front wheel bearings keep going bad

**chutton87** · 06-27-2008, 08:55 PM

I have a 2000 Chevy Silverado 2500 4x4. I've had to replace the front wheel bearings on both sides, my mechanic recently told me that I will probably have to replace them again in the near future because running mud terrains causes a lot of vibration and will cause them to wear out. The truck has 155000 miles on it and the bearings were replaced at 120k and 145k miles. Does anyone know of an aftermarket manufacturer who builds stronger wheel bearings that won't wear out as quickly?

Joe

**collinsperformance** · 06-28-2008, 01:37 AM

i running 40's on my bronco and not any issues with wheel bearings......is the mech installing them correctly?....mike

**tbplus10** · 06-28-2008, 09:11 AM

What off-set are you running on your wheels? This can be a huge factor in the life of your front wheel bearings. Changing from factory to a negative or positive off-set wheel to clear the body is popular, but no one ever tells you it can be harmfull to your hub bearings.

One other item that is usually attributable to early hub failure is the type terrain you 4 wheel in, lots of mud or sandy beachs can increase bearing failure.

**chutton87** · 06-30-2008, 11:14 AM

I have found out that the bearings failing on this year model truck is common, it's not a very good design. I've got the original wheels on the truck because I didn't want the offset to shorten the bearing/ball joint life. I want to replace the bearings with a stronger off-road version that can handle the tires, but haven't been able to find any.

**tbplus10** · 06-30-2008, 09:08 PM

Theres a few aftermarket wheel bearings available, dont know if thier any more reliable, but the bigger problem is their only sold as part of a lift kit. Rancho, Sky MFG, Fab Tech, and a few others offer "Heavy Duty" front hub bearings that fit on their particular lift kits.
Never tried to mate them to a stock spindle so I couldnt tell you if their specific to those particular spindles or if they would work on a stock spindle.
I do know the Rancho and Fab Tech kits can use factory hubs if you dont want to upgrade to their heavy duty ones.

**jeffj87** · 07-01-2008, 06:17 PM

On my 98 Silverado. I have 33X12.50 mud terrains. and i have to replace wheel bearings at about 40 to 50k. It also depends on what kind of driving that you are doing. The wider tires will eat bearings faster than stock tires regardless on whether or not they are a mud terrain.

**zippy** · 07-04-2008, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by tbplus10

What off-set are you running on your wheels? This can be a huge factor in the life of your front wheel bearings.

DITTO. And, rear bearings on IRS vehicles.
If you're gonna run big tires and off-set wheels, then be prepared for problems. Remember, the designers sized the OE bearings based on OE tires and wheels.