I am about to start reassembling my steering knuckles and I am seeking out the opinion of those who may have used the Trail Gear's Trail Safe inner axle seals or Marlin Crawler's Eco Seal HD Inner Axle Seals. Obviously the factory seals are terrible, but which of these is the more reliable seal to go with?

Marlin Crawler EcoSeal HD Inner Axle Seal

Trail Gear Trail Safe Inner Axle Seal

I'm going for longevity here. I'm not a hardcore wheeler, but I do tend to get myself into a little trouble. Prior to rebuilding my knuckles, I had an inner seal leak (I had more gear lube in the knuckles than I did grease!) so I want to prevent it from happening again for as long as possible - we all know how much of a PITA it is to break down the knuckles to get to that seal!!

Pros, cons, experiences? I appreciate your input! Thanks

 

Trail Gear originally splintered off from Marlin, years back, and they basically model their stuff on Marlins. I know people rave about the Marlin seals.

If Trail Gear did a good job of copying those, I'll bet they're great. Trail Gear seems to be good quality stuff. But I've spent time on the Marlin forum, so I've heard baised info...because of that I'd personally go with Marlin. But that's an uneducated opinion.

 

Marlin...

 

I go marlin every time on maintenance related parts. ( clutch, gaskets, etc )

 

Marlin all the way .. they were the "inventors" of the ECO seal .. give them there due


.

 

I'm running Marlin's seals with no problems. Bought them before TG ever came out with theirs.

Marlin makes great stuff but it seems whatever I want to order is back ordered.......for a LONG time. End up buying TG whenever that happens and haven't had any problems with their stuff.

I think you'll be fine either way.

 

marlin

 

i have marlins on mine for about 20k miles now no problems...really though i'd run either and couldn't care less as they are both miles better than stock.

 

Thanks for the input guys! I ended up ordering some Marlin Seals

 

I'd say the TG seals are probably just as good. Not sure how the rubber coating on the outside is really going to do much better at sealing. They don't hardly, if, ever leak around the flanges anyways. Seems like a bit of over-engineering to me. And other than that they're identical to Marlin's. And speaking of which, did you happen notice that TG also sells Marlin's seals?

BTW, I've NEVER in my life seen the "spring clip" they speak of used on a radial lip seal(of any shape/size/brand). I tend to doubt that such a thing even exists. Even if it does, good luck finding a brand of seals that uses them(instead of garter springs, which are actually the industry standard, despite what TG claims).