The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Wheel Bearing Opinions

I have seen that several sites now seem to offer new style roller bearings instead of the old style ball bearings. They cost more, is there any real practical benefit?

not unless you want to switch to disc brakes, you may even find the bearings on yours are the ones it came from the factory with

Bill

The ball brgs are fine as long as you grease them properly. If you need to replace most or all the brgs then you could go to the rollers. Like Red says if you switch to discs you should change to thr rollers.

Well I know that the bearings that are on it are not original, but they are the original style. I did a really really bone headed thing the other day and kinda screwed up the outer bearings. The bearings themselves and the races are still intact but I really should replace them. Was curious if I should go with the new style. Looks like there isn't much point, the old style has worked this long, why change it if it works right?

the ball bearings work fine and are readily available at parts stores

Bill

A long time ago, someone in the bearing industry said on this forum that ball bearings, because of less contact area, can run cooler naturally that roller bearings and that they were perfectly fine in our trucks.

I suspect that the industry went to rollers because it's cheaper to make them. It's got to be easier and cheaper to make a uniform rod (and chop it up) than to make perfect metal balls one at a time. But that's just my guess.

I don't know if they've switched, but at least until recently BMW was still using ball bearings.

My model T has taper roller bearings.... Hahahaha. I think they're all good, with cleaning and grease.

In my opinion, I believe the tapered roller bearings are essentially a dumbed down version. They are very simple to adjust and even when not adjusted properly (within reason) they still seem to work without destroying the bearing and races.

My experience with ball bearings is that they have a specific torque value rather than 'spin the wheel and tighten' with typical tapered roller bearings. Ball bearings not adjusted properly seem a bit more capable of self destructing and fairly quickly at that.

Jeff

Something to consider, virtually ALL modern vehicles use ball bearings at least in the front, with FWD cars using the on all 4 wheels.

One advantage to roller bearings is higher load bearing ability. They spread the weight out over a larger area, instead of just one spot. Probably the most significant other advantages are that they have higher lateral (side load) ability and higher shock load ability. These things are important every time you hit a bump, turn your wheel, or use your brakes. The industry all but abandoned the ball type wheel bearing. Why? Because they are better. Like Longbox (Bill) stated, ball bearings are still being used in cars, but that is in sealed unit bearing applications. My money is on the roller bearings.

Chris

"They cost more, is there any real practical benefit?"

As someone who has gone through a couple sets of roller bearings on a truck, my opinions are mixed. The roller bearings are cheaper to obtain than the standard ball bearings. The quality of both ball bearings and roller bearings comes into question. With all bearings being made in China, I don't believe either will last.

When it comes to bearings look for the older American made Ball bearings, or the discontinued Japanese MBS roller bearings. I believe those to be superior to the chinese ones available today. It will likely cost more... about 2x more to get the better bearings. 2x more is still cheaper than being stuck on the side of the road 100s of miles from home with fried bearings on multiple occasions. Most parts houses no longer carry our obsolete bearings.

In my personal experience, this is far from true.


I've had good luck finding really obsolete stuff through NAPA, CarQuest and Federated. Places like O'Reilly, AutoZone and Pep Boys are pretty good for newer stuff, but you have to go to the pros for the more oddball parts.

Original-style roller bearings are available at NAPA (in stock, where I live - I bought some in the past year).

It seems as though Timken, Federal Mogul, and SKF all have the ball bearing type availible. They're probably made overseas, but they all have good quality standards.

Originally Posted By: bigbadswingdaddy

With all bearings being made in China


In my personal experience, this is far from true.



Quote:

Most parts houses no longer carry our obsolete bearings.


I've had good luck finding really obsolete stuff through NAPA, CarQuest and Federated. Places like O'Reilly, AutoZone and Pep Boys are pretty good for newer stuff, but you have to go to the pros for the more oddball parts.







Sam,
I know you are not trying to be argumenitive. However, After going through a terrible ordeal of losing a tapered roller bearing on a road trip, I HAVE TO DISAGREE WITH YOU!

The NAPA I broke down closest to had one BCA outer ball bearing in stock, and I was able to pick it up, install it and get on my way. The bearing I got was the last one they would ever carry. I kind of lucked out on that. By the way do you know what happens when you use a roller bearing inner, and a ball bearing outer on an old truck? I do! You end up having a catastopic falure in which the spindle, hub, and bearings all get fried, forcing you to source a new front axle.

My [questioned] point from above... get the best bearings you can. There is nothing aybody can or will ever say that will ever convince me Chinese made bearings are equal in quality to American made bearings. They can't be, the metalurgy is all wrong.

When it comes to the front bearings for our 1/2 ton trucks, the roller bearings are one off bearings that are made in China. The first batch of these bearings were made in Japan. The Japanese bearings are far superior to the Chinese bearings. You can find the Chinese roller bearings on sale for $69.95 on occasion, although the kit usually costs around $130. You can also source the MBS japanese roller bearings from a local bearing house for upwards of $250 for the set. I understand that more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better quality. I have not had any problems with the MBs bearings. The chinese roller bearings wore prematurely and left me stuck on the side of the road on numerous occasions. Again I wore out 2 complete sets of the Chinese roller bearings in less than 30,000 miles of driving.

I'm a firm believer in the old addage... Good stuff ain't cheap, and Cheap stuff ain't good!

I don't know what your situation was, but I've never heard of anyone mixing a ball bearing and roller type on the same spindle. I would think it would cause severe alignment issues, maybe even create some harmonics.

Secondly, I can't speak for the "Chinese" made bearings, but the MBS ones I have for my 3/4 ton are beefcakes compared to the BCA ball bearings I took off. They seem to be an excellent quality product. I guess I was lucky, being able to get them still.

I took some pictures of them side by side for comparison. Night and day difference. www.photobucket.com/whitedog76pics

Chris

No issues with the MBS bearings. The issues were with the no name Chinese roller bearings supplied by an after market brake company.

When you are 100 plus miles away from home with a broken truck, you will buy the bearings that are available. In my case, only the outer bearing was available, and I WAS able to continue on my trip and get home with the mix matched bearings. Catastropic falure happened about 3500 miles after the mismatch. The roller bearing that went bad on the trip, was the third bearing to go bad on me. I had previously replaced the hub when the last one failed. When the mixed roller/ball bearing hub failed, it destroyed the hub, spindle, and bearings. I had to replace the axle, or at least the spindle, and all the chinese roller bearings with the higher quality Japanese MBS bearings.

Again the caution is in using cheap inferior bearings, which in my opinion is any bearing made in CHINA.

I may be the only person who has ever had problems with the Chinese roller bearings... Then again... maybe just another unsatisfied customer.

Mixing ball & roller type wheel bearings is a bad idea on any rig. If you check a service manual ball bearing require a preload while tapered roller bearings usualy have a slight end play.

Saying "don't use no-name bearings made in China" is far from saying "all bearings are now made in China." US-made bearings may be rare these days, but quite a few are still made in Europe to very good quality standards.

Your not the only one. After contacting a vendor to order new ball bearing types, they assured me they were American made. After recieving them they had 'CHINA' stamped on the side.

In my hand the bearings were sloppy in the race. They were complete pieces of crap.

They went back in a heartbeat and I ordered from a reputable bearing supplier and got Japanese made MBS in return. Several years later, not a single problem.

Jeff

"Saying "don't use no-name bearings made in China" is far from saying "all bearings are now made in China." US-made bearings may be rare these days, but quite a few are still made in Europe to very good quality standards."

Sam, since you seem to be an expert, What companies are still making these 60 year old obsolete ball bearings, and where are they manufactured? I would like to know so I can write the company a good old fashioned Attaboy!