My team is new to swerve and I was interested to hear teams’ expirences with the swerve bearings and how durable they are and how often they need to be replaced if at all. A recommendation for how many spare bearings we should get would be nice if your team has a set number of spares they get. We are using Mk4i swerve modules.
I have been on teams have run MK4 swerves for 3 years now in a district and we have never needed to replace the bearings. Now I would recommend buying extra bolts, we loss WAY too many of those.
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last years SwerveX Modules were shipped with cheaper bearings in the forks that we fixed with Mcmaster bearings and a 3d Print, but the design has since been updated and it is no longer an issue.
We have never had to replace or even really touch anything other than the tread otherwise, as long as the modules are assembled correctly. We’ve been running the same modules switched between our practice bots for 2.5 years without any failures, just re-applying grease(which we honestly didn’t do enough) and retreading.
(dang companies all using X as product names…)
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The Xcontact bearings on SDS modules are extremely durable and you likely won’t need spares. Having fell from traversal in 2022 a few times, the plates will bend well before the bearings.
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Used Swerve X modules for the last two seasons and never had any problems with the main bearings, not even when we dropped the robot straight onto the wheels from the traverse bar in 2022. Those things are tough and can take a lot more abuse than you’d imagine. I doubt that the very similar bearings used in MK4is are any different. It is possible to have things go wrong with a swerve module on occasion and having a spare assembled module (with motors) on hand at competitions isn’t a bad idea, assuming you can afford the extra cost of a 5th module. But even though we’ve done that we never actually had to swap out a module.
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Posters please note the OP is asking about the X-contact bearing used in the SDS swerve modules, not the bearings used in the WCPWest Coast Products SwerveX modules.
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NGL, had me fooled 
They lasted well for comp but they are NOT invulnerable. A parade on pavement will kill them. Our modules now sound like stock audio file for a rusty door hinge.
How many hours of drive practice/events do you typically run in a season?
We’ve found that with limited drive practice time and 4x events (two regionals with some elims matches, champs, an offseason) we didn’t need to replace them over the course of a season. I know that teams that push lots of drive time have run into them getting a bit crunchy eventually. I don’t have a firm time range for that, but for reference, an hour of drive time is about 24 matches, and while I’ve heard of teams that push 100+ hours needing to replace them we haven’t had to replace much more than the screws (I suspect that if you let enough bearing retention screws go, you may be able to induce a premature failure in the bearing).
All this is to say that we primarily rely on backup swerve modules instead of replacement bearings as our safety net for most potential failures in the Mk4i, and haven’t run into a significant issue so far with the modules we ordered for the 2023 season.
I might suggest a mod or the OP retitles this thread to something along the lines of “SDS Mk4i Swerve X-Contact Bearing Durability” to clear up confusion for anyone stumbling along this in future search results.
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We had one get noisy at our final off season this year, but we flushed it with some brake cleaner and squirted some fresh grease in it and it quieted right back down.
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Based on our experience and that of other local teams I would change the bearings for district championship.
The amount of practice we put on our robots and 2 district events was enough time for the bearings to get contaminated an for some of our friends fail at DCMP or Championship. Swapping out the bearings prior to the Championship run is relatively cheap insurance.
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We have run our SDS mk2 modules with the same X-contact bearing since 2020 (these modules are still on our 2023 robot) without replacing them and have not had any issues. Clean and grease only maintenance done. We have had a main swerve plate bend into a saddle shape and the bearing still held up okay and would still allow the module to turn.
How much practice do you typically get? I think that is a key part of gauging whether these need to be replaced on an individual team level. For reference, 2220 got under 10 hours of practice throughout the season this last year. I probably should have been clearer about what exactly I meant by “limited drive practice.”
We got probably in the 70+ hour range spread across our 2 robots. We used one robot for for our 2 districts week 2 & 3 and then switched to our DCMP/Championship robot after week our week 3 district.
We have 10 SDS MK4i modules and used 9 of them I believe. We had a encoder issue that drove the swap. Also we have a mixture of Falcon 2’s and 3’s powering the modules.
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For anyone looking for replacements you can find them here as well as SDS I believe. The sealed seem ideal just due to carpet fiber getting kicked up all season.
I should add to Pete’s comment that we chose to go over the charge station pretty frequently in practice and at competition. We also practice with cable bumps. I’m sure all that adds up to quite a bit of abuse.
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The bearings are extraordinarily durable and unlikely to require replacement but in a long season may benefit from cleaning as gunk builds up in them that can make them rather stubborn. After a few comps it can be good to spray them with degreaser to make them spin freely again usually followed up with some oil so that they’re still properly lubricated.
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While I agree in principle this is fine for most FRC teams, as a person with a history in working on angular contact bearings (mostly aerospace) if I think the race or balls have been contaminated and scored from FOD I replace them because its the same amount of effort as removing to clean.
I’d take a look at these. They are sealed on both sides and once we’ve changed them we haven’t had any issues with sticky bearings.
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We haven’t had a failure with the 3.5" x-contact bearing after a year of use. But we have had failures with the R188ZZ (1/4" x 1/2") bearing that lives at the bottom of the steering intermediate shaft. That thing is undersized IMO.
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