WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY ABOUT DURAHUB : JORGE ALVAREZ, DURALUM TRAILERS

Attention: Andy Chan,

We and all our Duralum Trailers customers are benefitting from the Durahub Bearing Protectors. I am more than happy to recommend Durahub to everyone with a boat trailer.

Durahub bearing protectors eliminated the possibility of water penetrating into the hubs!

We adopted the use of Durahub over 12 month ago, we have fitted these, using Loctite, to all new Duralum Trailers, we also upgraded older Duralum trailers already out in the field; as a result, Duralum customers no longer have issues with water getting inside hubs, causing bearings failure at all!

The above fact, confirms what I suspected, I must add that the Torsion axles that we use, come from the USA and all have an Stainless Sleeve over the shoulder of the spindles at the ends of the axle, where the inner seal revolves around, this “S Steel sleeve” and the high quality double leap seal used, are partly responsible for keeping water out and lubricant inside the hub, before the use of Durahub bearing protectors, we used the American “Super lube cups”, witch had a similar and larger diaphragm, effectively protecting hubs by keeping neutral pressure when new. After 12-24 month, the “Super lube” cups started to rust, the rubber diaphragm perished, no longer functioning and leaving a small gap, inviting water into the hubs, the “super lube” cups required regular replacement, most of our customers did not pay attention to our reminders sent asking to replace these as recommended and left unattended, some kept re-greasing and or replacing bearings, some fitted Bearing Buddy, witch made matters much worse by pressurizing the rear seal and sucking water when hubs cooled at the boat ramp.

At Duralum, we add Oil to the existing grease inside the hubs, some customers prefer oil only, we believe that running a mix of grease and oil, is best combination and appeals to most customers.

The added feature, provided by the clear lens on front of Durahub, is a “great feature”, most Duralum customers are educated and experienced boatman, who towed trailers for many years, before they buy a large 23-30 feet long vessel, to tow with a Duralum, each and every Duralum customer, welcome this monitoring window, as they realize the benefits, no longer requiring to dismantle all hubs to check for water inside hubs and rusted bearings, they understand that when the lubricant discoloration, is indicative of water presence, Durahub provides an early announcement of rear seal failure when it may take place.

Durahub removed the fear element from my mind when towing my own boat! Since 1975, I lived in fear of the unannounced bearing failure, waiting to happen! My experience told me that bearing failure will normally take place on a highway, far from anywhere on the way back home; this fear nearly put me off from fishing.

For the last 35 years, I towed 14-28 feet boats, interstate. I used best seals and bearings. Before a long trip, I serviced hubs and lubricated with high quality grease, consequently, on the way up I had no worries. The return trip was the nightmare, after launching the boat and have trailer seating for days, I knew that bearing failure could be waiting to happen and quite frankly this fear managed to spoil a good fishing trip! Some three years ago, two customers told me about their experiences after using Durahub on their Duralum trailers, these guys convinced me about the benefits offered by Durahub bearing protectors, one was running oil only, the other had grease and oil in his Duralum trailer, these guys travel 1,000 to 2,000 kts return trip to go fishing with 26-28 feet boats, both of these guys where totally convinced that Durahub Bearing protectors where the answer to eliminating water from the hubs.

After I installed Durahub bearing protectors in my own boat trailer and experienced the benefits myself, with absolute confidence, I decided to fit Durahub bearing protectors to all Duralum trailers.

At Duralum we constantly look for possible improvements to our product. Within the last 24 month we applied significant changes, making almost the perfect boat trailer. At the engineering level, we are convinced we got it right, I must confess that the most important improvements have come, from listening to our customers and their experience out in the field. At Duralum we are able to predict the future reliability of our product and are able put remedies in place before then, our tool is keeping in touch with customers and monitor their Duralum trailer, in particular Duralum trailers used in “extreme conditions”, Duralum commercial applications, where Duralum trailers are used in hush and hostile environments, such as commercial fisherman, Cray fisherman, and maintenance industry. We have identified the most extreme use of Duralum trailer; it is “FantaSea Cruisers” in Early Beach QLD. These guys, immerse their 28 feet supply boat, on a 4.5 Tons Duralum, 8 times daily, it does not travel far. Since 2006, this Duralum trailer was immersed in warm salt water 8,544 times and never washed or serviced, in 2009, this customer contacted us, requesting parts, after bearings failure, we then supplied the necessary parts and Durahub bearing protectors, after 1 year, it still going strong, I am convinced of the fact that the Durahub bearing protector, will demonstrate its effectiveness.

Note: The maintenance engineer at FantaSea Cruisers admits that before the Duralum, they had many other trailers for this application and no one lasted longer than 8 month, before replacement of the trailer was necessary, he also told me that bearings failed in those trailers after 2 month.

Recently, we carried out 2 Duralum demonstrations at the 2 biggest Fishing clubs in Vic. I had taken a Duralum trailer and Duralum components, including Durahubs. I demonstrated the benefits of the Durahub to the audiences of some 50 fisherman on each club, everyone was impressed with the Duralum and the audience loved the Durahub bearing protector, I distributed your brochure and told them to contact Durahub website for more info and the supply of bearing protectors for Australian trailers, as you know, we only carry the 2 American sizes for Duralum trailers.

Jorge Alvarez, Duralum Trailers, April 2010