Wallace Hubs

[dick kennedy]

Gene,

FWIW: My coach had Wallace hubs when I got it; they were toast and near
failure. The hubs were converted back to the original. This says nothing
about the Wallace design. It just indicates that any bearing needs to be
properly maintained or it will fail.

Just looking at the Wallace pics I don't see how the inner bearing can be
carrying an equal share of the load but I can see it adding safety margin
if one of the outers fail.

OBTW: My boat trailer is a 1974 and is still running the original bearings
while the replacement set that I carry are gotten too rusty to use.

Dick

>
>-- [ From: Eugene Fisher * EMC.Ver #3.1a PRODIGY ] --
>
>
>------- FORWARD, Original message follows -------
>
>Date: Tuesday, 07-Sep-99 03:20 AM
>
>From: Eugene Fisher \ PRODIGY: (JDDP32B)
>To: Ron Gina \ Internet: (raideron)
>
>Subject: Re: GMC: Wallace Hubs
>
>Ron
>
>Talk about urban myth, I think there is no good data on this net about
>these hubs. There was a RUMOR several months back that the original
>hubs by Wallace were ok but that some of the newer ones were failing. I
>think that rumor was heard at a conference..... no direct facts that I
>have seen......
>
>Caspro still offers a three bearing hub even though their catalog is a
>bunch of crap saying the normal hub "Sooner or later, they all fail,
>usually at about at 35,000 miles." This nets data shows that all of the
>failures we have data on have occurred on standard hubs with uncertain
>or poor maintenance.
>
>I think there are several on this net that are running 3 bearing hubs
>and they have not failed yet ---either. If you have not seen them I have
>pictures of the original brochure up on my web page. Go to my page and
>enter WALLACE into the search blank and you will find the reference.
>http://www.california.com/~eagle/
>
>If any one has real data on failures of the 3 bearing hubs would be good
>to read about it here.
>
>
>I for one am not going to spend 4000 hours of research for another
>answer to a $100 problem.
>
>gene

 

[blank]

Or, to paraphrase Tom Warner, "A $100 non-problem".

Buy the right bearings, install them properly, service them when
recommended. No problem.

Patrick

>
> I for one am not going to spend 4000 hours of research for another
> answer to a $100 problem.

 

[vic marks]

I don't think that there is much urban myth to the Wallace bearing issue. I
will relate a story as told to me by Jim Anstett a few years ago. Please
keep in mind that this is my recollection of a story that took place some
time ago, and though I may have some of the details wrong, I'm clear about
the essence of the story. Jim had Wallace hubs in his coach for quite some
time and was very happy with them. I don't know how many miles he had on
them but he has traveled over 250,000 in his coach. His initial set were
put in when Mr Wallace Sr. was alive. The business was carried on after his
death by his widow and their son. A machinist who was with the company for
some years stayed on for some time afterwards as well. Things seem to have
been fine until the machinist left. Although the business continued, it was
during this time that problems arose. Jim was returning from Mexico when
one of his hubs went bad. As he wasn't far from Arizona, he removed it and
took it up to have it replaced at the Wallace's. He put the new one on his
rig, drove a relatively short distance and this new one went. He again went
to the Wallace business site and had it replaced. He installed it and again
it went out in a relatively short time. At that point he gave up and put in
a standard setup on that side of his rig. I believe that he still drives
today with the two different hubs. It would seem that the machining skills
needed to do the job properly left with the machinist. Shortly after this,
Wallace went out of business. I wasn't aware that Caspro sold the three
bearing hub but I do know that Buskirk has such a product. Personally,
given the cost of the hubs, it seems that the standard bearings do just
fine if well maintained (which seems to mean different things to different
people if the most recent dialogue on the net is any indication). I have a
prototype hub temperature gauge developed by Horst Becker which I have yet
to put into my GMC (which I'm sure is an irritant to Horst as he would like
to get some feedback from somebody who has driven in mountainous country
before "releasing" the product; I really do hope to get it installed
shortly). Horst, by the way, is an amazing guy who designs the circuit
boards for a number of additions to the GMC on his home PC up in Chicago,
and then burns the board in a little setup that he has in his back office.
As it seems with a disproportionate number of GMC owners (excluding me), he
is an engineer (electrical in this case).

Just when does truth become myth? Or is it, when does myth become truth.

Vic
Vancouver, BC