Bearing extensions

[Fatman]

working on starting a set of these what over all lenhgt did you use

[kghills]

I did not end up using the seal. My original thought was to make the UHMW a tight tolerance to the axle and install a grease zerk. Not knowing how tight was OK, and what would be too tight, I opted to open it up a little. Now there is no need for a zerk and a seal. The center hole I bored, if I remember right, is about .030" over sized. If my outer bearing was to go bad, this is still tight enough to limp home on the plastic alone......I may not even know it right away.

No seal and. 030 should insure that the first "A" in AATV will not apply. I installed the synthetic bearings from Adair Argo on my Argo Bigfoot. The UHMW bearing was a light press on the axle and was greasable along with the factory double seal which was also greasable. With 50 hours the axles were still tight and absolutely water tight. The machine could float for hours without a drop of water entering the body. I plan on using oil impregnated UHMW for the next set I do along with the double seal and grease zerk for my Max IV to make it water tight.

Keith.

[thebuggyman1]

To give credit where credit is due: Adair Argo has synthetic bearings that are essentially the same thing. Thank you Tim. (member Obsessed)

[phabib]

I was going to bore my center hole way oversize figuring that the load is really on the bearing and there is no reason for it to be any kind of a snug fit. Your idea of making it close enough that you can run on the plastic in a pinch is something I hadn't thought of.

Thanks for the reply.

[thebuggyman1]

I did not end up using the seal. My original thought was to make the UHMW a tight tolerance to the axle and install a grease zerk. Not knowing how tight was OK, and what would be too tight, I opted to open it up a little. Now there is no need for a zerk and a seal. The center hole I bored, if I remember right, is about .030" over sized. If my outer bearing was to go bad, this is still tight enough to limp home on the plastic alone......I may not even know it right away.

[phabib]

I got the plastic in the mail a couple of days ago and I'm going to make some as well. I notice that you've got a seal in your design. It looks like it is on the inboard end, and positioned so that it would stop stuff from going from the inside of the tub out. Do I have that right? Can you talk about why you added the seal, where and which direction you placed it, and why you decided to add it?

Thanks for the photos and good idea.

[Czechsix]

Subbed to this thread. I'm kinda curious to see how durable they are too. Good thing is they're easy to make...at least easier than casting some aluminum, which is what I was thinking.

[thebuggyman1]

All I had laying around was a briggs opposed twin 16hp, so it is going to be a bit under powered. I don't see how the extensions will eat up any additional hp though.

[PlumCrazy]

They look good Jim.
Let me know how they hold up.
What engine do you have in that Max, do you expect to loose some performance due to the additional resistance of the extensions?
ed

[thebuggyman1]

It's been a real long winter, and I lost all motivation in the cold weather, but I'm finally back on my project.
They all went together well, and I'm looking forward to the first test drive.

[thebuggyman1]

I want to link this thread to another relevant thread on the synthetic bearings.

http://www.6x6world.com/forums/max-atvs/25546-older-max-iv-adair-synthetic-bearings.html#post138124

[thebuggyman1]

Kudo's to Tim for doing so much to advance our sport.
Sounds like anyone wanting to try these out just needs to stack a few of the Adair design together....even if the bolt holes aren't right, they could just drill the ones they need.
Tim could probably even bore different sized axle holes for older machines like Attex with 1" axles

[Obsessed]

I sent Tim an email this morning about providing the service of making them for other members. It took me many hours to make these ones, and I am not finished yet. I'm sure someone experienced could make them FAR faster. I also thought of the synthetic bearing idea, and decided an $8 seal on the outside wasn't much cheaper than a $13 bearing......maybe that's a better idea on the inside too

Hi Jim....got your email this afternoon and found your conversation here.
I like your bearing extension and think its a good concept. I have been working on just about the same thing for the past couple of years.

To give credit where credit is due....Ray Kohls contacted me about 2 years ago with the concept of a plastic replacement bearing and a couple of other unique ideas...he had already successfully built and tested a few and looked like a good replacement for a the common steel type bearing for our application. I had trouble replicating the product with our equipment so the more I thought about it, I also liked the idea of incorporating the plastic bearing with the whole flange as well as an effective bearing extension and axle support...turns out that this was easier for us to build and eliminated the failures that we sometimes see with damaged steel flanges....we have been testing this product for about two years now and so far, so good...you can see pictures of what just a 2" thick bearing along with a factory outer flange looks like when installed on an old 6x6 vanguard if you look on adairargosales.com website under accessories.....we have come to the conclusion that you can either just run the UHMW bearing by its self or if you are rebuilding an old argo you can replace your outer seals in your old outer bearing flanges and use that to cap the outer bearing giving you a grease seal and also an effective device to hold the head of the carriage bolts,....or you can really double up and use the Adair HD Bearing adapter on top of a stack of UHMW bearing to give strength and support to the axle and to take leverage off of the outer HD bearing.

The UHMW bearings we have been machining have been installed on a couple dozen machines now and we are curious to see how they hold up over the next couple of years...eventually, if they continue to test well we will start to recommend they for applications that have trouble with conventional steel bearings...for now we give them to anyone wanting to help with the testing for a cost of about $10 per axle and you can stack them as thick as you have axle length for... To make them universal, we build a lot of them with all three common bolt patterns cut into them...we machine all the bolt patterns about 3/4 the way through the block so that all the user has to do is chose the pattern that matches there machine and then poke the holes the rest of the way through. If you are stacking several blocks together a simple cork gasket is all that is needed to seal up between each layer...so far they have been proving to be very watertight even at minimal thicknesses of just 2"....we now make them in 1" and 1.5" thicknesses to allow for custom applications...

Kghills, and Noel Woods, are just a couple of the guys on here that have been playing with the product...

If anyone want some scraps of this material, we probably throw away about 100 lbs of it on a typical day. We have been experimenting with some other uses for all of the waist but have more than enough to go around.

Let me know if we can be of any help to any of you here...

Tim

[thebuggyman1]

I bet Tim is making them out of the waste from cutting out track pieces. I really don't see an issue with a 3 piece extension (3X1.5"=4.5"), just use a smear of silicone between them.

As for the feedback, no news will be good news. I'm hoping to NOT have any problems, so NOT notice a difference.

[trevorakm1]

What I like about yours are they are one peice, from Adair they have to be stacked and more chance of leakage if not paying attention. What I like about the Adair is it allows a guy like me without the facilities to mill to still get the same effect. I was thinking of getting bearing extensions for my bigfoot rear axles due to the stress reasons you mentioned above but that requires alot more modification than I care to tackle. These give the same effect. I can also add these to middle and rear axles cheaper than just one bearing extension. I will probably order them from Tim in April when I order my tracks. I would like to hear some feedback once you get yours installed to see if you notice any difference.