Ask the Dodge Engineers: 7 Real Questions from Our July Lunch and Learn
Ask the Dodge Engineers: 7 Real Questions from Our July Lunch and Learn
On Monday we hosted engineers from Dodge Industrial - a US manufacturer of power transmission products since 1878 - for a live lunch and learn with MRO Supply customers. For an hour, maintenance leads from aggregate, wood products, truss manufacturing, and industrial services put real problems in front of the people who build the bearings. Here are the seven best questions, answered straight from the factory.
Key Insight
80% of premature bearing failures are lubrication-related — more than half of that is simply not enough (or the wrong) grease.
What grease do Dodge bearings come with from the factory?
Standard Dodge mounted bearings ship shaft-ready with an NLGI #2 lithium-based grease. Ball bearing inserts are factory-filled with Mobil Unirex N2 (a lithium complex grease); roller bearings get a heavier grease, Mobil XHP 222. Bearings can also be ordered dry, or with a special grease, if your plant runs its own lubrication standard.
How much grease is in a Dodge bearing out of the box?
Most standard Dodge bearings ship with a 33-35% factory grease fill. Washdown bearings ship 100% full; Harsh Duty ball bearings ship at 66%. All are shaft-ready out of the box - no pre-lube needed before installation.
How should I store a gearbox over the off-season?
Dodge's guidance for seasonal/long-term storage: fill the unit completely full of oil, plug the breather, and coat the seal surfaces with cosmoline or grease. Before spring startup, drain back to the correct operating oil level and restore the breather. [NEEDS VERIFICATION: Dodge to confirm the startup step addition is correct]
What happens if a Dodge bearing fails - how does warranty evaluation work?
Failed bearings go to Dodge's US plants for evaluation - about a week in transit plus one to two weeks of analysis, and you get the findings either way. Warranty covers workmanship and material defects; failures caused by the application (lubrication, installation) fall to the customer, but the failure analysis tells you the root cause so it doesn't repeat.
Which bearings hold up on sand-and-gravel conveyors with regular washdown?
Dodge's Harsh Duty series (formerly the Defender series) was designed for exactly this - aggregate duty. It's a seal upgrade over the standard product with identical mounting dimensions, so it drops into your existing footprint: Harsh Duty versions exist for Type E and TAF tapered-roller pillow blocks and for ball bearings (ED suffix). The tapered line carries a one-year performance guarantee against solid-particle-contamination failure when commissioned with a Dodge IntelliLube automatic lubricator.
Why do Dodge gearboxes cost more than import brands?
Reliability is the product. Dodge TXT and Torque-Arm II reducers go through 15 quality checks before shipping, and Dodge manufactures its own bearings at its North Carolina roller-bearing and Tennessee ball-bearing plants rather than buying them in. You're paying for uptime.
How do I keep water out of a bearing on a wet shaft (washers, washdown conveyors)?
Three factory-recommended angles: a more robust multi-lip seal option for the housing where one exists; Dodge's modern SAF-style mounted bearing [NEEDS VERIFICATION: Dodge to confirm exact product name], which installs faster than a traditional SAF assembly and seals better; and continuous lubrication with an automatic lubricator (IntelliLube), which keeps a positive grease purge at the seal so water is pushed out instead of drawn in.
Every Dodge product discussed is available at MRO Supply, with same-day shipping on in-stock items from Dodge's three US warehouses.
Want in on the next lunch and learn - or want us to grill a different manufacturer? Reply to your account manager or contact us.
