THURSDAY TESTIMONIALS: 1up Racing grease and bearing oil Pro Pack

0 Nov. 9, 2017, 8:14 a.m.

Main Photo: THURSDAY TESTIMONIALS: 1up Racing grease and bearing oil Pro Pack

By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com

Whether it's wheel nuts, wings, tools, tracks, trinkets and/or anything in between, the LiveRC staff gives their testimonial and review of each every Thursday morning!

1up Racing is the brainchild of accomplished racer, mechanic, and R/C entrepreneur Randy Caster. If you aren’t familiar with Randy, on the track he took second overall after an A1 win at this year’s ROAR Paved On-road Nationals in the elite Modified Touring Class. Off the track, his car building skills and knowledge has been hired from racers around the globe ranging from local weekend warriors to some of the world’s fastest - such as Ryan Cavalieri. Randy combined his abilities on the track with his vast knowledge off the track, and created the 1up Racing brand. The brand began by offering professional car builds, and has since grown to offer parts, accessories, conversion kits, lubricants, and the list continues to grow.

Many of the 1up Racing’s “hot items” are geared for on-road racing, such as the TC7 DTC conversion kit, however, items such as the Pro Pack of 1up Racing greases and bearing oil have said to be used across the board by off-road racers as well – Ryan Cavalieri and Ty Tessmann to name a few. If there is one thing I’ve learned in life that everyone should know, lubrication is key to success. With that being said, I was given the opportunity to try out 1up Racing’s newest lubricant Pro Pack for this week’s Thursday’s Testimonials.

Product info:
1up Racing Pro Pack Lubricants
$19.99
www.1upracing.com

The 1up Racing Pro Pack is a money saving combo which consists of the 1up Racing Pro Bearing Oil, Blue O-ring Grease, and Gold AW Grease (all available separately as well). Purchased individually you will spend roughly $25, but if you’re interested in all three the Pro Pack will save you $5.

The 1up Racing Gold AW Grease is an anti-wear grease which is designed for use on universals, dogbones, and gears. It is made from a synthetic base, and is intended to increase the life and operation of hard working items that are prone to wear and tear (such as those listed).

Next in the package is the 1up Racing Blue O-ring Grease. This grease is intended for exactly what the title says, O-rings. The blue grease is designed to reduce sliding friction for shock O-rings, while also providing a smooth operating seal for diff O-rings to prevent leakage.

Last but not least, the 1up Racing Pro Bearing Oil. This is an ultra-thin oil which is designed to free up your drivetrain by increasing the “free spin” of your bearings. 1up also recommends the Pro Bearing Oil for use on CV joints in dusty conditions where grease will attract and buildup dirt around the joints.

If you are one to judge a book by its cover, 1up Racing has hands down one of the most eye-catching and pleasing lineups of grease and oil on the market. The bottle and jars have a very clean and professional look, and each lubricant has a unique color of its own; the oil is an electric blue color instead of traditional industrial brown oil color, the O-ring grease matches it’s the bright blue of the oil, and the anti-wear grease sparkles with a rich gold look.

The bearing oil bottle and grease jars are smaller than some others, however, conveniently fit in almost any toolbox. Often times, especially with oil bottles, the size of the bottle and application needle makes them too big and bulky to fit neatly in a toolbox, but not in this case. Not to mention bearing oil bottles are a nightmare if you lose the needle top, but the 1up Pro Bearing Oil needle top is secured to the bottle so you have to very hard to lose it.

The bearing oil is labeled as “ultra-thin”, and that is not a lie. The 1up oil is very thin, and requires very little effort to oil up a bearing, as it flows freely into the bearing with just a few drops. I removed the shields of each bearing, sprayed out the factory grease entirely, oiled considerably with 1up, and put the shields back in place. The bearings were extremely free, and I was quite impressed. Removing the grease from bearings and replacing it with oil requires that you consistently clean, maintain, and re-oil the bearings. Oiled bearings provide the best and most efficient performance, but require routine maintenance – greased bearings are not nearly as free spinning, but typically require very little to no attention while still providing a long-lasting lifespan. Using the 1up Pro Bearing Oil I found that high wear external bearings (such as rear hub and front axle bearings) should to be re-oiled before every race day for maximum performance. Internal bearings, such as inside the transmission case, did not need oiling for several full race days (this does not mean you should not re-oil these bearings sooner, this is just the maximum time I suggest between re-oiling). The 1up Racing Pro Bearing Oil works phenomenal, and is among some of the best bearing oil I’ve used to date – in which I plan to continue using. This is an ultra-thin high-performance oil, so like any ultra-thin oil it is not going to last forever. If you aren’t interested in making a habit of routine bearing maintenance and re-oiling, this might not be for you.

The Gold AW grease looks downright classy with its sparkling gold appearance. I put it to the test by applying it to the ring and pinion gears inside my diff cases and my universal joints. As advertised, it does in fact “cling tenaciously” as described, as it provided a smooth and quiet mesh between my diff gears that did not fling off into a mess all over the inside of my diff case. No, not ALL of the grease stayed perfectly in place on the gears, however, compared to many other greases applied in the same area, it was far less messy and held on to the gears quite well. The Gold grease is in fact grease, therefore like 99% of all greases, it will collect dirt if applied to places exposed to dusty conditions – such as your universal/CVD joints. To remedy this, if you are racing in dusty conditions the 1up Pro Bearing Oil is an excellent alternative for the Gold grease to reduce dirt buildup, but must be re-applied considerably more often than the grease.

The Blue O-ring grease I used only to rebuild by shocks, therefore I did not test it on diff O-rings, in which it is claimed to also work well to seal your diffs and provide smooth operation – I have no doubts, but I can’t actually say that I verified it. This grease works extremely well for shock O-rings to provide a very smooth operation of the shocks. Much like the Pro Bearing Oil, it doesn’t take very much to get the job done.

Pros:

The Pro Pack includes three very useful lubricants for almost any serious racer, and is a money saver.
The bearing oil bottle and grease jars offer plenty of each, while also fitting conveniently in the toolbox.
The Pro Bearing Oil requires very little to saturate a bearing with its ultra-thin viscosity, and provides very free spinning bearings.
The Gold AW Grease looks cool, clings well, and helps to smooth out and quiet down noisy gear mesh.
The Blue O-ring grease requires very little, works very well, and is less messy in my opinion than some others.

Cons:

While convenient for travel, the grease jars are not as easy to use and apply as grease tubes or syringes.

Final word:
My final word is that I typically have a toolbox littered with 5 or maybe 6 various kinds and brands of oil and grease to do various tasks. 1up Racing pretty well covers everything with the Pro Pack, as I find all three (Pro Bearing Oil, Gold AW Grease, and Blue O-ring grease) to work extremely well, easy to transport, and between the three there is at least one of them that can get you lubed up just right no matter where you are working on the car.