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Trailer wheel seals

D

deeretails

Member
Last summer I purchased a used trailer that has a pair of 10,000 Lippert axles. The wheels bearings are oil feed. There was a couple leaking wheel seals and brake problems. I installed new
seals and repaired/rebuilt the brakes, and put oil back in the hubs to the correct level. I'm doing other work on the trailer during the fall and into the winter. Th other day I was under the
trailer and noticed three of the new oil seals were leaking. The trailer has traveled about 10 miles since the seals were installed, and they were installed and the bearings adjusted by the
book (Lippert's manual). So what do I do now, I'm thinking about installing conventional wheel seals and using a sticky grease for lubricant. What would you do? I use the trailer for hauling
tractors.

Thanks for your suggestions-
 
Same problem on the gd 10k dexter axles.. there were two name brand of seals available aftermarket.. that crossed over. one number leaks, the other number did not. They did look a bit different when you held them up side by side. Being that was 10 plus years ago, sorry I cant remember which brand it was.


The fuzzy way back part of my brain says one was a national brand ?????
 
I once bought a new 16' lowboy trailer. This was before trailer brakes were required, so they were simple axles. Went to check the grease one day and found that on more than one wheel, the axles had been running with no lubrication whatsoever. The original grease still stuck to the side right where the factory put it.

Grease is all fine and good, but I'd rather have leaking oil than put my faith in grease to lubricate. Your results may vary.
 
Wheel bearing lubrication has long been a puzzle to me. The two most recent heavy trucks I've had, had oil in all the wheel bearings. The old F/L600 Fords had grease in the front wheels. The only wheel bearing trouble I've had is the sealed front wheel brng. assemblies on my Silverado 4x4. Of course most of my farm equipment wheel brngs. are simple Timken type with a little grease in them. I would think the 'corn head'/O/OO grease would be perfect for any wheel brng.
 
We went through the same thing on our gooseneck only they leaked enough before we caught them that the bearing overheated and ruined the hub. We finally went to an actual Timken seal instead of the junk ones the trailer places like to push out the door. We also did away with the oil and now use this stuff. We went to a trailer place and asked what they were using and they said they won't let one out the door without putting this type of grease in them.
Wheel bearing grease
 
I've had trouble with that in the past as well. Changed all of them over to grease and never had issues again.
 
The best seals on the planet won't compensate for spindle wear. Take a good close look at where the seal rides on the spindle. Clean it up, and go from there.

Wheel bearings can be grease packed (OMG). Look at older grease packed Class 8 trailers, and trucks. They did a lot of miles back in the day.

Another problem associated with oil bath bearings.................corrosion. If the vehicle isn't moved on a regular basis, any metal parts above the oil level will corrode due to condensation. This does not happen with grease lubricated bearings.
 
So, let's talk about the "wedge".

All bearings rotate on a wedge of lubricant. It doesn't have to be a ton of lube, it just has to be there. Even a few tenths can form that wedge. It elevates the rolling elements above each other, and reduces metal-to-metal wear.

Grease can form this wedge, if properly maintained.
 
Traditional grease is a combination of soap, and oil. As it gets hot, it liberates the oil.

A bearing doesn't have to be schmeeeeeered in grease to be properly lubed. All it takes is a bit of oil released from the emulsion.
 
We use a lot of CR seals because NAPA sells them. We don't have many issues with them, but my mechanic likes National the best and he complains about them. Kind of a Ford and Chevy thing. He drives Chevies and I drive Fords, but we fix it, laugh about it and move on to the next job.
 
See if you can get Stemco Seals that small. I would think you can. If so get the grit guardian seals put them in and forget about seals for about 10 years just check the oil. The Stemco seal mentioned has a wear sleeve in the seal so when installed correctly the seal is the wear band for the seal. they make others also these are the best seals I ever used. they also have one with just a wear sleeve and not the Grit guardian model it works as good as the Grit style seal. I have used them all CR, National, You name it. All needed changing in a few months to 3 years. I have put the Stemco seals in and run them 10 years or so. This is on Over the road work with lots of miles, and in, off road work like going to the field, Stone quarries,and gravel pits down miles of dirt roads to gold mines and all. I have 3 trailers and both trucks have them in. One truck has 3 of the original seals on the rear axles. Million miles plus on those. I just now jinxed myself.
 
What would you do?
Go to Coldwell Bearing in Town.
If new seals don't work, yes pack the bearing by hand.
You could be pumping in too much grease.
 
Assuming you have the correct seals....

With only 10 miles of use I would question spindle condition.
Does it have a speedy sleeve on it you did not replace.
Could you install speedy sleeves if it does not have them.

Either that or you cut the seal during installation of the hub.
 
if you have the seals that the sealing surfaces are inside the seal itself one of two things happened, they didn't fit the spindle correctly, or what most of the time happens is when installing them a small dent is made to the housing of the seal and they will leak for sure.
 
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