AL-KO wheel bearings

[Neil R]

Just to note I did manage to get some of the sealed bearings from AL-KO via Dixon Bate - Gareth at DB being the guy to ask for. I wish I'd seen this type of thread first though - I had a devil of a job persuading him that these are not complete fit and forget items - "never had one fail". A wheel lost at high speed (from an older trailer) on the M6 makes you a very cautious person.

I ordered two lots of bearings last year - the first with a hub which I suspect is your only option for a roadside repair. The second set seemed to have a new AL-KO bearing part number - changed from 581169 to 1312674. And yes I confirm they both fitted! [I had a special drift turned up and have a mate with access to a hydraulic press].

Thanks v much to 'rads' for the Cavalier pointer - I shall be following that one up.

Be interesting to see how the instruction on 'no more than 2 bearing changes per hub' works out - stated as due to the degradation of the friction fit.

[jwalker]

It's nice to see well serviced brakes, adjusters and hubs. Plenty of water resistant lubricant to keep it all working properly....It's a pity we're not seeing it here!

It's a block of rust. What do you expect?

[Mark Halliday]

Originally Posted by jwalker

It's nice to see well serviced brakes, adjusters and hubs. Plenty of water resistant lubricant to keep it all working properly....It's a pity we're not seeing it here!

It's a block of rust. What do you expect?

Hi JW
A block of rust is what it was, and that is how I bought it. The last owner did not wash off the trailer very well, if at all. That axel is now a land fill item.
The point is, you can not (easily) service these bearings. If you can not clean & repack the bearings, you are going to finish up like this.
The new axel is due this week, and I have specified real bearings that you can service and replace without resorting to presses and hydraulic pullers.

I do feel a bit of a prat for winding up in this situation. The weather was great and I could not resist a spin. The bearings were rumbling on the way to the slip (5 miles) so i felt the hubs as soon as I got there and they were warm but not hot. I, wrongly, asumed that they would get me home again. I had the following week end booked to service the whole trailer, and I thought it would wait. How wrong can you be?

[Suzuki416]

It was time to check the bearings in my axle on sunday after 3 months of use. Found 'slight' traces of wear but otherwise looked fine. Got Troy (girlfriend) to do the other axle side on the basis that I want her to know what I'm looking for & also how to do it - hows that for Equality! ,

I drive it - she fixes it...

Pete

[Mark Halliday]

find out how to replace a whole axel?

Dream on

[roohairy]

A tip for those of you with small boats on trailers with mini wheels - check the price for new hubs and compare to the price for a bearing set, I get a new hub for just over £14 form a trailer manufacturer as opposed to a bearing set for £18.50 from a bearing factors. Worth looking at!

[Rannsachair]

As another unfortunate Al-ko Euro Hub owner who realised I would not have a 3 Ton Press handy to swap bearings at the side of the road. I made the drastic decission of buying a new set of hubs and bearings that I use on the road and keep the old set for launch & recovery.

I am in the fortunate position that I only transport the boat on the road twice a year. Just another option to consider!

[Allen]

Originally Posted by rads

As Dirk seemed to find the previous info. interesting, here is full data for our wheel bearings:

Al-Ko
Bearing Number FLT 581169 OD 72, ID 39, Length 37
Single outer race, double inner race.
This is a 1990 1.8Vauxhall Cavalier Front Wheel Bearing

Avonride (sorry, said Indespension in previous post)
Bearing Number 309726DA OD 64, ID 34, Length 37
Single outer race, double inner race.
As fitted to Mk1 Golf front wheel bearing.

Don't throw money away going to VW or Vauxhall dealers, all independent motor factors should be able to supply these considerable cheaper.

Trailer / axle manufacturers advise that the nut used to hold the hubs onto the stub axles are a one-shot device and should not be re-used.

As a data point, and NOT a recommendation, I do re-use them and have never had one loosen. The tightening torques for these nuts is high approximately 300 Nm from memory.

David

David,

OK, so I thought I'd give the cheap way a try.

From the measurements above I need a Mk1 Golf bearing, but when I get one from the local motor factor this bearing has an OD of 67mm rather than 65mm. ID and length are OK.

Any ideas?

Allen

[Simon B]

We had similar problems are still getting them, we believe the damper setting is critical as the theory is its binding brakes leading to grease loss and bearing failure. We used taper rollers off the shelf SKF units our tame trailer epert at Bingham trailers knew of AL-KO axles etc and the Knott seals behind them. Anyone needing their contact details PM me meanwhile checkout the remains of the hub. Arrived back in Leicester on the back of a flat bed costing £360 to get back (ouch) thats when I joined the Camping and Caravan club for their arrivals policy.

[Tim M]

Arrived back in Leicester on the back of a flat bed costing £360 to get back (ouch) thats when I joined the Camping and Caravan club for their arrivals policy.

The AA should cover your trailer. They came out and replaced a trailer wheel (didn't have a spare on me!) recently with no fuss at all.

[TIM]

I tow all the time....

Everything from, j24's (From Italy to Ireland) to sand, gravel, plant and machinery....

3 simple rules

1. With twin axles, keep the load even on the wheels, ie ajust your tow hitch or load. One way to check, if you cant tell buy looking at the trailer, is drive a couple of miles and feel the tyre walls, the warmer one has the greatest load ... they should be even temp.

2. wheel bearings . drive a couple of miles, stop and check the hubs buy feeling them, if they are warm its OK, But not any warmer that luke warm. If they are hotter than luke warm keep an eye on them.... and if the wheel close to the hub is warm too, you will have a problem... Ie the wheel is acting as a radiator, and sheeding the heat from the hub, you think everything is fine, while the bearings are cooking. Also Watch you speed, if you tow at 40 and everything is fine , if you increase it to 50 , everything can rapidaly go down hill, so keep you speed constant and dont push it, after a couple of tows you will get to know you trailer and what is right and wrong .When on a long tow check for heat in tyre walls (uneven weight distrabution, or lower air pressure) and Hub heat and wheel heat... you will be fine.

3. GREASE. bearing only get hot for two reasions, overloaded or no grease in them.... fill them full of grease all the time and you wont have a problem, I have seen people drill and tap in a grease nipple in the nut cap of the hub so they can easly pump in the grease untill it comes out the back ,to save the bearings.... just keep them loaded with grease, it not a nice job but its got be done, and dont over tighten the hub nut!!!!!

Sorry for the long post

[Andy Beach]

Originally Posted by rads

The other style of hub has two separate taper roller bearings, and it is easier to replace these bearings, though they should be lubricated regularly (after every immersion) to try to minimise internal corrosion. Bearing savers are highly recommended with this type of bearing.

Are 'Bearing Savers' the same as 'Bearing Buddies' I've heard mentioned (spring loaded bearing caps that gently force grease into the hub)?? Can anyone give me details of where I can get them??

Thanks

Andy Beach

[Pete7]

Thought I would keep this thread on the boil after crawling along the M27 in the middle of the night with with a very hot Alko bearing from Weymouth to Pompey The problem? well an alko sealed bearing and hub that can't be removed. Bent the socket set T bar, broke the ratchet and shattered a 36mm socket trying. Gave up, winched 2 tonnes of Pacific 22 off the trailer instead because it was easier. Used a pully block attached to the rear of the trailer and a rope from the boats painter through the block and back to the trailer winch. Boat moved surpsingly easily.

Spoke to RM, the trailer manufacturers who said sealed bearings were excellent for boat trailers never give any problems so following this useful piece of advice I took the wheel off (4 wheel trailer) and towed the trailer up to De Graaff in Chobham. Arthur De Graaff said they never fit sealed bearings to boat trailers, they are totally unsuitable as the seals are designed to keep dust out not salt water. At last someone who knows what they are talking about. Two new axles later at a very good price, I now have hubs and bearings that I can take apart and check myself without needing a hydraulic press or a 6 foot scafolding bar. Came fitted with "bearing savers" too.

http://www.degraafftrailers.co.uk/

[Jackwabbit]

Just had an interesting afternoon trying to get more information from the horse’s mouth so to speak.
I started by doing a search on AL-KO only to find on companies house web site that AL-KO Britain was dissolved on the 31/03/2003.
After another search I found AL-KO KOBER Ltd on the web at the same address & with the same phone number, I tried to ring them only to get a recorded message saying “their office was closed at the moment & to ring back during normal office hours between 08:15 & 16:30.
I then tried to send an e-mail to them; this bounced around for a while between servers before coming back as un-deliverable.
I finally managed to get through on the phone and had an even more interesting conversation, I asked if AL-KO sealed hubs were suitable for boat trailers. The first reply I had was “they are suitable for all types of trailer as long as they are NOT immersed in water” I then asked if a trailer is designed as a launching trailer, i.e. to be reversed into water to float a boat off of it, should it have AL-KO sealed hubs?
The reply was “you can back the trailer into water as long as water doesn’t come into the hubs”
I then asked if I could have this in writing, at which point I was passed on to someone else.
There was then a lot of back peddling, before they then said, “No trailer hubs are designed to be used for launching boats & they are all prone to problems”. I explained we have had boats & launching trailers for a number of years, & with minimal servicing each year (cleaning bearings & re-packing them with grease) we haven’t had any problems.
He finally agreed the AL-KO hubs were probably not ideal for this use because of the difficulties in DIY servicing, although they do provide a lot of boat trailer manufacturers with their hubs & axles.

[fred bolton]

Originally Posted by Scary Des

Rapid wer talking about doing a trailer with discs, don't know how far they got.

Try this thread http://www.rib.net/forum/showthread....ght=disc+brake discs also seem to have their problems

[gtflash]

WARNING

PLEASE DO NOT USE CAVALIER WHEEL BEARINGS

Originally Posted by gtflash

learnt my lesson yesterday, used a second hand circlip as i bought the much cheaper cavalier bearings and the supplied one didnt fit. Well the wheel fell off and knackered the new bearing and nearly the stub axle etc..

Today Bought new bearing that came with 2 circlips so replaced the other 2nd hand one, trust me 2t of boat on 3 wheels is an eye opener, good job the rangey was there to take most of the weight!!

life saver was nice guy at www.trailertek.com at winchester, opened up especially for me on good friday and £26 for a 251 kit and 2 circlips.

gt

see http://www.rib.net/forum/showthread....1&page=2&pp=10 for details

the cavalier wheel bearing comes with the wrong size circlip so as a consequence you would have to do what i did and use the old stretched circlip.

Luckily i was manovering when the wheel fell off but it knackered my new bearing, the one shot bolt and i had to turn down the end of the stub axle as it was deformed in the process and the bearing wouldnt fit!! please remember this guys, i think i saved about £3 buying a cavalier one on the price the nice guy above charged... its not worth it.

ps 3 years... wow i hope i will oneday get 3 years outa alko bearings.. alko blow bigtime

[Jackwabbit]

Originally Posted by gtflash

ps 3 years... wow i hope i will oneday get 3 years outa alko bearings.. alko blow bigtime

One of our old boats is on a Snipe break-back trailer, this still has its original conventional trailer bearings, brake shoes & cables, it is now 7 years old. The cables now need replacing because we are unable to pump grease into then any more (yes these cables came with grease nipples)
Once a year we would take off the wheels, remove the bearings & clean them & check on their condition, all moving parts would be greased & then re-assembled.
And the best bit is it doesn’t break the bank, 1 tub of waterproof grease & 2 split pins.

[smithy]

I drilled and taped grease nipples into the bearing caps and reversed the seals. This is better at keeping the water out, the down side is grease goes all over the inside of the wheel, less rust!
Have been using the same set of bearings for years with no problems. Top up grease every couple of months.

[jwalker]

You can get double lip seals. One lip facing inwards, one outwards. It might be better than greasing the brake shoes!

[Jackwabbit]

Important Information Just received from AL-KO.
1. DO NOT immerse the hub/brakes when hot.
2. Keep immersion to an absolute minimum.
3. After immersion, the hub should be thoroughly hosed down with fresh water.
4. DO NOT park trailer with hand brake on.
5. It is recommended that normal service intervals are at least halved i.e. every 250 miles/2 months, 720 miles / 3 months, 1500 miles / 6 months.
6. Whilst these bearings are NOT WATERPROOF, they will afford greater protection against the ingress of water than taper roller bearings, particularly if allowed to cool before immersion.
7. Following the above procedures will do much to reduce the devastating effects of salt water, BUT CANNOT GUARANTEE THAT PROBLEMS WILL NOT OCCUR.

So it looks as if the trailer will have to go in for a service every other week, HOW MUCH IS THAT GOING TO COST ?