My father’s rule was, “Never walk past a grease zerk without greasing it.”
Larry Ludwig, chief chemist and technical director for Schaeffer (Oil) Manufacturing, says improved bearing quality and longer-lived greases have reduced the need for frequent lubrication of many bearings on farm equipment.
“If the owner’s manual or the little sticker beside the bearing says to grease it every 50 or 100 hours, greasing it more often can actually shorten the bearing’s life,” says Ludwig. “Many bearings are designed to work best when they are 2/3 full of grease. The engineers have calculated the proper grease-interval to keep that amount of grease in the bearing.”
The downside of improved bearings with extended grease intervals is…how many times have we noticed mechanical problems while crawling around a machine, greasing all the zerks? Maybe a new policy should be, “Never walk past a grease zerk without pausing to examine the surrounding machinery for possible problems.”
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