Want to lift, worried about wheel bearings

[ech0sh4y]

Hey guys -

New to this forums I use to live on FTE... anyways

I have a 93 4x4 sport stick. I want to lift it. My friend had a ranger with 4" lift and 33x1250 and off set rims... he was blowing his wheel bearings like every week... I would love to get 33 1250s on the explorer but I'm worried about the doing the same thing. I would consider a SAS but not sure what axles and what it entails.... Can I get buy with the right wheels for 1250s?


Brian

 

[ech0sh4y]

Anyone else have issues like this? Or even heard about it? Maybe it was just his truck..

 

[dkchrist]

probably just the truck do a search and see if anything comes up but there are a lot of guys on here running that set up with little to no problems I personally have a 5" lifted ranger on 33x10.50s and about 10,000 in no problems to speak of

 

[ech0sh4y]

What size rims do you have?

 

[Maniak]

I have 33x12.50 BFG AT's on 15x8 rims..

I check/repack/replace my bearings about every 15k miles (when I check my brakes)..

I drive 4 miles dirt road (washboard and ruts) and about 65 or so freeway/2 lane road every day to/from work. The bearings aren't coming loose from the dirt road/2 lane and aren't getting hot from the freeway.

~Mark

 

[huntman58]

I have heard that to much off set can do that so I have always tried to stay with stock off set. doing that i never had any bearing trouble

 

[Burns]

I never had that prob. Drove mine like that for a year. Replaced them once.

 

[FROADER]

I never had to replace mine with 35s and drove it every day for over 3 years and beat the crap out of it on the trails. Maybe I just got lucky.

 

[ech0sh4y]

What offset/backspacing should i look at getting? 15x8s are the way to go ;-)

 

[manaen]

almost sounds like he was
A) running too much offset or
B) over torquing his bearings when installing them or
C) way out of alignment


Also there is an issue with some trucks in those year where the bearings want to come loose, my 95 ranger was like that, so every 10K I would repack and re-torque them.

You'll be fine, just be sure and get the truck aligned properly after lifting it. that can make a huge difference in bearing longevity

 

[unclemeat]

Most on this site with 33x12.5x15 are runnin 3 3/4" backspacing. The trick with the bearing is all in the preload. Yes it is harder on the bearings with larger tires.

 

[4x4junkie]

B) over torquing his bearings when installing them or

9 times out of 10, too much preload is what causes bearing failure on these things from what I've seen. They only need 15 INCH-lbs or so (or snug using the socket by hand)

Another thing, the spindle locknuts (manual hubs only) also tend to come loose if you don't torque the outer nut down enough (particularly on the driverside).
The books say to put 150 ft-lbs on it, I've found it to not be enough. I like to run 'em up to about 225-250.

Running 35x12.50s on 15x8 rims, no problems.