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Automotive wheel and brake engineers are studying various wheel bearing concepts which lend themselves to easy installation and reduction of unsprung weight. A family of tapered roller bearing designs has been developed for both driving and non-driving wheels which offer the industry several options for marrying suspension, wheel and bearing components. While differing in configuration, all may be selected to meet established criteria for satisfactory performance based on the latest bearing analysis techniques and experience derived from extensive laboratory and field test programs.

Increased size, payload and horsepower requirements are the trend in today's off-highway industry. This paper discusses the role of new anti-friction roller bearing technology in avoiding problems created by changing design considerations and the performance/cost/EPA triad currently squeezing designers and manufacturers of rubber tired earthmoving machinery. A comparison is made of bearing fatigue life determined by several methods including those derived from vehicle instrumentation and purely empirical criteria. Some common problems relating to the mounting and set up of large wheel bearings are also reviewed together with corresponding remedies.

Contaminants that find their way into the lubrication system of a mechanism can have significant adverse effects on the useful life of the antifriction bearings in the application. This paper provides a discussion of the more common types of solid and liquid lubricant contaminants and the possible sources from which they originate, plus the different modes of premature bearing damage that can result. Some case histories of applications plagued with contaminated lubrication problems and the resulting difficulties encountered with bearing performance are also reviewed. These views are primarily limited to past experience with tapered roller bearings manufactured from case hardened materials.