So if you needed new bearings and you routinely buggied at the beach would you go stainless? The current set appears to be frozen up from corrosion. Is corrosion the usual way these things die or does sand kill them?

Do you inland buggiers find yourselves replacing bearings?

I could get a set from vxbearings for about $85 delivered. It is quite tempting.

Philip

I did the stainless on one bug and it lasted about twice as long as the cheapo bearings. Pour salt over the bearing and let it sit for a while, even the stainless will begin to rust.
I use the cheep bearings at 3 bucks a pop, lot cheaper that way. they last about 4 months and than replace them.
Get home after an outing to the beach, rinse them off with fresh water, spray WD-40 on them and they are good to go for the next outing

In the blokart they take out the grease and use lite machine oil with a dust shield on both sides to get the least rolling resistance. Just have to spray them clean and little bit of oil and good as new.

I don't even clean the bearings anymore in the bug, use the cheep ones and replace them once or twice a year.

Quote:

Get home after an outing to the beach, rinse them off with fresh water, spray WD-40 on them and they are good to go for the next outing

Same here and my $7 bearings have done 3000km mostly on the beach. From the discussions on the XK forum that I've read, SS is simply not worth the extra dollars - providing you take a little care of the normal ones. I got some 42-12-20mm spares for my sysmic rims that are actually PFI electronic motor bearings for $7 each - they feel much nicer than the stock bearings which are about $4.50 each. The bearing shop said I could get the $12 SKD ones but they just wouldn't be worth the extra $$.

My original bearings are starting to 'bind' a little and are not running as freely as they should, but 2 years of use for $7 a bearing.... I've not heard of anyone down this way replacing bearings more than once a year and even that's pretty rare.

Clean with de-greaser, then pack with marine grade grease. It's the only way to go.
Grab a clump of grease in your palm and with one shield off scrape the grease in evenly.
Do not wipe clean. You want a coating over the entire bearing as well.