tech topic Dukw wheel bearings, seals, grease, speedy sleeves, axle upgrade

[70th Division]

Kings bday in the Netherlands

Hello,

That looks great !!
What a nice place to operate a DUKW, and for a nice festival too !

Plenty of Orange there !

Thanks for posting the pic of your DUKW in action, and being well enjoyed by all !


Best Regards,
Ray

[fahtal]

And of season camping

[70th Division]

And of season camping

Hello,

What a cool and great picture !!
Well done!
Camping with the DUKW must be a great time as well !

Where was this ?

Best Regards,
Ray

[fahtal]

Near Arnhem Netherlands. A lake called rhederlaag.

It was great fun and we had fantastic weather

[fahtal]

Our spot with our vw van

[70th Division]

Our spot with our vw van

Wow that is awesome times 2 !!
That Vintage VW Camper is a beautiful thing !

Several years ago we camped in Holland, outside of Amsterdam.
A memorable experience, and we also camped all across Spain, and in Germany, and France.
No VW camper but used a big tent.

Some years before that we bought a VW van in great shape from the US Army surplus sale in Seckenheim, Germany.
It was tan, and not olive drab and was in perfect shape for it being a 1986 Transporter Van with windows and bench seats.
We drove that thing all over Europe with my Mother and brothers and a friend.
It had to be "imported" into Germany so paid a tiny fee to German customs, and insured it with German ADAC, and tagged and registered it in the USA. It was an epic adventure, and we went all over Germany, Czech Republic, and all over Hungary as well and all points in between for a 3 month summer vacation.

Plenty of room, and very comfy compared to rental cars !

We sold it to a German friend who put over 300,000 kilometers on it with his business, then years later he sold it to someone else, he did put another engine in it as well.

They are beautiful vans, and a camper like you have must be a real adventure to take in all around Europe !


Best Regards,
Ray

[fahtal]

Haha thanks. It is a great van indeed. And as you say we have great adventures with it. The kids are getting to old now but we slept 9 summers with the 5 of us in the van. 2 on the roof 1in the hammock in front and we above the engine. Great times. Now we need extra space like a dukw;)

[jeffl]

Haha thanks. It is a great van indeed. And as you say we have great adventures with it. The kids are getting to old now but we slept 9 summers with the 5 of us in the van. 2 on the roof 1in the hammock in front and we above the engine. Great times. Now we need extra space like a dukw;)

Love the VWs too. We went to Hawaii and rented a van to camp on the big island. Amazing our tastes are similar

[fahtal]

So winter is coming and the dukw is coming apart for maintenance.

The brakes pads were finished so new lining for them gleud and bolted.

also we had allot of grease inside the drums. multiple seals were malfunctioning because the spring got loose. the cause is not clear. Maybe age and wear or the thicker grease and maybe sande poped out the spring.

now we switched to seals that have a metal casing so the spring is more contatined.

also the rear axle was still making water. the grease was always a darker shade of yellow. the grease still functioned well. so we took the diff apart and the input shaft was worn. we put 2(becaus 1 isn`t wide enough) new speedysleeves on it hope that will fix the leaking.

When i started this post in 2019 we just finished 2 years with the bearings and new grease. before we would change the bearings every year. now it is 2023 and we still use the bearings from 2018. The grease makes them black but that doenst seem to effect the perfromance.



Seal with metal casing



old type seal


shaft speedysleeve