Schaeffer 229, 238 and 274 differences?

[Bored]

Hello, I have been pouring over the forum and doing a bunch of reading about grease and I am hoping to get rid of my mish mosh of old stuff and try something new. I have heard great things about Schaeffer but I have never tried them so I am hoping for some firsthand experience between those 3 greases.

I am looking for something for saltwater trailer bearings, Ford SuperDuty hub bearings and misc automotive zerks. The 3 greases mentioned are all aluminum complex grease and meet the NLGI #2 rating which I believe is what I am needing ... but what is the difference otherwise? Is it basically a color additive and/or one being synthetic? If you would only load up one grease gun for my my needs ( is that feasible for what I am looking to accomplish?), which would you use?

Thanks

 

[Food Scientist]

I pretty much asked the same question to a sales rep from Schaeffer and his response for one grease to use was the 274 NGLI #2, which was his best selling grease. There is no one "all purpose grease" but I believe from reading stuff about Schaeffer that 229 and 238 are more for heavy duty applications while 274 served a wider set of applications. Their 197 is a full synthetic grease (but is not really for your application) and the main difference between 229 and 238 is that 229 contains synthetic moly (Not MoS2) and also has teflon. 229 is the most expensive of the 3 but 274 will give the best overall performance.

 

[Rand]

what kind of grease are you using now? if its not compatible you need to clean it all out first. Which can range from easy to impossible.

 

[Food Scientist]

Originally Posted By: Rand
what kind of grease are you using now? if its not compatible you need to clean it all out first. Which can range from easy to impossible.


Most likely a lithium complex grease which is compatible with aluminum complex grease. If you want to be sure take a sample of the old and new grease and mix them together. If there is any separation or if the grease becomes really soft after about 30 minutes, they are not compatible.

 

[Bored]

Thanks guys for the responses. It initially was a blue grease that came on the trailer bearing buddies and I had tested it with some Wallyworld lithium complex and I did not see any problems with the mixing so I just used that because that is what I had on hand.

Too bad Schaeffer seems to be a pain to get a hold of, so I may just end up going with Mystik which I can find easily locally ( although not the marine version ). I am going to make some calls next week and see what brand is going to be my "go to" since I am thinking of changing out to some synthetic oils as well.

Too bad grease seems to be like the detergent for your clothes washer now ( honestly, how many versions of Tide do you really need, I remember when there was Tide and umm ... Tide haha) and instead of simply making a product that can cover a few bases, it seems that you need to buy special this that or the other thing lol.