PaulTGarrett
Grumpy old man
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2017
- Posts
- 506
- Reaction score
- 459
- Location
- Tampa Bay, Florida
- Ram Year
- 2012
- Engine
- 408 Cummins Turbo Diesel
I have had those sorry POS unit bearings fail at highway speeds three times over two RAM trucks ('98 & '12). Ya ever try to control an 8000 pound truck pulling a ~10,000 pound gooseneck trailer while dragging the driver's side front wheel? At 80 mph with the cruise control on?? Yeah, it was fun...
I want to kick whoever came up with the unit bearing design in the nuts so many times that their fore-fathers will feel it back through time. Those bearings are a **** poor "engineering" design for a 4x4 and are simply dangerous. Their only claim to fame is that they are (theoretically) easy to replace. If you actually think that I'll give you my mechanic's phone number and you can explain to him that it doesn't take three days, two people, a press and a torch to replace them after they explode. Even if I were to buy one of the spanky new 2023 POS trucks, the first thing I would do after I got it in the driveway would be to dispose of the disposable bearings and install a spindle/hub assembly. -IF- a spindle bearing were to fail, I wouldn't lose the front wheel, it would be held together long enough to get it safely off the road. Also, if a bearing fails when I'm out in the middle of the deep weeds hunting and/or camping, I can fix them quite easily with only a few tools. Try that with a unit bearing... Yeah, go on, I'm waiting to hear how easy that is...
I have the Dynatrac FULL FLOATING spindles and hubs on my truck. Wouldn't have anything else.
I want to kick whoever came up with the unit bearing design in the nuts so many times that their fore-fathers will feel it back through time. Those bearings are a **** poor "engineering" design for a 4x4 and are simply dangerous. Their only claim to fame is that they are (theoretically) easy to replace. If you actually think that I'll give you my mechanic's phone number and you can explain to him that it doesn't take three days, two people, a press and a torch to replace them after they explode. Even if I were to buy one of the spanky new 2023 POS trucks, the first thing I would do after I got it in the driveway would be to dispose of the disposable bearings and install a spindle/hub assembly. -IF- a spindle bearing were to fail, I wouldn't lose the front wheel, it would be held together long enough to get it safely off the road. Also, if a bearing fails when I'm out in the middle of the deep weeds hunting and/or camping, I can fix them quite easily with only a few tools. Try that with a unit bearing... Yeah, go on, I'm waiting to hear how easy that is...
I have the Dynatrac FULL FLOATING spindles and hubs on my truck. Wouldn't have anything else.
