disc brakes on our trailer. After talking with the vendor, he wanted to double check wheel bearing numbers. According to him, Lippert has some unusual bearing and spindle setups on some of their axles. Anyway, I had ordered 4 of the 10-36 seals a month or so ago (before realizing I was going to swap out the brakes this soon) so it gave me a good oppurtunity to check the differences in the cheaper seal vs. the C/Rs I intalled last year during a repack.

Big difference between the two seals, most notably in the frame.
The sealing surfaces are very different also. Both are double lipped but the spacing of the dust seal is different between the two.

Not saying which is better-just; in this case; you get what you pay for. So it cost 20 bucks to find out the difference. Chalk it up to a good education.

The C/R is on the right in the pictures below.



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Oh, BTW, in case it helps anyone the bearing numbers are:
Inner-14125A
Outer-25580
This if for Lippert 6k axles-which I think from doing research are the same as 7k. The difference is in the spring pack only.
 
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