Nosewheel bearings

[Dave S]

Good afternoon,

Got a question regarding the service life of the nosewheel bearings used on a series 7 trigear.

The nosewheel bearings, unlike the main wheel bearings, are of the sealed for life design and they cannot be re-packed.

I am curious if anyone on the list has any information on how long these can be expected to last; or, if anyone has had any experiences with them wearing our, going dry, getting noisy or any of the other things that can signal the end of life for a sealed for life bearing in this application.

Thanks for your coments,

Dave S
KF 7 Trigear
912ULS warp drive
St Paul MN

[HighWing]

Apples and oranges here, but I have a belt sander that I use daily. It came with regular - open bearings that lasted maybe a year. I replaced them with sealed bearings and it has been in heavy daily use - mostly steel, for maybe ten years. Bear in mind that the environment for all three bearings is in an enclosed safety cover that fills with the sanding dust.

Not a sound from the bearings yet. Oops, did I really say that?

[mr bill]

Cars use the same type sealed wheel bearings, how often do we replace them?

[jrevens]

Don't cars still have tapered roller bearings that can be disassembled, cleaned, & re-packed with grease? Every one I ever worked on did.

[Av8r3400]

Very few do. The vast majority are seal bearing hub assemblies that are not serviceable.

[Dave F]

I would say in my tenure as a mechanic in the 70s and 80s that 75% are tapered roller bearings.
Now with front wheel drives most are sealed units.

[Esser]

My truck had sealed bearings and I replaced them at 200,000km That's a lot of runway. Even if you only get 10% of that life, I think you don't have much to worry about.

[Dave S]

Thanks for your comments guys.

Dave F....I think I can answer your question....

"What is a nose wheel. ? Lol"...

That would be the device we joked about back in the early '60s (you do remember the '60s - right?) when we were all flying C120s & C140s, cubs, etc off the grass and someone asked what the "training wheel" was for when someone showed up with a c150

However, I have found that our nose wheel Kitfox makes a pretty good off road vehicle anyway!

Dave S

[Av8r3400]

I would say in my tenure as a mechanic in the 70s and 80s that 75% are tapered roller bearings.
Now with front wheel drives most are sealed units.

My 2010 gmc Savannah van (traditional rear drive truck chassis) has seal hub assemblies in the front. (Yes, its a POS)

[jrevens]

Gee whiz... first they do away with zerks, then the serviceable roller bearings! What will we see next? Automatic transmissions?!