Dura hubs

[shortie]

Are there any disadvantages to fitting durahubs to the boat trailer

When fitting the instructions say you can use

Grease only

Oil only

Grease and oil.

What is the preference as the instructions dont say.

[bootyinblue]

I will ask my mechanic..... hey Eugene, what do you reckon?

I would say oil only, as its constant in viscosity, no lumps, and will discolour evenly if contaminated with water.

[rayke1938]

Oil because if a seal lets go you will see the oil all over the rim.

I replaced the bearings and seals on my dam boat trailer 5 years ago.

Normally 3 trips a week to NPD 160k round trip and immerse hubs every time when launching. Just back straight in no waiting for cooling ( Hubs do not even get warm anyhow as trailer is unbraked)

I put dura hub on one wheel and normal marine seal and dust cap on other.

No problems with either bearings.

Have knocked the dust cap off the normal hub a couple of times to check for water ingress and jack up trailer and check bearings for noise and end play when I renew rego sticker.

[daveylad]

just use oil, I had a rubber seal on the front crack once and it was clear to see that the oil was becoming milky so I managed to source some replacement seals from the distributor and other than that I've never had a problem in 3 years

[dhess]

Like others said I just run oil.

The beauty of the system is that you can see whats going on i.e. oil level, water contamination.

The key to a good durahub install is using emery tape or wet dry sandpaper to polish the seal surface on the axle smooth otherwise it will have a slow leak and you will always be topping up. Also don't use the marine type seals just use good quality regular seals with the spring inside the rubber.

The only real disadvantage is that if you lose a durahub you will have a less time with oil until the bearing fails catastrophicaly. From the tests durahub did, run dry the bearings will still last something like 3 hours. Provided you install correctly degreasing the surfaces and using loctite 515 I can't see this ever being an issue. I took my boat up to Cape York over thousands of km of horrible corrugations. The entire trailer pretty much rattled itself to pieces but the durahubs and bearings were fine.

[Luc53]

Tried them a few years ago and gave them up as a bad joke.

They leaked on and off and after doing a number of fixes, went back to bearing buddies.

Have no had any problems with them.

[Eug]

never used them but i would say oil, on the proviso that you actually check them regularly.

to play devils advocate i dare say that in the event of a failure in the seal. grease would still stick around for a bit where as oil would simply drain out right away.

[shortie]

i decided against it.

using normal grease and normal seals

I figure i got 7 years out of this lot whats the point of spending extra $$

[coughy]

i got bearing buddies on my trailer shortie and it has never missed a beat

just need to install corectly and then fill with grease (marine grade of course)

and all is well

big problem people make is that they roll the lip on the seals or they dont clean the axle properly

just my 2cents worth..