200 mile drive with leaking hub boots

I've done my homework on replacing boots on these units with a Non zipper type. My question is i'm looking to maybe purchase a truck 200+ away. 2 of them are leaking. Do i need to worry about the bearings running dry? I'm a slow driver anyway so speed won't be a factor. Just didn't know if i needed to prepare with lots of duct tape and garbage bags and tubes of grease. Or does most of the grease stay in and the real concern is H2O and contaminants getting in ? I'm not even gonna attempt to use the zipper style from what i've read.

Zipper boots keep the grease in the steering knuckle area. They do not have anything to do with the hub bearings as they have their own inner seal on the spindle. I have had busted zipper boots for nearly 3years and 200,000+ miles without issue. Just grease them up when you need to. Only be concerned if you are offroading and water intrusion into the steering knuckle that way.

yeah that would make sense seeing that there behind the hub seal ... haha not sure what i was thinking. In any case that doesn't concern me as much then. thanks !

the seal is the inner axle seal its leaking differential fluid. the wheel bearings in the hub are greased the real reason for the boot is to keep water and debries from getting into the bearings through the back side of the spindle, unless you have the old rezeppa type joint than you need a surplus of grease. if you have the spicer cross type universal joint excess grease just costs you dollars.

I mean shurly there's a seal behind the inner spindle beari g though right ? I definitely get that there's a differential seal.

Just to clarify what I'm trying to avoid. Having 2 known leaking boots that when under highway speed start throwing grease everywhere from the steering knuckle. To me it sounds like that won't be the case.

1lineman1 said:

I've done my homework on replacing boots on these units with a Non zipper type. I'm not even gonna attempt to use the zipper style from what i've read.

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That attempt sounds so good once you change a non zipper type just once.