Would like to hear anyone's experience with wet bath (bobcat) vs. greased bearings in a skid steer. Which one gets the award for longer lasting with less trouble? Are the greaseable zerks on the NH series worth having in the long run? Which one gets the award for least amount of time/ease of replacing?
Doesn’t matter, my choice of machine isn’t dictated by wheel bearing design. Do your maintence and it’s a non issue for most parts
Thanks for the reply, but I'm not looking at this issue as being a factor in buying a certain brand of machine as every machine has its pros and cons. Just wondering if people's experience with both dictates one lasts longer than the other. I've had several triple digit bobcats (wet bath) that needed wheel bearings. Never had those hours and had to replace grease bearings.
Grease bearings go bad also......
Swannny 5% of grease is lubricant, 95% of oil is lubricant and that is why trucks run oil filled wheel bearings.
Zk - they sure do, but again, I’m asking for experiences here. I’ve owned and operated prob over 300 skids, worked on many more for friends and customers, and don’t end up seeing the amount of bad greased bearings in similar hours as I do wet. I’ve seen a lot of 1500 hr bobcats with bad bearings. Not so much on the greased until 4-7k hrs. Tones - yes, but on road trucks and trailers aren’t getting the same elements thrown at the wheel seals. Wire, bale twine, silt fencing, etc all seem to dig their way into that spot. Oil comes out easily. Grease does not.
On older trucks and trailer i pack the bearings so if its some were it could leak grease seems better.
This entire post is worthless. Your limited by machine design. Fix as fail and be done
You might be right, Zk. All I know is I woke up the other morning wishing I took better mental notes on the circumstances when I had to replace wheel bearings. Tired of bobcat’s design, but maybe that’s just me.