the house brand bearings are much cheaper, like 1/2 price. but they are cheap chinese junk, and lets be honest, this is not the place you want to cheap out.

 

To answer your original question, I am at 163K on the stockers.

 

i'm at 125000 on stock but i think my drivers side is going. its still tight and moves with ease but it you can hear the bearing if you jack it up and spin the wheel. i had it off the other day when i was doing the u joint and it felt fine but it does sound like its lacking some grease. and they're definately not worth having a shop do them because they're super easy with a good penetrating fluid and a torque wrench that'll go to at lease 185 ft lbs.

 

The Dodge design is poor from the standpoint of service and replacement, but it is actually a very stout assembly and most failures are related to abuse or neglect.

 

the dodge design is poor from the lack of ability to service (hubs). i don't understand why they went with sealed units vs re-packable bearings.

 

less parts, turning like 7 parts into 1. saves time and money on the assembly line

 

Dodge has used a form of this design since its early full-time 4WD in the '70s. Yes, it is poor as far as servicing goes, but it really does hold up well in operation. The main reason is cost to manufacture. One sealed hub bearing unit is cheaper to manufacture and assemble on a production line than the more complex spindle/bearing unit used by others. Look at some of the conversion kits and you can see how many parts are required to replace one simple hub bearing that mounts with 4 bolts. Unfortunately, as a replacement part these hub bearing units are way overpriced. Thankfully, they rarely go out in less than 100k miles.

 

the way overpriced aspect is my only complaint about them. if they were around 50-75$ i wouln't have anything bad to say about them.

 

Not to mention it drums it up business when it fails.

 

Was just looking through the factory service manual. Surprisingly, there is not a single illustration of the hub unit or any directions on removing/replacing it. There is mention of it in several places, but only that it is a sealed unit that is serviced as such. In other related sections it says either "remove hub bearing" or "reinstall hub bearing" as part of the assembly/disassembly process for other items like the axle shafts, but no mention on how to do this or even where the hub bearing is located on the truck. Odd.