Apparently Dodge and Cummins want to run 'em undergound:

http://www.everytime.cummins.com/eve.../release81.jsp

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...2/ai_n21405288

 

It is at a coal mine. The trucks are mantrips or mechanic flatbeds.Mantrips haul about eight people in the back. They are all quad cabs. When a bearing fails it looks like you lost a lower ball joint. In about a mile the hub is glowing and you do whatever it takes to get that truck outside. If you break down in the main haulage then you are getting pushed or drug out.
The main problem with the front end design is the lack of sealing. The wheel bearings get flooded with water and dirt and the front diff is the same way. We probably loose one front diff a month. No problems with the rear. Each time the trucks gets a service the front end gets flushed(the oil is black).
The other part we loose is the bump stops, they just don't hold up.

 

New dodges are the only ones that can go underground, all of the trucks are de-tuned and speed limited(execpt when you are in neutral!!). They are put thru the most extreme use and they hold up pretty good. I have never seen trucks go thru so much abuse. We still have a few 12 valves in operation. Another mine bought acouple of Chevy's (pre-emission) they used them for about 8-10k miles and then put them in their gob pile(scrap yard) they did not last at all.

 

If any venders need some parts tested till failure to make improvements I am sure some of the guys at the mine would give it all they got.

 

Is it only the 4 wheel drive trucks that are having wheelbearings problem or are the two wheel also having it to. The reason I'm asking is when I first got my 2003 3500 two wheel drive truck it was used and had 49,000 on the clock so I was going through a check and a complete oil change and found that the front wheels where hard to turn didn't have time to check bearings and I thought that it might be the pads dragging because it looked like they had just been changed. So when I had the tires replaced at about 55,000 it was still hard to turn and the rims had lot of brake dust but I have check rims for excessive heat and they have always been cool. Been thinking about opening the bleeder and see if it relieves pressure on pads before checking bearings.

 

We don't have any 2 wheel drive units. When you say the wheel is hard to turn is that when the tire is off the ground and you are rotating it. When it is jacked up grab the top and bottom of the tire and try to move it back and forth. If you are getting alot of brake dust on one tire check the thickness of both pads you may have a caliper sticking.

 

It is off ground with no play. I though that it might be that line pressure is not releasing causing pads not release all the way. If it was the caliper that was stuck it would cause excessive heat a ad normal ware. Or could it be that the proportional valve not releasing and if it is could you not open bleeder valve to check.

 

We run these truck underground where I work too. We also have a lot of bearing failures. Our roads are fairly rough so we also go through lots of steering parts, ball joints, ect. Many of these trucks have under 20000 miles but they earned every mile. Some of ours are goverened at 25 MPH others are goverened at 45 MPH. The engines are about the only thing I haven't seen replaced. Our mine thought automatics would be a good idea. It turns out deep water and automatics don't get along. Of course the 3 manuals we have don't like to start and none of our mechanics can figure out why. One actually requires ether to be started every time. We are definately putting them to the test.

 

CG98x which mine are you at. I am at West Elk, Arch Coal. Some of these guys don't understand what these trucks go through on a daily basis. Our new seam is getting so rough and the big wigs are saying we are tearing them up. Luckly we do not have any autos. What year are the trucks that won't start. We have two that will not start and I think they are both 07's with a very odd computer/electrical problem(they are about to go to the gob pile).

 

I just put a Dynatrac kit on at 126,000 and the original unit bearings were doing fine. Mine is no grocery getter either. It works towing, hauling and a lot of highway runs with some off road stuff.

At first it sounded like a bad batch of bearings but now it sounds like some kind of extreme use with glowing bearings at 25 mph, underground! I want to hear the rest of the story!

John

 

JPAJAX if a caliper is sticking then you would have abnormal wear and heat on one side possible just one pad. If both sides are wearing fast then there maybe a problem elsewhere. The pads will always contact the rotor and when you turn the wheel by hand you will feel them rubbing.

 

Raspy if you took somebody that abused their truck everyday and multiplied that by 10 then you would have the abuse that these trucks get. Within a couple hundred miles or less new bump stops will be completly trashed and missing. Brakes last about a month maybe two. Each brake job gets new rotors. The bearing don't get replaced untill they fail so we drive them out( 4 to 6 miles) with the wheel at one heck of an angle and the bearing gets hot. there are no tow trucks so if the wheel falls off and you are fairly close to getting out then you drive backwords so you can steer, put new parts on and off you go. We have used so many bearing last month that it is taking about two weeks to get new ones from dodge.

We have a fuel truck, 3500 dually that has a dynatrac kit on it. they just replaced the bearing after three months so i think that these kits will hold up pretty good.

 

CoolumConst,

That's very interesting! Thanks. So it sounds like the Dynatrac setup is holding up better than the stock setup in your environment? You are the best tester anywhere. What a thrashing they get!

I'd love to see some pix if possible.

John

 

My dad just had his go out in his 3500 Dually. 56K miles. $450... He's angry!

 

I am at Bridger Coal Co. Our floor is very easy to tear up and we do what we can to haul gravel in but we usually run short handed. All our trucks that won't start are 05's with the G56. The manual trannies do not get treated nicely. However all the autos are gutless dogs when they are detuned. 4 low becomes something you use anytime you pull into a muddy crosscut. What kills most of the autos though is water contamination, they do not like water mixed with their ATF.