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catdude28.
Does anyone know if it is possible to ditch the Vault hubs and replace with bearing buddy hubs using the rest of of the same wheel components? I have not been happy with the Vault hubs, nor is my go-to trailer mechanic comfortable with them.
Thanks
They may be able to just grease them by hand and roll. Good old red Valvoline.
Fishndav keep us posted on wat you do. Ive wandered about these hubs and more so been anxious to dissect one. From my understanding wat makes these hubs appealing is the watertight seal. Back in the old day we just handpacked the wheel bearings with a quality grease every so often according to usage. My rig is coming up on 6 yrs old know. Even though ive had zero issues, i do have one i am monitoring closely. My plan was just as yours. Assuming these are standard bearing and seals. I dont see why you have to use the hybrid grease. IMO these hubs are no different than the ones on the front of autos.
If I can find info on the right parts, I will give this to my trailer guy to try. I already have a compromised vault assembly to use as a test. I can not find anything on the internet about a Bearing Buddy that would work. I do a lot of my own work, but have never done bearings so I’m pretty clueless about this. When it comes to tires, wheels, brakes, I have left it to the professionals, as I should.
If you pull the axle S/N from the plate on the bottom. Then contact UFP they will give you a list of part numbers and options. The main issue would be the seals.
Why do you need a bearing buddy cap? From my understanding the vault cap is wat makes it waterproof. Unless you blow a seal and assuming the bearings are “packed” correctly the grease should always be there until you do a annual or as needed inspection. To me this is the disadvantage of the actual bearing buddy “folks think they need to keep giving them a shot of grease”.
Something to think about. Wat about our trucks. How often do we repack the bearings. Which they are not dunked in water constantly! Another reason to keep that water tight cap if possible
^^^ this
I do not care for the O ring seals and single use cap that goes with the vault system. A 2 hub repack kit (O rings, seals, and end caps) was $95 from Dexter. With bering buddy, the parts are cheap, and easily available.
I am most comfortable doing a complete bearing clean/repack before an annual 1000 mile haul I do. This is not something I can do with the Vault system. My trusted guy won’t do them, and just the parts alone are nearly $200
Prior to the vault hubs I had bearing buddys. I never added grease, and just did annual service, and never had a problem.
Is there any reason you cannot remove the hybrid grease. re grease with the red Valvoline and reinstall the original cap with a new o-ring and
seals. If the seals will hold in the hybrid grease when it heats up and turns liquid there is no reason they would not hold standard wheel bearing
grease such as the red Valvoline. It even gets thinner as it heats up just doesn’t turn to a liquid state. Just pack them by hand and install new seals
just like you would if they were not the hybrid grease system. BCB please elaborate if I am missing something here. But I thought the purpose of
going to this new type of grease and hub assembly was to reduce periodic maintenance.
As above doing that is fine.
Just clean them up and put red Valvoline in them.
Im not buying those caps are a single use. Ive not been in one yet, though seems like a new oring and maybe some 620 loctite and it should be fine
I agree. Just be able to match the o-ring up at the auto parts
Does anyone know the size of the appropriate axle dust cap after removing the Vault end unit?
My 2017 Cougar has these hubs on it. So far with the oiling system I have not had a problem. The largest problem I have had was the brake pads delaminating and then the rotors getting galled. One was replaced under warranty by the dealer, the other I had to deal with. Dexter is sort of a pain in the backside to get a hold of someone in their warranty division. Remember these items have a 10 year warranty on them. Eventually I was sent quite a few parts, and I have bought others so excluding rotors and hubs I have enough probably for my lifetime with this boat. Here are a bunch of part numbers off my items. These are specific to my dual axle, single axle brake trailer on the Cougar.
K71-030-00: Vault Service Kit 2.5 3.2 K & 3.5k 545 – 1.900″ outer bore
010-169-00: O-Ring 2×2 – 1/8×1/16
021-091-00: Hybrid Grease Cap
088-013-00: Hybrid Grease/Oil
061-007-00: Grease Zerk
088-015-00: Red Thread Locker (Red Locktite)
Yes I have reused my caps over and over again, they are not a one time deal, unless you warp them taking them off and on. I have had one fail at a ramp, I got back home, cleaned everything up, put in new grease and used the thread locker on another cap. The caps are very tight and I do believe that the thread locker seals everything up so they don’t come off going down the road. I also have had bearing buddy caps as well as regular caps come off over the years. As others have stated, I check my axles at least once per year when I rotate my tires on the trailer and do pull off the caps and insert new grease. Make sure you don’t leave the zerk in the axle when you put on the cap, as I have done a few times. One more thing, when you pull that cap have a oil pan under that axle, that stuff makes a mess.
Use the WHEEL BEARING DUST САР, 1.980″ instead of the Vault cap or Bearing Buddy cap.
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