Grease with better corrosion protection

[mker]

Last fall I greased all of the outboard brake cam bushings on 10 trailers with Blue Lucas marine grease ( calcium sulfonate). Last week I re greased and all the old grease came out looking like mud. I am looking something else that will give better corrosion protection and readily available online. Am I asking too much for grease lasting at a least a year?

 

[Creekside]

The grease just looks discolored to me and that could be from what was in there previously. How many miles did these trailers see since last pm? You have to remember that the camshaft rotates a lot of times in 100 miles if these are regional trailers. I’ll also add that I have no experience with that particular grease but I do use Schaeffer 219 in this application and have been happy.

 

[Creekside]

I want to add that you purged red grease in one picture and blue in another. I don’t think you have much of a corrosion problem but grease contamination from whatever was used previously. Also remember that most S cam bushings are a form of nylon or plastic so there’s little chance of corrosion there.

 

[ABN_CBT_ENGR]

came out looking like mud. I am looking something else that will give better corrosion protection and readily available online. Am I asking too much for grease lasting at a least a year?

That grease is just fine and doing what its supposed to do. The color and consistency of that grease in that application is perfectly normal.

 

[mker]

I want to add that you purged red grease in one picture and blue in another. I don’t think you have much of a corrosion problem but grease contamination from whatever was used previously. Also remember that most S cam bushings are a form of nylon or plastic so there’s little chance of corrosion there.

That grease is just fine and doing what its supposed to do. The color and consistency of that grease in that application is perfectly normal.

The red grease is liquid wrench marine grease (also calcium sulfonate)which I haven’t used before but I have a case of 10. Blue grease is Lucas marine grease. Last fall I purged all the old grease out (Also dark blue color and been in there since new for 3 years, no idea what brand or type) with Lucas grease and all the trailers are 2015 model and I guess have less than 20k miles per year running local NJ drop and pick. The original tires not even half worn. Brake shoes are all rust jacked and cracked even though still have plenty of lining. i would said the route is very easy on brake.

The s cams are made of steel so all the rusty color I see is corrosion eating away the s cams.

In conclusion so this is completely normal and I was expecting too much from a calcium sulfonate grease.

 

[jonlandrum]

Grease colorants eventually fade. They're just for marketing purposes.

 

[ABN_CBT_ENGR]

In conclusion so this is completely normal and I was expecting too much from a calcium sulfonate grease.

The dye fading over time as the additives and lube get worked is normal-that's not an indicator of performance ( good or bad).

Cant speak to what you were expecting but don't fret over this- looks like it did everything it was supposed to do.

 

[Creekside]

I recently did some PM work on an older trailer that hadn’t seen ANYTHING for years. The customer suspected it needed brakes as it would take off when being backed under and there was little to no resistance to pulling it with brakes set. It ended up needing a brake adjustment and one camshaft was sticking due to hard grease gumming up the bushing. All the rest were fine after a couple shots. When I pulled the shaft there was no pitting, corrosion, rust, etc. I don’t think you’ll see a corrosion problem in a S cam bushing with even a poor grease schedule.

 

[jonlandrum]

I recently did some PM work on an older trailer that hadn’t seen ANYTHING for years. The customer suspected it needed brakes as it would take off when being backed under and there was little to no resistance to pulling it with brakes set. It ended up needing a brake adjustment and one camshaft was sticking due to hard grease gumming up the bushing. All the rest were fine after a couple shots. When I pulled the shaft there was no pitting, corrosion, rust, etc. I don’t think you’ll see a corrosion problem in a S cam bushing with even a poor grease schedule.

As a former driver, that scares the hell out of me. One of my co-workers lost a pair of wheels on his trailer once due to his neglegence in checking the hub oil level.

 

[Chris142]

As a former driver, that scares the hell out of me. One of my co-workers lost a pair of wheels on his trailer once due to his neglegence in checking the hub oil level.

I list a set too. When I was still green I noticed a wheel seal leak.i wrote it up and told the shop foreman. I was given a bottle of oil and told to keep it full which I did.

Apparantly it was leaking not because the seal was bad but because the bearing was allowing the whole assembly to wobble around.

Adding oil lasted about a week then the whole thing rolled away.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Yep, my synthetic grease is light red, with a purple tinge going in. It comes out grey. At first I thought it was the old grease coming out, but after 12 years of regular greasing, it’s obvious it loses its original color.

 

[jonlandrum]

I list a set too. When I was still green I noticed a wheel seal leak.i wrote it up and told the shop foreman. I was given a bottle of oil and told to keep it full which I did.

Apparantly it was leaking not because the seal was bad but because the bearing was allowing the whole assembly to wobble around.

Adding oil lasted about a week then the whole thing rolled away.

"Rolled away" at ~70 mph, I'd assume. So let's do some math:

A steel Budd wheel weighs about 65 lbs, or 29.5 kg. A truck tire weighs about 100 lbs, or 45 kg. Wheel drums weight about 110 lbs, or 50 kg. A ductile iron wheel hub weighs about 40 lbs, or 18 kg. Ignoring wheel studs and nuts, the total weight of the wheel assembly is about 480 lbs, or 218 kg. At 70 mph, or 31.3 m/s, that system contains roughly 107 kJ of energy. The damage that thing does on impact is outrageous, and they are especially dangerous considering they tend to start bouncing and careening shortly after leaving the vehicle.

 

[Chris142]

"Rolled away" at ~70 mph, I'd assume. So let's do some math:

A steel Budd wheel weighs about 65 lbs, or 29.5 kg. A truck tire weighs about 100 lbs, or 45 kg. Wheel drums weight about 110 lbs, or 50 kg. A ductile iron wheel hub weighs about 40 lbs, or 18 kg. Ignoring wheel studs and nuts, the total weight of the wheel assembly is about 480 lbs, or 218 kg. At 70 mph, or 31.3 m/s, that system contains roughly 107 kJ of energy. The damage that thing does on impact is outrageous, and they are especially dangerous considering they tend to start bouncing and careening shortly after leaving the vehicle.

Yep. More like 55 mph though. They ended up in a ditch and did not hit anything important. The trailer was a set of pneumatic doubles so when the wheels fell off the axle fell into the pavement. By the time I was stopped the threaded area was no longer round!

 

[Creekside]

As a former driver, that scares the hell out of me. One of my co-workers lost a pair of wheels on his trailer once due to his neglegence in checking the hub oil level.

I have never lost a set however a couple drivers where I work have. They stemmed from no pretrip on one and a failure to notice the gear oil all over the brakes and the other was basically a freak accident where the hubcap broke in transit causing a total loss of lubricant. There were no injuries in either case however the second one resulted in fence damage in a pasture along the highway. I actually hauled a skidsteer out to recover the hub/drum/wheel assembly. Both incidents required an axle replacement.

 

[jonlandrum]

I have never lost a set however a couple drivers where I work have. They stemmed from no pretrip on one and a failure to notice the gear oil all over the brakes and the other was basically a freak accident where the hubcap broke in transit causing a total loss of lubricant. There were no injuries in either case however the second one resulted in fence damage in a pasture along the highway. I actually hauled a skidsteer out to recover the hub/drum/wheel assembly. Both incidents required an axle replacement.

I'd be willing to bet north of 90% of these incidents are because of driver error.

 

[AITG]

In general Calcium Sulfonate has excellent resistance to water. I have used it for over 20 years in place of lithium based grease with zero issues. As far as color goes, it's just dye. Pick your preferred flavor and lube away. My Kendall SHP is red but the newest offering from Phillips 66 is gray. Same stuff.

 

[Lubener]

Did water come out when you greased the fitting. If not, that discoloration is not rust.

 

[mker]

Did water come out when you greased the fitting. If not, that discoloration is not rust.

No but I know what rusty grease will look like with water contamination. The muddy color just don’t give me too much confident. Sometimes you just know something is not right. I don’t need to see water to confirm corrosion problem. I will try Mobil centaur (Also another calcium sulfonate) non moly grease next time. The is a picture of inside a landing gear box. Original 4 years old grease inside a jost gear box. Can you say that is not rust?

 

[jonlandrum]

No but I know what rusty grease will look like with water contamination. The muddy color just don’t give me too much confident. Sometimes you just know something is not right. I don’t need to see water to confirm corrosion problem. I will try Mobil centaur (Also another calcium sulfonate) non moly grease next time. The is a picture of inside a landing gear box. Original 4 years old grease inside a jost gear box. Can you say that is not rust?
View attachment 32681

I didn't know Mobil made a Centaur in a non-moly variant. I'm using Traveller Marine & Off-road from Tractor Supply simply because I couldn't find a non-moly Centaur. Is it available in 14 oz. tubes, or only in bulk?

 

[mker]

I didn't know Mobil made a Centaur in a non-moly variant. I'm using Traveller Marine & Off-road from Tractor Supply simply because I couldn't find a non-moly Centaur. Is it available in 14 oz. tubes, or only in bulk?

Mobil centaur xhp 462 case of 10 for $60 shipped on ebay
The auto slack adjusters can’t take any moly grease because it will cause slippage on the internal clutch. It is just more convenient for me to grease everything underneath with a single grease gun with non moly grease.