Preload Instead of Setting Endplay Gaining Favor

by Raymond Piascik
Created: June 13, 2012

Fleet maintenance managers point to advantages

Photo from iStockphoto

Proper assembly and maintenance of wheel ends helps prevent a wheel separation from a vehicle, and results in improved vehicle performance and reduced operating and maintenance costs.
Proper assembly and maintenance of wheel ends helps prevent a wheel separation from a vehicle, and results in improved vehicle performance and reduced operating and maintenance costs.
Temper has developed a technology to directly preload the bearings rather than having to torque a locking nut, allowing "measurement" of preload during the adjustment process and fine tuning the...
Temper has developed a technology to directly preload the bearings rather than having to torque a locking nut, allowing "measurement" of preload during the adjustment process and fine tuning the bearing set to the optimal preload setting.

With few exceptions, these manufacturers set wheel end bearings to the 0.001” to 0.005” endplay range using older torque-based technology. As a result, the high variability of endplay settings can lead to poor wheel end performance built into many new vehicles.

Temper Axle’s Rode notes that this is changing fast, as a number of major players up and down the commercial vehicle OE supply chain are working to equip their wheel end production lines with preload adjustment technology to deliver the best performing wheel ends possible.

Raymond J. Piascik is vice president of Temper Axle Products Corporation, part of Temper Companies, a manufacturing company with plants in Fonda, NY, and Fremont, MI, that develops and manufactures bearing adjustment solutions for a wide range of global industrial, aerospace and commercial vehicle customers. www.tempercorp.com.