oil bath "turbo lube" hubs on floe trailer

[Bocephus]

i bought a used floe trailer, and these turbo lube hubs on it are giving me a real bad time. when i bought it, i knew one of them leaked. i took all 4 hubs apart, installed new bearings, races, and seals. now 2 of them leak. seals were all installed properly, everything was done right.....this isnt my first rodeo. the seals came directly from floe, so they are the correct ones. the spindles didnt feel worn in the seal area. i am sick of tearing the damn things apart.

SO, my question is...... can i pack these frickin things full of grease and call it good? i see the benefit of the oil, but i will constantly worry about these damn things loosing all their oil. with grease.....as long as they are full of lube, they're good to go.

 

[crashnbash]

Welcome to the draw backs of oil bath hubs. Packing the existing hubs with grease is not the proper way to fix your problem but could probably be accomplished. Just remember that the draw back to grease filled hubs is that in the extreme cold the grease won't flow in and out of the bearings.

 

[GolfPineAcres]

Have you replaced the ORINGs between the lexan cap and the hub also? I just replaced my whole set up last winter also. Went to CATCO and got the heavy duty seals. No leaks to date.

 

[Bocephus]

no i didnt, but thats not where im losing oil. its all coming out of the rear seal

 

[Coldfinger]

Well, someone forgot to tell my Triton that grease doesn't flow in winter and I've been pulling it on 1200 mile round trip journeys since 1999. Probably 3 trips a year average.

Anyhow, all trailers used to have manually greased bearings, no? I forget the interval but I believe if you repack the bearings each year you should be good. I'd doublecheck the bearings to see if they are used only in oil bath situations though because if that is true you may need to change out the bearings to run grease type.

 

[Bocephus]

they are the common bearings that most small trailers use. unless someone replaced them in the past and just put normal ones in it....


today i flushed all the oil out of the leaking hubs. i then started to pump grease into them through the zerk on the tip of the spindle. all it does is push the seal out of the back of the hub lol. i just cant win with this damn thing.

 

[Mafesto]

I was inquiring abouth the oil bath setup a few years ago & here was the reply a trailer rep gave me....
"Not ideal for a seasonal use trailer. As trailer sits unused the uppermost portion of the bearing/spindle sit with no oil film protection against rust."
Kinda makes sense.

 

[Bocephus]

I was inquiring abouth the oil bath setup a few years ago & here was the reply a trailer rep gave me....
"Not ideal for a seasonal use trailer. As trailer sits unused the uppermost portion of the bearing/spindle sit with no oil film protection against rust."
Kinda makes sense.

that makes sense, but not at the top of my worries. what i am most worried about is.....what happens when the seal fails and all the oil runs out within 5 miles of driving? there you sit!

 

[KSH]

that makes sense, but not at the top of my worries. what i am most worried about is.....what happens when the seal fails and all the oil runs out within 5 miles of driving? there you sit!

Your not going to loose all the oil, but your brakes will be useless.

They make a two piece seal for situations like this, but they are not cheap.
I will see if I can find the manufacturer tomorrow.

 

[Bocephus]

Your not going to loose all the oil, but your brakes will be useless.

They make a two piece seal for situations like this, but they are not cheap.
I will see if I can find the manufacturer tomorrow.

well, i ordered the correct seal that the manufacturer recommends. it is a complete rubber seal (inside and out) to create a good seal, obviously around the spindle, but around the surface that touches the hub as well. this special seal did not pound in very hard at all. one could almost push it in by hand. but, it is all rubber........its designed to hold in oil, but not pressure (thus explaining why it pushed out of the hub when i forced grease into it). they look like this http://www.marineengine.com/products/accessory.php?in=3561313

now, i have worked on alot of wheel bearings in my fairly short life. all other seals i have installed on the inner hub have a metal outer ring (the part the touches the hub). looks like this https://www.4wdfactory.com/store/product_images/z/010/d60_wheel_seal__59355_zoom.jpg . these seals pound in alot harder. i actually have a couple of these seals on hand because they are common for some other trailers i have. i am going to remove those special, oil tight, seals that i installed (and still leaked) and try some good old fashioned metal seals with the rubber sealing lip inside (the type one would typically use with grease). then try pumping more grease into them.

if it works correctly, it should do something like this.... (only my zerks are on the tip of the spindle) http://marineengineparts.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/page584.html

 

[KSH]

well, i ordered the correct seal that the manufacturer recommends. it is a complete rubber seal (inside and out) to create a good seal, obviously around the spindle, but around the surface that touches the hub as well. this special seal did not pound in very hard at all. one could almost push it in by hand. but, it is all rubber........its designed to hold in oil, but not pressure (thus explaining why it pushed out of the hub when i forced grease into it). they look like this http://www.marineengine.com/products/accessory.php?in=3561313

now, i have worked on alot of wheel bearings in my fairly short life. all other seals i have installed on the inner hub have a metal outer ring (the part the touches the hub). looks like this https://www.4wdfactory.com/store/product_images/z/010/d60_wheel_seal__59355_zoom.jpg . these seals pound in alot harder. i actually have a couple of these seals on hand because they are common for some other trailers i have. i am going to remove those special, oil tight, seals that i installed (and still leaked) and try some good old fashioned metal seals with the rubber sealing lip inside (the type one would typically use with grease). then try pumping more grease into them.

if it works correctly, it should do something like this.... (only my zerks are on the tip of the spindle) http://marineengineparts.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/page584.html

Make sure you are spinning the hub as your pumping in the grease.

 

[GolfPineAcres]

Seals.

I would just try the steel seals and go back to the oil. Somethings gotta be weird there. You are'nt overfilling the cavity are you?
Did the seals leak immediately? Maybe they need to be run in?

Even if your seals failed, I don't believe you would loose all of your oil and have a bearing failure.

How much actual oil are you loosing?

 

[Bocephus]

I would just try the steel seals and go back to the oil. Somethings gotta be weird there. You are'nt overfilling the cavity are you?
Did the seals leak immediately? Maybe they need to be run in?

Even if your seals failed, I don't believe you would loose all of your oil and have a bearing failure.

How much actual oil are you loosing?

i tried the regular steel seals. the only ones i could find are either a single or dual lip seal designed to keep grease in and dirt out. they leaked bad. in a 40 mile trip, most of the oil was gone. after installing the correct, rubber seals with a triple lip sealing surface, i could drive that same 40 mile round trip to work and they would still be close to full, but there was a mess of oil on the inside of the wheel/tire that got slung all over from the centrifugal force of the wheel spinning. if it leaked like that in 40 miles, whats it going to do in a 1000 mile trip to the mountains? im not going to lay on the side of the road in the switchbacks tearing apart a wheel.

 

[crashnbash]

Well, someone forgot to tell my Triton that grease doesn't flow in winter and I've been pulling it on 1200 mile round trip journeys since 1999. Probably 3 trips a year average.


There are different viscosities of grease just like oil. Thats why some grease can't be used in axels with brakes. For example a marine trailer bearing grease works great in boat trailers with or without brakes, but in a trailer with no brakes that only gets pulled through snow and over a mountain pass in sub zero temps the grease never warms up and flows. People who pull down an interstate for hours at a time would get most greases to warm up. Some however never pull a trailer down an interstate or dry hiway to ride.

Personally I'm a fan of the new hubs that have neither grease nor oil. They are non-servicable, and I believe come with a ten year warranty.

 

[crashnbash]

If you pack the bearings themselves first and fill the remaining areas of the hub with grease you should never have a problem. Most wheel seals fail on boat trailers because the owner puts way too much grease in the bearing buddy grease zerk.

 

[XXL]

Do you think the grease really flows? I've pulled some dustcaps on a few warm axles and never noticed any. IDK, just sayin.

 

[crashnbash]

It won't flow like oil. If you want to see it happen take a glob of grease out of the container when it is cold and see how thick it is, then take that same grease and put it in the sun so it heats it and see the difference. It should feel alot thinner.

 

[..SNAKEBIT..]

I would use the metal seals with the spring on the inside lip (made for e-z lube hubs) and hand pack bearing with grease when you have them apart.
then smear grease into the hub when going back togeather.
like said above be VERY CAREFUL using the grease zerk to fill or pack your bearings, it will hydraulic the seals out if your not careful. I only use the zerks to add maybe 5 pumps thru the year before a long tripand I do turn the hub while pumping in grease

 

[Bocephus]

I would use the metal seals with the spring on the inside lip (made for e-z lube hubs) and hand pack bearing with grease when you have them apart.
then smear grease into the hub when going back togeather.
like said above be VERY CAREFUL using the grease zerk to fill or pack your bearings, it will hydraulic the seals out if your not careful. I only use the zerks to add maybe 5 pumps thru the year before a long tripand I do turn the hub while pumping in grease

and thats what was happening.....it was pushing the seals out. i packed the hubs full of grease the old fashioned and am going to run with it.

 

[Coldfinger]

I have a Triton with EZ Lube Hubs (think that's what they're called). I figure/hope that the rubber end cap that you remove to add grease would get pushed out before any seal would get pushed out. That rubber cap will sometimes start to look like a nipple when the pressure from the inside pushes on it but it has never come out/dislodged.

If the entire seal is being dislodged from the hub, then try cleaning the surfaces real well before installation and add some red loctite around the perimeter of the seal before you push it in. My MC had a loose seal issue on the water pump, common to all bikes of this model, and the red loctite was recommended to hold it in place. I digress here, but I expanded the seal a little by using a bench vise to sqeeeze the end of a socket into the backside of the seal to expand it a little. The socket had a tapered end so it worked perfect. Then I pressed the seal into place. Oh, I calipered the OD of the seal before and after pressing the socket into it to verify that I had expanded it a little.