Steer and Tag Axle: Lubrication Thinky

The steer and the tag wheel bearings in our coaches generally use something like 85W-90 gear lube—a liquid. The sight gages make it easy to check the lube level and the process to empty and re-fill is relatively simple.

However, a friend of mine who owned a trucking company for thirty plus years gradually switched over to packing the wheel bearings with 100% synthetic grease. He did this to stop the possibility of the seals leaking. That is, the seals now function primarily as a dust shield.

The idea being: Do it once and never fool with it again.

His rationale for the switch:

A leaking seal would have the truck shut down by the highway safety guys until repaired.
There was a greatly increased chance of fire with the leak that contaminated the brakes—particularly on the steep grades out west.
Best practices also dictated the replacement of brakes that had been soaked by the fluid.

My Liberty has disc brakes on the steer and tag so soaked brakes probably would not be a factor other than the pads themselves.

An occasional bum seal is the fate for many of us but I am tired of screwing around with it. I have a slight leak on the tag now that looks like hell.

At any rate, I think I will do this conversion next month.

I know some of you all were in the trucking business and I suppose many of the rest of you all are attuned to this issue.

What say you?
Comments? Opinions? Recommendations?

Good post Jim!

I pulled the axles out of a old 2 ton truck that I had cut the cab off of. Since the axles could not wick the oil to the bearings, I packed the bearing with grease. It has worked for me. I use the old grain box trailer behind the John Deere 4020 to haul dirt.

Personally, I like the gear lube in the tag/steer hubs and would not want to change. I don't want to be thinking about how the grease is holding up. It is nice to just look at the sight glass.

Jim,all the new axles are coming with grease in place of the gear oil. I think your friend did the correct thing, with the new grease that can handle the heat, that is the trick to success.

very interesting

There are actually the liquid type bearing housings we have or the type that are lubricated with grease. The grease lubricated type have zerk fittings and are lubed per the maintenance schedule.

I have no idea which type is better.

I do agree with Dale in that if I see the proper fluid level I know my bearings are properly lubed. It is a little cumbersome pulling the hub cap off every 5,000 miles, but seeing the lube at the proper level makes it worth while, and besides, it gives me a chance to do a little polishing on the wheels.

Timken and Federal Mogul make the retrofit that your are discussing - the cost is somewhere in the range of $400 per wheel, not exactly economical when compaired to a $30 oil seal. Many fleets are going to it on new units since the newer brakes (shoe type used on tractor/trailers) are outboard mount - meaning that you no longer pull the hub & drum to do a brake job only the drum is removed to access the brake shoes. Many times fluid level in the hub or drive axle is not checked when doing the brake job possibly causing a bearing failure dur to lack of lubrication. Any old timers remember the failure rate of grease packed bearings before the advent of oil seals in the late 60's?

I remember whenb packing the bearings was routine maintenance and U joints were frequently replaced. I also remember changing points.

I wish we never go back to the good old days.