A dry bearing will almost always spin longer than a greased bearing that is not under pressure or under load. A very lite oil will usually help it spin longer but again not under pressure. Most bearings are engineered for specific use. The grease or lube inside can be very specific. A bearing that spins great on your test may seize up at 95mph due to inadequate cushioning of lubricant to the metal bearing causing the bearing to heat up and seize. Sometimes the tests we do seem to contradict what is commonly known about things but sometimes we are just not taking in all the factors of what a product was designed for. As you mentioned you probably wouldn’t put ceramic bearings in your brasher but they may be necessary in a Rc drag car. Thanks for sharing your experiment.👍
I appreciate this detailed feedback. You are correct that loaded results would be interesting. I tried to think of a loaded test, but couldn't think of how to do it.
Dude, I tip my hat off to you! This was an incredible informative video. Thanks for taking the time to perform this test & posting your honest findings. I just replaced my rear bearings on my Traxxas Rustler 2WD that I have setup for speed runs after loosing one of the bearings due to a crash after snapping a driveshaft axel at 84mph. I noticed that the Fast Eddy ceramic bearings I had were all shot grinding pretty bad, which may have contributed to snap my MIP steel axel due to high heat caused by friction. These bearings not being so old & not too many runs on them made me curious so I removed the rubber seals. Not sure if the ceramic bearings are supposed to be different in color, but they look like regular bearings to me. Did you notice a color difference between the ceramic & non ceramic, I'm curious. Thanks again for the great video 👍👍
Thanks for the nice comment. I was curious also, and looked for a color difference and did not see one. Not really sure if we are supposed to, but I guess not.
Never really thought about it. I put ceramic from Fast Eddy Bearings into the GF-01CB build I did. Other than that the most bearings I would use were for my snowmobile. For the drift use what runs the longest!
I normally put bearings in rotation, meaning that I use my older bearings for bashing, and get new bearings for race/ on road use. Great content, keep it up!!
Nice video, did learn alot. I did some testing on my Traxxis Slash bearings a few days ago. I pulled out original wheel bearings and spun them. (just used finger) They started at about 40 seconds. After cleaning with a bearing blaster and oiling, I got like 1 min and 31 seconds. You put a bead of oil around the bearing. I think that may have been too much. I watched another video and they put a single drop of oil. I added 2 drops and then worked it in. I would love to hear what others have to say! PS. After hearing about my test, my son running Associated B-Mod decided to clean all 8 wheel bearings. His car went faster as the night went on and he won his A-Main on the dirt track
Thanks for sharing. I'm currently running ceramic bearings with metal shields from AvidRC (cleaned and re-lubed) in my entire kits and that thing slides like a wet baby seal.
Roadside RC No, I’m using the Yokomo Racing Performer Ultra Bearing Oil (RP-106). I do prefer the Yokomo Drift Oil for RC Drift Cars (D-013) but I’m still comparing the results of both.
I was thinking of using those in my transmission, but I need 11 of them and was thinking of using a couple rubber sealed ones on the input and output shafts to keep the dirt out....the cost is astronomical for good bearings...I might use the metal shielded Amazon bearings instead if I can't find affordable ceramics.
ceramic bearings with metal shields, when get a load shock the metal cafe will damage and may kill you because the ceramic is harder than steel it may damage the metal cafe if get a load shock, go for full ceramic bearing which is much safer
This is a very huge topic, nice to see someone goes neutral on it, but i can assure you, once the Ceramic Bearings are broken in (approx 20 Lipo Packs) they will get better and better and better. Would love to see a follow up video on this :-) Nice Work, loved the Video :-)
Thanks for the info! I already saw a huge improvement in the steel shielded standard bearings over time. I kind of wonder if a bearing getting better is normal? At least through the first few drives and spins?
@@RoadsideRC yesss they absolutely do get better, the balls in the bearing create small grooves in the housing as you break them in. They create theyre own, perfect place to be and therefore have even less friction. There are some Videos to show how freely broken in ceramic bearings spin in a complete drivetrain. One Video is from ShortCourseWorld 4:08min. And the other is from Rc Junky 3:23min. However, always use a highgrade oil, you can also play with removing the shield from the side which gets less dirty to loose even more friction. And if you balance your Wheels & Tires, you'll get a super stable, sharp car which runs faster, with less heat, makes you feel more connected to the vehicle :-)
The difference in spinning time is due to the rubber SEALS having a slight bit of drag against the inner race. Shielded bearings have a small clearance between the shield and the inner race. Testing like this will never show much of a difference between steel bearings and hybrid ceramics if they have the same clearance, lube and ball retainer specs. Where the difference comes in is under a load. The difference you are seeing between the out of the package and cleaned is likely due to most small bearings being packed with a light grease. All that said, I bet that if you ran a real world test, like a controlled drag race, you would not see any statistical difference between them.
Great experiment! Looks like it too a while to do it all 👌 I run the hybrid style bearings. Rubber shield on the outside, metal shield on the inside. Helps keep dirt out and also give a little more free rotation. I also hit my bearings with some PTFE spray once in a while. That's it. Just bashing so when one goes out I replace it 😃
Thanks for the info. I had never done this before, so I was interested in the results. Like you, the most I had done before was to spray some kind of a lube on the bearings. For my bashers, I might keep doing that same thing. I just ordered some different bearing oils that people have suggested to try and see if I can tell a difference. Thanks again!
Another brilliant tech video nice to see your results does just prove time spent prepping. Makes a massive difference . And as others have commented the ceramics will get better with use and will last sooo much longer and perform more consistently .
Was looking at bearings, primarily ceramic bearings to see if they are all that over at BocaBearings, and they indicate that their ceramic bearings have a short break-in time before they fully loosen up. Might want to put them back in your car, make a couple of laps around your track, then try the measurements again. Would be interesting to see if that makes a difference.
Thanks for pointing that out! I actually did spin each of these a fair amount before they were tested. However, you are still correct that after more running, the results may be different still.
Hey Yeah Racing sells a PTFE RC bearing kit for Mst Rmx 2.0 you might want to check them out. I just ordered a set for my car. I'll give you an update on after the install
I know its late but what makes the ceramic better vs metal ball bearing is the hardness. Ceramic is able to basicly crush small dirt and debris and basicly polish itself. Metal slowly gets grimey and clogged up. So long term it is better but not speed wise. Rubber seals also slow things down.
toughness is more important to me i just drive them in the yard was wandering if Ceramic Si3N4 Bearing were any good or worce in term of lasting say in the wheel or differential
I put WHITZ ceramic bearings in my DR10, just the other night. I was amazed, giving the front wheel a good spin, it went for 2.44 seconds, no treatment, no doubt this is spinning much free'er than the stock..but yes, probably not the bearing for heavy bashing.
You can take a rubber sealed bearing, remove one of the seal and pair them open side facing. You still have a protected bearing with half the drag. Also makes them a breeze to clean and lube.
The bearing ball type doesn't matter much at the speeds the gearbox speeds (matters formotor shaft speeds however). Majority of the bearing friction is from the seal and retainer if the lubricant type and amount are correct. But most cheap OEMs don't do the lubrication correctly. Your results pretty much back this up. Note: You should test the bearing with actual load against the inner and outer race.
Dude great video! Exactly what I was looking for and way more detail than expected. I have a MAXX so I’ll probably use stainless balls and metal seal. Clean and lube them as needed. Thanks!!
For RWD drift cars it's imperative the front wheels spin freely. Overdose Low Friction Bearings are amazing. I shake them in a pill bottle with Isopropol Alcohol to clean and lube them with a drop or 2 of 1Up Racing Clear Bearing Oil 120202. I can flick the front wheel with my finger and it will spin for 90 seconds.
I can’t wait to do this on my sons 1/10 Touring Car. I’ll be using ceramic bearings on the drive train and wheels to free everything up. I’ll be using 1up bearing oil.
Nice! Cleaning is most important and so is oiling. Would u recommend just rubber sealed stainless steel bearing for dirt ff road? For durability and resistance to dirt?
Nice video and info. shame you didn't have the stainless and ceramic with metal shields, rubber shielded never spins as well as metal, but are far better for keeping dust and dirt out
Agree! I figure for this car, a little dust or dirt in the bearings may make a large difference! I recently saw a video where a guy modified the rubber seals to reduce drag. I might try that myself.
I use rear end fluid for all my bearings since my 92 silverado leaks rear end fluid, I always have some on standby lol, normally have them sit in the oil for at least an hour or so. But I bash and put around, I don't need a ton of wheel speed just want them to last.
Really good quality video 👍🏻. I’m new to this hobby. I do only bashing with my granite so I use rubber seal bearing. But I have a question for you for my motor which bearing should I use ? cuz I know rubber is not recommend for the motor. Thanks
Great general video! You by the way put wwaaaay too much oil in the bearings. Bearings should just get a little drop of oil from one side and not more, spin it around and job done. You overoiled them which lead to the problem that they didn't spin very long. Overoiled bearings will collect lots of dust and dirt while being on the track which will decrease the performance very fast. To clean them I would recommend to use break cleaner and a bearing cleaner container. The bearing cleaning container has a metal container with tiny holes that is a kind of hovering over the bottom of the container where the dirt falls through and lands on the bottom of the container. This way the dirt is falling down and the bearing is not directly laying in the dirt.
Which bearings do you use on your Traxxas X-Maxx 8S? So from your video the full metal ones are the best? Is that correct as I am rebuilding 2 X-Maxx 8S monsters at this time and need new bearings for both.
I installed my Reve d knuckle SG with Reve d front axle. But there’s a little play left and right. I put the bearings that came from knuckle. Should I put 5x10x4 or 5x10x3 ? And it said put 1 mm spacer what kind of spacer is it? Thanks
need to say that i seen pro drivers running touring cars that remove the rubber shield and clean bearings mount them unshielded in the car and make a light oiling and between the runs blow the bearings clean with compressed air and re oil them again, everything to gain a tiny amount of less drag on the cars.
could you do a video how to maintain an rc car (what to clean and oil/grease) and how to clean the bearings also? i usually just clean the dirt off the car (i havent touched the bearings at all), and dont oil it, and sometimes i clean the motor under tap water (i take it off the car), the car is a normal touring/drift car which i drive on a dirt road
Roadside RC oh and also if i clean my bearings with mineral spirits (will any paint thinner work?) can i re lube them with rc shock oil (400cst i think, quite thick), or with some silicone spray oil (same thing as shock oil but... not as thick, its like water)
@@ryzenenjoyer2824 I am not sure what all to reload the bearings with, but I would assume to get the benefits of cleaning, you would want to use a bearing specific oil. Otherwise, you could save the effort and leave the other grease in there.
@@RoadsideRC just an idea as I was watching bearing testing and noticed the longest spin times were dry bearings without oil. So I figured some oil and then air blast them held down on a towel and blast out the oil. Speed Nerds lol
In my off-road buggies I run rubber sealed bearings with original grease on anything that's exposed to the elements. We race outdoors in all weathers and I run a 6.5 in my 2wd and 5.5 in my 4wd. The bearing drag makes no difference to motors that powerful, I just don't want my bearings disintegrating!
Any bearing reccomendations for my e revo 2.0? Traxxas sells em for 4x the price they would be in the fast eddy bearing kit but I’m not sure how good fast eddy is vs stock... any words of advice would be greatly appreciated (:
Thanks for asking. Honestly, I would be very happy with something like the Fast Eddy bearings, or go with Jim's Bearings. Jim's prices are very reasonable and he ships full kits specially made for your vehicle. You can choose which type of bearing you want. The standard rubber shielded are very good, but the stainless might be nice if you plan to be in a lot of water.
when i do rubber-sealed bearings , i take the rubber off one side clean them, and don't even attempt to put them back on - just run the open side away from the dirt.
If you are into this topic as much as I am, I hope you teach Oval Rc’s video on how to reduce drag from your bearings for stock oval racing with traxxas mud boss racing stock class regulations. His video set me on a mission about bearing drag.
Thank you for the suggestion! I followed your lead and went and watched some of his videos. Wow - that is VERY in-depth. I have now bought a handful of different bearing oils to see which ones performs best.
With longer spin time only means that the seal is worn out yes it will spin longer but after awhile dirt will get in and slow them down if on carpet or road course wore out seals are just fine
I run nitro on road mostly in a parking lot or in front of my house doing a couple passes I wanna run track so I would use metal bearings but if it's really dusty and a lot of dirt might stick to rubber
You have 1 flaw with this test. When putting that weight around tire to spin wheel are you doing same pressure every time? Tighter wrap = longer spin Not as tight = less spin
Honestly, the TL:DR for me on this: clean the bearings! I have a follow-up video where I test different high speed bearing oil to see which one does the best. A good cleaning, plus using a high quality bearing oil is much more important than the type of bearing.
Great video for controlled test. Just be mindful free spinning isn’t a good way to judge rc bearings as high speed grease for the high speed bearings is actually thick and will have less viscosity as the temp goes up. Free spin is good for skate bearing test. For a good rc bearing test, need the bearings to be sprung up at operating rpm for x min and then check for spin down time.
@@RoadsideRC you mean heat build up and may cause fiction? then use full Zirconia ceramic bearings, this bearing is the most high temperature resistant compare to all others ceramic bearings
So informative was disappointed with the ceramics at 1st but they got there in the end when the lube was nicely spread evenly. I am interested to see what ceramic would of done just cleaned and no lube though.
I messed with this actually! Cool thing about the ReveD hubs is that the axle and hex are actually one piece. Literally can not over tighten to cause an issue. Now, there is a mounting screw on the back side that may influence the drag. Still - I believed I found a major influence here. More to come!
I have raced dirt & carpet, drive scalers, crawlers, and fly for 30 years. You absolutely will not find better bearings than Acer Racing. You can pop the seals, spin them in PB Blaster, re-lube and get upwards of 10 uses out of them. Absolutely none of the other brands held up to more than 2-6 re-packs max depending on the application. Boca, Jim's, Avid.. nothing has been more durable. Rubber shield Abec 3 for outdoor, rubber shield Abec 5 for indoor. This comes from 30 yrs experience, not opinion or friend favoritism. I'm not saying your brand choice is biased, but rolling resistance of new compared to having 10-30 packs through them is huge. Acer was consistently the least crunchy during outdoor dirt short course racing which was the most punishing to all of the brands I tested. Avid was consistently the worst for staying clean and smooth. Just for reference, I would run different brands on all 4 wheels, then both fronts would match, and rears would be different.. then I'd swap it all around. At times one end of the track would be wet mud and the rest of the track would be dry dust and gritty, so it would stick. I wasn't easy on them lol. Carpet was surprisingly dirty, carpet was tested in various carbon chassis pan cars with Abec 5 and 1 drop of purple Acer SIN lube. I have virtually the same results in crawler/scalers as outdoor dirt racing.
I appreciate the feedback. No specific brand loyalty here - Jim's bearings was super convenient for me to do this test. Interested in thenlube you use for the bearings. Have a link?
All people sell online for xmaxx and other rc is abec5 which is only about half decent you want to measure all your bearing sizes and order abec9 which is the best quality and tightest tolerance you can get if you measure your bearings you can order them by size in abec9 from Japan and have awesome bearings and also rubber shielded and steel and ceramic doesn't matter if it's only abec5 that's what people can make the most money on because people don't understand the tolerance and manufacturing grades behind bearings. People just get those cheap abec5 grade bearings in bulk from China and make "kits" for rc and make a good profit. If you measure your bearings yourself outer and inner race diameter and order abec9 you will have life long bearings.
Bearing grease is designed to go soft and even go liquid under load, so testing cold bearings has really very little sense to it. By design, bearing grease isn't where its supposed to be out of the box, only when bearing runs. I'd say stainless, fully sealed for bashers and crawlers prolly has most sense-not thinking about the drag.
For RC and the environments we run in, the SS or Rubber sealed bearing are the best. Metal Shielded bearing are not really shielded. The behave the way they do because they have a "break in" time. It takes a heat cycle or twenty to get all the small bearing balls supporting the weight evenly. The way you were lubricating the SS bearing was also the most inefficient way you can do it. You have to actually use a Vacuum chamber to get SS bearings to absorb any oil. (You can buy a vacuum pump at HF dirt cheap) Once the oil is in there it takes some time and spinning for the oil to distribute and space out the balls evenly. Ceramic bearings are not optimal in an environment where they are not sitting in a complete bath of liquid, their life expectancy and staying cool depends on them being completely bathed, that is why they excel in those environments. Rubber sealed bearings are best in basher environments where DIRT will absolutely get in, like mudding with an RC truck, on the wheels and outside diff housing. If you need the info on using a vacuum pump or hot water to pack bearings full of oil let me know.
I understand what your trying to do but all that is irrelevant if the bearing is not operating under a load the spin time is night and day to just a free spin vs spinning with weight on them
The results did show a pattern in all cases that showed and improvement (in a no load situation) of all bearings after cleaning and oiling. Where I think your methods of testing are not suitable is the way you spin the wheel and the results not an accurate representation of the real world application. First, the weight was attached to what seemed to be a nylon ribbon, this was not gripping the plastic drift wheel so impossible to say you put a repeatable force into the wheels for each test. The second issue is you are testing the bearing under no load which is not how they will be used on the car. The different type of bearings will work differently when put under load. This is where I believe the ceramic bearings will make an improvement over steel ones. But it's all very interesting regardless
@@RoadsideRC You'd probably need a wheel.which is a similar weight to the corner weight of the car,.but I'm not sure if that would be the right thing either, and it wouldn't take into account the forces generated by cornering etc. You could spin the wheels up using another wheel connected to a motor to get a repeatable test speed though. Personally, I don't think ceramic would actually be better than steel bearings. I saw a video on bike wheel bearings which came to that conclusion, I imagine it.would be the same for RCs too
if you use in real car or motorcycle full Ceramic bearing is the key, if you just clean and remove the lube from the steel bearing and put in a real car or motorcycle you will be in great trouble
@@chavo-batman1822 I had to go back and watch! I can't confirm or deny if it is really a fart or not. I sure didn't miss a beat while talking, that is for sure!
@@RoadsideRC in the 90s my cousin was modifying and tuning real cars (Honda - Mazda) so he introduced me to Japanese mod parts and I was a fan of well made stuff so I worked mostly with Japanese tools only and if I don’t have the money I would get it from Taiwan. I had a Tamiya RC10 which was filled with plastic bearings so I had to modify it …
THE ONE THING I LEARNED FROM MY TIME WITH BEARINGS IS THE OIL IS VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT THE THICKNESS AND AMOUNT THESE LITTLE BEARINGS NEED DEPENDING ON USE…. SO THIN LUBE IS GOING TO BE YOUR BEST FRIEND BUT YOU LITERALLY ONLY WANT TO PUT 1 DROP JUST A SINGLE DROP ACTUAL SIZE OF DROP FOR RC BEARING * •-+ so using the dot a plus on your phone for ACTUAL SIZE REFERENCES for the drop you want to put in them the plus is going to free spin less but with a little load the spin will last longer as opposed to free spinning a bearing with e drop the size of the dot.
AND I YO-yo so the R188 bearing is really sensitive to lubricants and even just a half a drop will make my unresponsive yo-yo responsive and I learned how important it is to actually learn how much oil is to much and it’s ALOT LESS THAN YOU THINK
A dry bearing will almost always spin longer than a greased bearing that is not under pressure or under load. A very lite oil will usually help it spin longer but again not under pressure. Most bearings are engineered for specific use. The grease or lube inside can be very specific. A bearing that spins great on your test may seize up at 95mph due to inadequate cushioning of lubricant to the metal bearing causing the bearing to heat up and seize. Sometimes the tests we do seem to contradict what is commonly known about things but sometimes we are just not taking in all the factors of what a product was designed for. As you mentioned you probably wouldn’t put ceramic bearings in your brasher but they may be necessary in a Rc drag car. Thanks for sharing your experiment.👍
I appreciate this detailed feedback.
You are correct that loaded results would be interesting.
I tried to think of a loaded test, but couldn't think of how to do it.
Exactly
Amen! You said that perfectly 👌
@@RoadsideRC find a hill and roll a fully loaded tho pinion off rc and see how far he goes😉
I had thought of that!!! But then it comes to how to ensure it goes straight, etc.
Dude, I tip my hat off to you!
This was an incredible informative video. Thanks for taking the time to perform this test & posting your honest findings.
I just replaced my rear bearings on my Traxxas Rustler 2WD that I have setup for speed runs after loosing one of the bearings due to a crash after snapping a driveshaft axel at 84mph. I noticed that the Fast Eddy ceramic bearings I had were all shot grinding pretty bad, which may have contributed to snap my MIP steel axel due to high heat caused by friction. These bearings not being so old & not too many runs on them made me curious so I removed the rubber seals. Not sure if the ceramic bearings are supposed to be different in color, but they look like regular bearings to me. Did you notice a color difference between the ceramic & non ceramic, I'm curious.
Thanks again for the great video 👍👍
Thanks for the nice comment.
I was curious also, and looked for a color difference and did not see one. Not really sure if we are supposed to, but I guess not.
Never really thought about it. I put ceramic from Fast Eddy Bearings into the GF-01CB build I did. Other than that the most bearings I would use were for my snowmobile. For the drift use what runs the longest!
Agree - I never really spent a lot of time thinking about it either...until now!
I normally put bearings in rotation, meaning that I use my older bearings for bashing, and get new bearings for race/ on road use. Great content, keep it up!!
Interesting idea to save some $$$. Thanks!
Nice video, did learn alot. I did some testing on my Traxxis Slash bearings a few days ago. I pulled out original wheel bearings and spun them. (just used finger) They started at about 40 seconds. After cleaning with a bearing blaster and oiling, I got like 1 min and 31 seconds. You put a bead of oil around the bearing. I think that may have been too much. I watched another video and they put a single drop of oil. I added 2 drops and then worked it in. I would love to hear what others have to say!
PS. After hearing about my test, my son running Associated B-Mod decided to clean all 8 wheel bearings. His car went faster as the night went on and he won his A-Main on the dirt track
Nice!!!
I think bearings are overlooked. They matter more than folks think.
This reminds me - time to go clean mine again...!! :)
Thanks for sharing. I'm currently running ceramic bearings with metal shields from AvidRC (cleaned and re-lubed) in my entire kits and that thing slides like a wet baby seal.
Thanks!
Are you using the AVID bearing oil?
Roadside RC No, I’m using the Yokomo Racing Performer Ultra Bearing Oil (RP-106). I do prefer the Yokomo Drift Oil for RC Drift Cars (D-013) but I’m still comparing the results of both.
Awesome. Thanks for that insight. I am thinking about taking this test a step further and testing different oils.
I was thinking of using those in my transmission, but I need 11 of them and was thinking of using a couple rubber sealed ones on the input and output shafts to keep the dirt out....the cost is astronomical for good bearings...I might use the metal shielded Amazon bearings instead if I can't find affordable ceramics.
ceramic bearings with metal shields, when get a load shock the metal cafe will damage and may kill you because the ceramic is harder than steel it may damage the metal cafe if get a load shock, go for full ceramic bearing which is much safer
Great topic and interesting results.
Thanks!
I had been wondering about this for awhile, and was finally pushed to test it!
This is a very huge topic, nice to see someone goes neutral on it, but i can assure you, once the Ceramic Bearings are broken in (approx 20 Lipo Packs) they will get better and better and better. Would love to see a follow up video on this :-) Nice Work, loved the Video :-)
Thanks for the info!
I already saw a huge improvement in the steel shielded standard bearings over time. I kind of wonder if a bearing getting better is normal? At least through the first few drives and spins?
@@RoadsideRC yesss they absolutely do get better, the balls in the bearing create small grooves in the housing as you break them in. They create theyre own, perfect place to be and therefore have even less friction. There are some Videos to show how freely broken in ceramic bearings spin in a complete drivetrain. One Video is from ShortCourseWorld 4:08min. And the other is from Rc Junky 3:23min. However, always use a highgrade oil, you can also play with removing the shield from the side which gets less dirty to loose even more friction. And if you balance your Wheels & Tires, you'll get a super stable, sharp car which runs faster, with less heat, makes you feel more connected to the vehicle :-)
Which oil do you use?
@@RoadsideRC the SIN Oil from Avid
Fascinating to watch on a cold rainy day :)
Thank you!
The difference in spinning time is due to the rubber SEALS having a slight bit of drag against the inner race. Shielded bearings have a small clearance between the shield and the inner race. Testing like this will never show much of a difference between steel bearings and hybrid ceramics if they have the same clearance, lube and ball retainer specs. Where the difference comes in is under a load. The difference you are seeing between the out of the package and cleaned is likely due to most small bearings being packed with a light grease. All that said, I bet that if you ran a real world test, like a controlled drag race, you would not see any statistical difference between them.
Well, with a RUclips name of RC Bearings, I must assume you know what you are talking about!!
Great experiment! Looks like it too a while to do it all 👌 I run the hybrid style bearings. Rubber shield on the outside, metal shield on the inside. Helps keep dirt out and also give a little more free rotation. I also hit my bearings with some PTFE spray once in a while. That's it. Just bashing so when one goes out I replace it 😃
Thanks for the info.
I had never done this before, so I was interested in the results.
Like you, the most I had done before was to spray some kind of a lube on the bearings. For my bashers, I might keep doing that same thing.
I just ordered some different bearing oils that people have suggested to try and see if I can tell a difference.
Thanks again!
Another brilliant tech video nice to see your results does just prove time spent prepping. Makes a massive difference . And as others have commented the ceramics will get better with use and will last sooo much longer and perform more consistently .
Thanks for the compliment!
I am excited to see how these bearings do over time.
what! only 2k views! this guy deserves in the hundred thousands
Thank you! I appreciate the vote of confidence.
Just found this getting into Drifting love the body’s of the cars and upgrades. This bearing test blew my mind. Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Was looking at bearings, primarily ceramic bearings to see if they are all that over at BocaBearings, and they indicate that their ceramic bearings have a short break-in time before they fully loosen up. Might want to put them back in your car, make a couple of laps around your track, then try the measurements again. Would be interesting to see if that makes a difference.
Thanks for pointing that out!
I actually did spin each of these a fair amount before they were tested. However, you are still correct that after more running, the results may be different still.
Hey Yeah Racing sells a PTFE RC bearing kit for Mst Rmx 2.0 you might want to check them out. I just ordered a set for my car. I'll give you an update on after the install
Thanks for the tip!
I know its late but what makes the ceramic better vs metal ball bearing is the hardness. Ceramic is able to basicly crush small dirt and debris and basicly polish itself. Metal slowly gets grimey and clogged up. So long term it is better but not speed wise. Rubber seals also slow things down.
Thanks!
toughness is more important to me i just drive them in the yard was wandering if Ceramic Si3N4 Bearing were any good or worce in term of lasting say in the wheel or differential
Ceramic bearings are only used for low-impact areas. I would not suggest them for your situation.
I put WHITZ ceramic bearings in my DR10, just the other night. I was amazed, giving the front wheel a good spin, it went for 2.44 seconds, no treatment, no doubt this is spinning much free'er than the stock..but yes, probably not the bearing for heavy bashing.
Glad it is going well for you!
You can take a rubber sealed bearing, remove one of the seal and pair them open side facing. You still have a protected bearing with half the drag. Also makes them a breeze to clean and lube.
Solid tip! Thanks.
The bearing ball type doesn't matter much at the speeds the gearbox speeds (matters formotor shaft speeds however). Majority of the bearing friction is from the seal and retainer if the lubricant type and amount are correct. But most cheap OEMs don't do the lubrication correctly. Your results pretty much back this up.
Note: You should test the bearing with actual load against the inner and outer race.
Thanks for the feedback!
I agree that loaded would be better...except that I couldn't figure out how to test it that way.
Dude great video! Exactly what I was looking for and way more detail than expected. I have a MAXX so I’ll probably use stainless balls and metal seal. Clean and lube them as needed. Thanks!!
Glad it was helpful!
For RWD drift cars it's imperative the front wheels spin freely. Overdose Low Friction Bearings are amazing. I shake them in a pill bottle with Isopropol Alcohol to clean and lube them with a drop or 2 of 1Up Racing Clear Bearing Oil 120202. I can flick the front wheel with my finger and it will spin for 90 seconds.
Agree! Very important for drift cars.
I can’t wait to do this on my sons 1/10 Touring Car. I’ll be using ceramic bearings on the drive train and wheels to free everything up. I’ll be using 1up bearing oil.
Great! Good luck!
Nice! Cleaning is most important and so is oiling. Would u recommend just rubber sealed stainless steel bearing for dirt ff road? For durability and resistance to dirt?
Yes, I believe that would a good choice.
Nice video and info. shame you didn't have the stainless and ceramic with metal shields, rubber shielded never spins as well as metal, but are far better for keeping dust and dirt out
Agree!
I figure for this car, a little dust or dirt in the bearings may make a large difference!
I recently saw a video where a guy modified the rubber seals to reduce drag. I might try that myself.
I use rear end fluid for all my bearings since my 92 silverado leaks rear end fluid, I always have some on standby lol, normally have them sit in the oil for at least an hour or so. But I bash and put around, I don't need a ton of wheel speed just want them to last.
That makes sense. Probably works well!
Really good quality video 👍🏻. I’m new to this hobby. I do only bashing with my granite so I use rubber seal bearing. But I have a question for you for my motor which bearing should I use ? cuz I know rubber is not recommend for the motor. Thanks
You will want the metal shielded bearing for the motor.
Thanks!
Great general video! You by the way put wwaaaay too much oil in the bearings. Bearings should just get a little drop of oil from one side and not more, spin it around and job done. You overoiled them which lead to the problem that they didn't spin very long. Overoiled bearings will collect lots of dust and dirt while being on the track which will decrease the performance very fast. To clean them I would recommend to use break cleaner and a bearing cleaner container. The bearing cleaning container has a metal container with tiny holes that is a kind of hovering over the bottom of the container where the dirt falls through and lands on the bottom of the container. This way the dirt is falling down and the bearing is not directly laying in the dirt.
Thanks for the tips!
Is there a specific oil you like to use?
I ordered about 6 different ones to test.
If you want to also try if-ws2 and graphene are couple good ones. Of course zinc and graphite ptfe and moly.
Thank you for the tips!
Which bearings do you use on your Traxxas X-Maxx 8S? So from your video the full metal ones are the best? Is that correct as I am rebuilding 2 X-Maxx 8S monsters at this time and need new bearings for both.
Jim's Bearings offers a full X-Maxx bearing kit. In that, I use the standard bearings with the rubber shields to help keep the dirt out.
I installed my Reve d knuckle SG with Reve d front axle. But there’s a little play left and right. I put the bearings that came from knuckle. Should I put 5x10x4 or 5x10x3 ? And it said put 1 mm spacer what kind of spacer is it? Thanks
Yes - you need to replace the bearings when using the ReveD knuckles.
3mm wide allows for a narrower track width. The 4mm will be wider. Your choice.
need to say that i seen pro drivers running touring cars that remove the rubber shield and clean bearings mount them unshielded in the car and make a light oiling and between the runs blow the bearings clean with compressed air and re oil them again, everything to gain a tiny amount of less drag on the cars.
Makes sense to me! Thanks for sharing.
Good knowledge being shared here. Thanks buddy
Thanks for the kind words!
Excellent video and info. Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
could you do a video how to maintain an rc car (what to clean and oil/grease) and how to clean the bearings also? i usually just clean the dirt off the car (i havent touched the bearings at all), and dont oil it, and sometimes i clean the motor under tap water (i take it off the car),
the car is a normal touring/drift car which i drive on a dirt road
I will add it to the list. Honestly though, I suck at cleaning. My typical is a scrub brush with some Simple Green cleaner and a rag.
Roadside RC oh and also if i clean my bearings with mineral spirits (will any paint thinner work?) can i re lube them with rc shock oil (400cst i think, quite thick), or with some silicone spray oil (same thing as shock oil but... not as thick, its like water)
@@ryzenenjoyer2824 I am not sure what all to reload the bearings with, but I would assume to get the benefits of cleaning, you would want to use a bearing specific oil. Otherwise, you could save the effort and leave the other grease in there.
What if you race 5 to 6 min races, light oil then air pressure the extra oil out. would they seize up?
Re-lube after each race
I would be very surprised if it would need to be re-oiled that frequently...but I am also not a hardcore racer, so might be the wrong person to ask.
@@RoadsideRC just an idea as I was watching bearing testing and noticed the longest spin times were dry bearings without oil. So I figured some oil and then air blast them held down on a towel and blast out the oil. Speed Nerds lol
I wonder how well the ceramic bearing would spin without oil? :)
Good question!
@@RoadsideRC full ceramics dont need lubrification.
In my off-road buggies I run rubber sealed bearings with original grease on anything that's exposed to the elements. We race outdoors in all weathers and I run a 6.5 in my 2wd and 5.5 in my 4wd. The bearing drag makes no difference to motors that powerful, I just don't want my bearings disintegrating!
If it works for you - that is great!!!
Any bearing reccomendations for my e revo 2.0? Traxxas sells em for 4x the price they would be in the fast eddy bearing kit but I’m not sure how good fast eddy is vs stock... any words of advice would be greatly appreciated (:
Thanks for asking.
Honestly, I would be very happy with something like the Fast Eddy bearings, or go with Jim's Bearings. Jim's prices are very reasonable and he ships full kits specially made for your vehicle. You can choose which type of bearing you want. The standard rubber shielded are very good, but the stainless might be nice if you plan to be in a lot of water.
when i do rubber-sealed bearings , i take the rubber off one side clean them, and don't even attempt to put them back on - just run the open side away from the dirt.
That makes sense!
Hi, the durability of this type of hub with ceramic bearings is compromised by cyclists weighing over 100lbs?
Hello!
Unfortunately, I am not sure how it would be in that type of application. I have only tested in these very light weight situations.
no ..hybrid bearings have no load limit like that
If you are into this topic as much as I am, I hope you teach Oval Rc’s video on how to reduce drag from your bearings for stock oval racing with traxxas mud boss racing stock class regulations. His video set me on a mission about bearing drag.
Thank you for the suggestion!
I followed your lead and went and watched some of his videos. Wow - that is VERY in-depth.
I have now bought a handful of different bearing oils to see which ones performs best.
lubricated bearings wont spin as long free wheeling but wont overheat and disintegrate like a dry bearing will
Good point!
Thank you I learned a lot
Great! Glad to hear it!
Thank You definitely interesting and saved me some money.
Glad to help!
With longer spin time only means that the seal is worn out yes it will spin longer but after awhile dirt will get in and slow them down if on carpet or road course wore out seals are just fine
Thanks for the insight.
I run nitro on road mostly in a parking lot or in front of my house doing a couple passes I wanna run track so I would use metal bearings but if it's really dusty and a lot of dirt might stick to rubber
Makes sense!
Thanx for vid (originally lookin at ceramic knife bearings but learned alot here).
Glad this helped!
A really interesting experiment with different bearings
*totally full watched 👍Au 👍giving you a big like*
Thank you for the support!
More in the works.
on the ceramic bearing it looked to me the tape slips before turning the wheel
Maybe!
Good news - I did each test multiple times, just showed one on video.
Good topic. Nice findings.
Thank you!
You have 1 flaw with this test.
When putting that weight around tire to spin wheel are you doing same pressure every time?
Tighter wrap = longer spin
Not as tight = less spin
I tried very hard to keep it the same - and each test was done multiple times and averaged together.
Looking on Boca's website, their ceramic bearings say... "Bearings that are packed in grease will require a short break in period to loosen up."
That makes sense!
Great video
Thanks!
Great video! Long story short ... Jim's top end ceramic bearings worse than amazon cheapo steel bearings.
Honestly, the TL:DR for me on this: clean the bearings!
I have a follow-up video where I test different high speed bearing oil to see which one does the best. A good cleaning, plus using a high quality bearing oil is much more important than the type of bearing.
Great video for controlled test. Just be mindful free spinning isn’t a good way to judge rc bearings as high speed grease for the high speed bearings is actually thick and will have less viscosity as the temp goes up. Free spin is good for skate bearing test. For a good rc bearing test, need the bearings to be sprung up at operating rpm for x min and then check for spin down time.
Thanks for the tip!
@@RoadsideRC Love your videos. More please! :)
@@RoadsideRC you mean heat build up and may cause fiction? then use full Zirconia ceramic bearings, this bearing is the most high temperature resistant compare to all others ceramic bearings
The only time I worry about bearings is in race cars. My bashers meh. As long as they have the rubber shield I'm fine.
I agree!
Drifting is similar to racing - it matters more.
@@RoadsideRC yep. Driving your huge xmaxx or wherever across a field isn't as important as drifting or racing where you need that extra boost
great info and video
Thank you!
So informative was disappointed with the ceramics at 1st but they got there in the end when the lube was nicely spread evenly.
I am interested to see what ceramic would of done just cleaned and no lube though.
Thanks!
I know my testing isn't perfect, but I hope the info was useful.
VERY INTERESTING BROTHER 😀🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Thank you!
WHAT WAS THE PRICE DIFFERENCE IN ALL THOSE SETS????? 🤙🤙🤙
Honestly - pennies. I think all of them were in the $3.00 range. Certainly worth it for the better bearings.
Good video idea
Thank you!
You might be over tightening the tire, putting stress on the bearing. That happens to my bmx bike when pedals are too tight
I messed with this actually!
Cool thing about the ReveD hubs is that the axle and hex are actually one piece. Literally can not over tighten to cause an issue.
Now, there is a mounting screw on the back side that may influence the drag.
Still - I believed I found a major influence here. More to come!
Wow, that’s a great design, glad that you solved the issue
I have raced dirt & carpet, drive scalers, crawlers, and fly for 30 years. You absolutely will not find better bearings than Acer Racing. You can pop the seals, spin them in PB Blaster, re-lube and get upwards of 10 uses out of them. Absolutely none of the other brands held up to more than 2-6 re-packs max depending on the application. Boca, Jim's, Avid.. nothing has been more durable. Rubber shield Abec 3 for outdoor, rubber shield Abec 5 for indoor. This comes from 30 yrs experience, not opinion or friend favoritism. I'm not saying your brand choice is biased, but rolling resistance of new compared to having 10-30 packs through them is huge. Acer was consistently the least crunchy during outdoor dirt short course racing which was the most punishing to all of the brands I tested. Avid was consistently the worst for staying clean and smooth. Just for reference, I would run different brands on all 4 wheels, then both fronts would match, and rears would be different.. then I'd swap it all around. At times one end of the track would be wet mud and the rest of the track would be dry dust and gritty, so it would stick. I wasn't easy on them lol. Carpet was surprisingly dirty, carpet was tested in various carbon chassis pan cars with Abec 5 and 1 drop of purple Acer SIN lube. I have virtually the same results in crawler/scalers as outdoor dirt racing.
I appreciate the feedback.
No specific brand loyalty here - Jim's bearings was super convenient for me to do this test.
Interested in thenlube you use for the bearings. Have a link?
www.ebay.com/itm/260823171822
Diamond lube is fantastic. 1 drop after a thorough cleaning.
www.diamondlube.com/diamondlube.html
Very interesting ...!
Thanks!
What is the weight difference?
I did not measure the weight of tje bearings. Sorry!
@@RoadsideRC no problem still the video was great and keep them coming.
All rubber seals eventually make contact and drag. I take them all out of spool bearings of my fishing reels.
Makes sense to me!
Nanotech Industrial Solutions shows the nano sized difference in timken bearing tests. I also like insitu graphene from Dr. Richard Shankman
Thanks!
Very nice test!
Thanks!
Good video
I also have a question if you took all the oil would it not get hot and seazed stuck sorry If my spelling is not the best
I put new oil in the bearing.
Without oil, the life would be lower, for sure.
You don't need to lube ceramic bearings and without lube they run much longer with much less drag.
Thanks for the tip!
All people sell online for xmaxx and other rc is abec5 which is only about half decent you want to measure all your bearing sizes and order abec9 which is the best quality and tightest tolerance you can get if you measure your bearings you can order them by size in abec9 from Japan and have awesome bearings and also rubber shielded and steel and ceramic doesn't matter if it's only abec5 that's what people can make the most money on because people don't understand the tolerance and manufacturing grades behind bearings. People just get those cheap abec5 grade bearings in bulk from China and make "kits" for rc and make a good profit. If you measure your bearings yourself outer and inner race diameter and order abec9 you will have life long bearings.
Thanks for the tip!
I will have to pick up some abec9 and see if I can tell a difference.
Bearing grease is designed to go soft and even go liquid under load, so testing cold bearings has really very little sense to it.
By design, bearing grease isn't where its supposed to be out of the box, only when bearing runs.
I'd say stainless, fully sealed for bashers and crawlers prolly has most sense-not thinking about the drag.
Different ones for different applications, for sure.
For RC and the environments we run in, the SS or Rubber sealed bearing are the best. Metal Shielded bearing are not really shielded. The behave the way they do because they have a "break in" time. It takes a heat cycle or twenty to get all the small bearing balls supporting the weight evenly. The way you were lubricating the SS bearing was also the most inefficient way you can do it. You have to actually use a Vacuum chamber to get SS bearings to absorb any oil. (You can buy a vacuum pump at HF dirt cheap) Once the oil is in there it takes some time and spinning for the oil to distribute and space out the balls evenly. Ceramic bearings are not optimal in an environment where they are not sitting in a complete bath of liquid, their life expectancy and staying cool depends on them being completely bathed, that is why they excel in those environments. Rubber sealed bearings are best in basher environments where DIRT will absolutely get in, like mudding with an RC truck, on the wheels and outside diff housing.
If you need the info on using a vacuum pump or hot water to pack bearings full of oil let me know.
Thanks for the tip! I have a Harbor Freight right around the corner. I'll see if they have the vacuum pump in stock.
I understand what your trying to do but all that is irrelevant if the bearing is not operating under a load the spin time is night and day to just a free spin vs spinning with weight on them
I've had this feedback from few folks. I still have these oils, so need to figure out a test that can use the car weight.
Yes then it would be more accurate and the hobbyist can get a better idea on what benefit their car the best in a more realistic type setting
Don't ad so much bearing oil..
You only need a small 2 drops in those
Thanks!
The results did show a pattern in all cases that showed and improvement (in a no load situation) of all bearings after cleaning and oiling.
Where I think your methods of testing are not suitable is the way you spin the wheel and the results not an accurate representation of the real world application.
First, the weight was attached to what seemed to be a nylon ribbon, this was not gripping the plastic drift wheel so impossible to say you put a repeatable force into the wheels for each test. The second issue is you are testing the bearing under no load which is not how they will be used on the car. The different type of bearings will work differently when put under load. This is where I believe the ceramic bearings will make an improvement over steel ones.
But it's all very interesting regardless
Thanks for the feedback!
Yes, having no load on the bearings wasn't ideal, but I didn't know how else I would do it.
@@RoadsideRC You'd probably need a wheel.which is a similar weight to the corner weight of the car,.but I'm not sure if that would be the right thing either, and it wouldn't take into account the forces generated by cornering etc. You could spin the wheels up using another wheel connected to a motor to get a repeatable test speed though.
Personally, I don't think ceramic would actually be better than steel bearings. I saw a video on bike wheel bearings which came to that conclusion, I imagine it.would be the same for RCs too
If you want the wheels to spin longer balance the wheels !!! It will make a difference.
You are on it! I have a friend with a balancer that I plan to borrow!
@@RoadsideRC sounds great brother. Luv the vids !!
'
metal ball bearing is a better run than nylon bearing
If you just drive them when new they break in.
Thanks for the feedback
Who would have thunk?
People who knew more than me!! That is for sure!! :)
China ball bearings last incredibly short, as expected.
You know there are proper bearings to have, from SKF
China Racing ball bearings, hehe.
Thanks for the feedback.
Remove the rubber shields and test again
Yes! But then I might as well just get metal shielded bearings.
@RoadsideRC
Rubber, america or australian steel.
Thanks for the feedback.
if you use in real car or motorcycle full Ceramic bearing is the key, if you just clean and remove the lube from the steel bearing and put in a real car or motorcycle you will be in great trouble
Thanks for the info
way to much oil was put back in
Thanks for the feedback!
Nice fart hahahahaha I heard that fart buddy
Ha! I don't remember it, but I believe you!
I heard loud and clear right after the Bearing lube oil moves around when speed is applied and then the Fart came out
7 minutes and 2 seconds into the video the fart comes out
@@chavo-batman1822 I had to go back and watch!
I can't confirm or deny if it is really a fart or not. I sure didn't miss a beat while talking, that is for sure!
Is all good man is all good
Put less oil in
Thanks for the tip. Seemed like only a drop or two per bearing.
Alcohol works better
Thanks for the tip!
NSK - koyo - nachai - NTN - skf (Sweden) these are the best bearings I know mostly from Japan
Thanks for the feedback.
Where do you get bearing knowledge from?
@@RoadsideRC in the 90s my cousin was modifying and tuning real cars (Honda - Mazda) so he introduced me to Japanese mod parts and I was a fan of well made stuff so I worked mostly with Japanese tools only and if I don’t have the money I would get it from Taiwan. I had a Tamiya RC10 which was filled with plastic bearings so I had to modify it …
THE ONE THING I LEARNED FROM MY TIME WITH BEARINGS IS THE OIL IS VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT THE THICKNESS AND AMOUNT THESE LITTLE BEARINGS NEED DEPENDING ON USE…. SO THIN LUBE IS GOING TO BE YOUR BEST FRIEND BUT YOU LITERALLY ONLY WANT TO PUT 1 DROP JUST A SINGLE DROP ACTUAL SIZE OF DROP FOR RC BEARING *
•-+ so using the dot a plus on your phone for ACTUAL SIZE REFERENCES for the drop you want to put in them the plus is going to free spin less but with a little load the spin will last longer as opposed to free spinning a bearing with e drop the size of the dot.
Thanks for the wisdom!! I hope it helps MANY people!
AND I YO-yo so the R188 bearing is really sensitive to lubricants and even just a half a drop will make my unresponsive yo-yo responsive and I learned how important it is to actually learn how much oil is to much and it’s ALOT LESS THAN YOU THINK