Matco wheel bearings

[KatanaPilot]

I recently purchased an upgraded brake and wheel package for my RV-10 from Matco. I was disappointed to find that the wheel bearings were not the Timken bearings specified in the installation instructions, but a no name Chinese brand.

I did reach out to George Happ at Matco to express my disappointment and was further disappointed in his response - which was to simply give me the Timken part number.

Has anyone had a similar experience and did you replace the no name Chinese bearings with Timken, Koyo or some other reputable brand? I know some of the Timken bearings are made in China but these were clearly not Timken.

[rleffler]

Originally Posted by KatanaPilot

I recently purchased an upgraded brake and wheel package for my RV-10 from Matco. I was disappointed to find that the wheel bearings were not the Timken bearings specified in the installation instructions, but a no name Chinese brand.

I did reach out to George Happ at Matco to express my disappointment and was further disappointed in his response - which was to simply give me the Timken part number.

Has anyone had a similar experience and did you replace the no name Chinese bearings with Timken, Koyo or some other reputable brand? I know some of the Timken bearings are made in China but these were clearly not Timken.

I?ve replaced mine at the last annual due to one of the seals was damaged.

Believe it or not, you can get Timken and their competitors products off Amazon and many other places. To be honest, I don?t recall what I went with. I?m not sure it makes that much difference as long as it?s a well known brand.

[KatanaPilot]

Originally Posted by rleffler

I?ve replaced mine at the last annual due to one of the seals was damaged.

Believe it or not, you can get Timken and their competitors products off Amazon and many other places. To be honest, I don?t recall what I went with. I?m not sure it makes that much difference as long as it?s a well known brand.

I will check out the online sources. Plenty of bearing companies around Atlanta too.

I agree on the bearings, as long as they are name brand. No name Chinese bearings don't give me warm fuzzies. I thought Matco was better than that...

[DJP]

I have Cleveland brakes on my RV-10 which first flew in 2006. Exactly one year ago, I had my airplane painted, and I was excited with the results. Since all of the flight controls had been removed and it had been sitting around in a cold hanger for six weeks I did the most extensive pre-flight that I have ever done after getting it out of paint. Everything was great and worked as it should. That was until I landed at my home airport about 75 miles away. When I touched down I thought that I had torn the bottom out of the aircraft, the scraping sound was horrible. The problem did not easily show itself and it took some serious digging to locate the problem. Apparently, from the pictures of the painting that I received, when they stripped the airplane they removed the fairings but failed to cover the brakes and wheels. I don't what it is that they use but it is strong and it removes EVERYTHING, including grease. When I touched down after the first landing the bearings were trashed! I called Van's to find out the part number for the bearings but they just said that they had changed vendors years before and they didn't have part numbers for Cleveland brakes. Long story short, I lucked out when I called McFarland Aviation Products and talked to a women that had been selling Cleveland brakes forever. She said that Van's decided that they would keep the kit costs down by using cheaper brakes and parts and discontinued using Cleveland. Anyway she gave me the part numbers and sent me a list of all of the other seals and parts that go on the brakes on my aircraft. Actually, as someone else has mentioned, you can buy these Timken bearings on Amazon, which I did. I don't know if these are the same ones for your brakes but this is what I ordered:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
PS
I flew 150 hours last year and made LOTS of landings, the bearings and brakes are holding up great