Wheel bearing grease

Chevron Delo ESI is the semi fluid synthetic most trailer hubs are factory assembled with. Pumps in like grease. Becomes semi fluid with heat/use.

But, it leads to people not inspecting them often enough. My opinion, if you a one truck operation. Stick to oil bath hubs, and keep a close eye on them. If you have hundreds of trailers all over the country with company drivers doing PTI. Get the grease.

I do not know what grease the newer Hendrickson axles use. Haven't worked on one.

 

Change the wheel ends to oil bath or get rid of the trailer is what I would do. Most semi-trailers are oil bath hubs for a reason. They're just a better idea for a trailer that sees heavy use all week that you need to be able to pre-trip quickly.

 

Nothing wrong with grease, is standard Here in Australia to use grease, have never seen oil filled, all our trailers use grease from the factory

 

Problem starts when the hubs are not checked at the time it is to check them. The seals start leaking, the grease disappears then the bearings run dry and problem happens. People think greased hubs are good forever, and that is not the case.

 

After pulling one of my Trailers hub apart, because of a seeping wheel seal, I couldn’t believe how well the grease was still intact, as if it had just been packed. I couldn’t find the grease. Found it online. Meanwhile I used oil. Now it’s seeping again. The grease is expensive. I plan on repacking all 4 with grease and replacing the seals, when the weather breaks. I had them on my 99 Freightliner steers. Never had a problem. The problems they had at first was due to the outer bearings being smaller than the inner. That caused the outer to get dry, and fail. The result was catastrophic failures. Canada had a lot of failures, I first heard of it from the Guy I bought my last Trailer from. It was a 01 Great Dane. He switched it from grease to oil. Later I read about a Fleet Manager Convention’s presentation on the subject. Bottom line, grease is good only if you have the newer style hubs with larger outer bearings. I’m sold on the chevron oo grease. Penske uses it on every Trailer, and no longer has issues with bad seals.

 

One thing I have seen on oil bath hubs is bearings will surface rust and leave corrosion pitting on rollers and race surfaces on the upper most part not submersed in the oil if a trailer or truck steer axle is parked for long periods of time.

The grease will still cling and cover bearing and race surface where the oil will settle and pool towards bottom leaving the metal bare and exposed.

 

That’s a big part of my decision. My WS sat for 4 mos. once. When I had back surgery. I replaced shocks, seat, and had it put on a frame rack, to straighten the frame
and get an alignment. The Guy caught it. You could hear it while spinning the wheel. Only one, left steer. New bearings and seal. Old outer one was pitted pretty badly on only half of it. Made Me wonder how often something like that goes unnoticed. The other problem I’ve had twice is a Trailer seal leaking, after being parked for a week or so, always in the hottest part of summer. The seal dries up, and I think maybe will sometimes seal up on its own once it’s all wet. Either way, on advice of a friend with much more experience, both times I cleaned the oil off the best I could. Ran it and no more leak. Then changed soon as possible. Not having a Shop, a bad oil seal is a real problem on the road. Often ending up with one new set of shoes also. All of it’s aggravating. The grease solves it all.

 

They go unnoticed a lot because its not something you can hear or feel unless the wheel is jacked up and spun by hand like you did. Not too many folks are gonna do that before driving off after sitting for long.

 

I LOL'd when I seen this title. What a series of learning moments this routine sounding task can be. The upside is: I know it's done right.

Everywhere I went (TruckPro, dealers, etc) had no idea what I was asking for. The Chevron distributor had the right stuff. I used one of those bucket hand pumps like you use with gear oil to dispense it. It has the texture (and looks like) that runny banana pudding that seems to be on every buffet dessert table. Wouldn't hurt to save a few bucks on the pump and scoop it out with your hand, if you had to. The pump is a lot neater though.



Also save yourself some grief and get the right seal driver tool. Whatever seal you buy will have their tool number printed right on the package. You'll probably have to find it on eBay. They give them away to shops that order tons of seals, but when a regular guy calls it's like you're asking for the national nuclear codes or something, and nobody knows nothing.

This is the one used on my 2017 trailers with Hendrickson ULTRAA-K-40K chassis (taper spindles, drum brakes). Stemco tools have interchangeable heads. You buy the striking tool once, then collect the specific heads as needed. Other mfr's probably similar. Utility knife for scale. Having used this on 8 wheel ends, I would put the odds of getting a seal on undamaged without it as highly unlikely. It has to go on perfectly straight and the contact area on the seal is a thin steel edge surrounded by mashable soft pieces. Just looking at the new seals before I started, I knew this was the way.



These seals were an interesting design that I had never seen before. Stemco Voyager was the brand and model if I recall, and was not what was on them originally. They don't press into the hub. You knock the dust shield off the spindle and the seal drives up on the spindle where that used to be. Then the outer diameter of the seal pushes into the hub bore. Makes mounting the hub a lot less awkward since the inner bearing is already up on the spindle perfectly in position. Must've been an upgrade, as that was what the Great Dane dealer handed me off the vin numbers.



I also cleaned the rust off the abs tone rings and pushed in new abs sensors "while I was in there." Also have the Dr Preload tool that fits these, and used the Temper nuts to secure everything. Trailers roll better than they did brand new, zero hub leaks, and perfect tire wear.

 

Love these kind of post from you. Very knowledgeable on stuff I never seem to touch but find very interesting and a try and remember these little posts. One day I am sure it will save me a few headaches. Great stuff!