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folivier
05-01-2010, 12:33 PM
My coach has regular grease packed hubs on front. Has anyone had theirs changed over to the oil bath type? Do you think it was worth doing?
Any idea of the cost of converting versus cost of having them repacked?
How often do you repack the greased hubs?
Thanks.

tuga
05-01-2010, 01:41 PM
Forest,

My 93 had the grease packed hubs on the steer axle. I found out the hard way that they should be re-packed; one froze up while I was coming thru Lafayette, LA. Luckily, I was able to drive the coach to a TA truck stop on I-10 and had both sides of the front axle changed over to the oil bath type. The cost was about $600 for the two, $300 each.

Give Newell a call and ask at what intervals you should re-pack your front bearings. My guess would be every 50,000 miles or 3 years.

I check my oil bearings once a year. IMO oil bearings are the way to go.

folivier
05-01-2010, 01:58 PM
Over on rv.net there has been a discussion on this and I was wondering if it's worth doing it. The bearings were repacked last year, but I may put that on my todo list.
Thanks

JohnC
05-02-2010, 06:35 PM
Newell Coach uses greased packed bearings on all its late model ZF suspension coaches.

I personally prefer greased packed over oil bath.

John

folivier
05-02-2010, 06:52 PM
John, do you find the grease hubs last longer?
How often, miles, does Newell recommend repacking the grease hubs?
thanks.

JohnC
05-05-2010, 03:47 PM
Our issue with the oil bath system is seeping oil not lubrication. Oil is like blood - it only takes a little to make a mess, and most coach owners don't like messy wheels.

Newell recommends wheel bearing inspection and re-pack if needed every two years. Personal motor coaches travel far less miles then commercial coaches or over the road trucks, so we use calendar time versus mileage.

Neweller
05-06-2010, 07:45 PM
I ran both set-ups on rigs and I agree totally with John C. Only thing I might ad, is that if your one of those big time Newell trekkers who put on a ton of miles a year, you may want to go with an annual wheel bearing inspection and or re-pack. I'm sure most of us are calender versus mileage owners.

Ken W.