Wheel Bearings: tapered roller vs. angular contact

[BrianD]

Many teams are using tapered roller bearings in their front hubs / uprights, but use angular contact ball bearings in the rear. Is there a reason to not use tapered roller bearings in the rear also?

[Denny Trimble]

I haven't heard that, where'd you find the information?

Generally tapered roller bearings are heavier and less expensive in standard sizes, compared to angular contact ball bearings. At least that's what we found last year. No reason to avoid one or the other except excessive cost (angular ball bearings) or excessive weight (tapered roller bearings). Oh, and sometimes angular contact ball bearings can come with seals.

[swong46]

Instead of making a new thread, I will bump this one.

I am helping a friend research on bearings and we were set on double tapered roller (TDO) but came across angular contact bearings.

I found that tapered generally better in load handling, esp in thrust loads. So why would teams pick angular? Just because of weight? Do the angular bearings have less rolling resistance?

[Winged Ratel]

Originally posted by Denny Trimble:
Oh, and sometimes angular contact ball bearings can come with seals.

I agree with Denny, with tapered rollers, you'd be hard pressed to find a good way of sealing them. Mind you, check out Nilos Rings if you want to try and seal tapered roller bearings, they're compatible with most bearing sizes.
I found that tapered roller bearings had a much greater radial load capacity at smaller sizes (e.g. 40mm ID for instance) than did angular contact ball bearings (I just went through the NSK catalogue though, it might be different elsewhere) and if you arrange them correctly, they should be able to cope with a decent amount of axial load. They're also heaps lighter.
When you have larger shafts though, deep grooves and angular contacts come into their own in terms of coping with misalignment and load capacity for their weight.
Anyway, that's what I found when I made our front hubs. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong and good luck with it all!

[JasperC]

I think with angular contact bearings you need to go to a much larger diameter to handle the same loads, so actually I believe ACBs are heavier (that is if you are not constrained to go to a smaller size by your tripod housing). Of course you will also need a larger axle if you need a larger bearing, which must be included in your weight calculations.

We have always used tapered roller bearings for this reason, up until last year (our bearings were about 100 grams each). However our 2011 car will have ACBs combined with aluminium spindles instead of steel ones. But the bearings themselves will be heavier.

Cheers,

Jasper Coosemans

2009: Innerwheels Engineer
2010: Chief Drivetrain

DUT Racing Team
Delft University of Technology

[adambrouillard]

To the point of drag reduction has anyone done comparative testing? The SKF website has a power consumption calculator that has a lower factor for a comparable tapered roller vs angular contact. But popular wisdom has always held angular contact has less drag. I would think the differences are probably negligible compared to other factors, but it would be interesting to put some numbers on it.

[Drew Price]

You shouldn't be looking at just load rating, you should also be looking at installation stiffness of the bearing pack....