Has anyone changed out axle's to from stock grease to oil bath. I have a 5th wheel trailer and was wondering if it's worth the money to go this route when the time comes.

 

I know people that have tried them and went back to packing with grease because of constant leaking with the oil bath.

Denny

 

I can't imagine it's worth the effort. They don't change the rating of the axle, just the repack interval.

They usually say the interval is to check the oil level on some regular basis and fill as necessary. That seems to fall hand-in-hand with the perception that they leak (as kevin211 noted above). Use them a while, some oil leaks out, check and refill, voila' oil never gets old!

You might see an advantage if you tow a lot of miles all the time, in the form of less downtime for repacks.

 

I've heard they are an issue if your trailer sits parked for the winter. Apparently the bearings outside of the oil don't get enough rust protection as compared to being covered in grease.

I was also told that while the hubs that came with my disc brake conversion kit had clear caps to support oil bath, you need much more expensive seals than the ones that came with the hubs.

After pondering this decision myself, I went with ole tried and true grease.

 

I have a 2002 boat trailer that uses oil bath hubs. It's never leaked and I've never had water intrusion. It's a very good system for that particular application. Since the hubs on my camper do not get completely submerged in water I don't really feel the need to have water tight hubs. If I need to work on the conventional hubs, they are much easier to take apart and put back together than an equivalent oil filled hub.

I've not seen any rust issues with the bearing on my boat trailer. I would think that the system, being designed to keep water out, would be rust free unless there is a failure.

 

I follow a hot shotter forum, and many of those guys converted from oil bath back to greased axles.