front hub/wheel bearing manufacturers/source

Wondering if anyone has done a deep dive into wheel bearing manufacturers and where they source their parts?

I have read that Timken bearings are best for our Jeeps. Auto Zone wants $119 but these are available online for roughly $68-77. The Auto Zone Timken box says nothing about Made in U.S.A. It doesn't even say made by Timken. In fact, the hub was stamped SLOVAKIA. The machine work, packing materials and box were all superior.

I have read that SKF may also be made in Slovakia. I am wondering if Timken (or SKF) are making/selling to each other? FWIW, NAPA's premium bearings are SKF. For the Jeep, the retail walk-in price is the same, $119.

I do know that the machine work of the Auto Zone's Duralast bearing "made in China" looks pretty cheap comparing against the Timken.

Searching online, for general bearing needs, most folks recommend Timken or SKF, as well as NTN (Japan) or F.A.G. (Germany).

I don't have any concerns about installing the Timken bearing. As far as I can tell, Timken or SKF are a wash, at least for the front unit bearings.

I run Timken, which I sourced from Rockauto, and I couldn't be happier.

The Carquest blue box are good, and have lifetime warranty.

PN 513518 approx 97$

most of the bearings we sell are Timken:
http://www.completecherokee.com/prod-616.htm

I've never had a problem with the in-house brands. I give my customers the choice and 99% of the time they go for the cheap one. Not one come-back.
As long as they are installed correctly with the correct torque on the axle nut there should be no problems.

With my other bearing going out, I bought a NAPA SKF as it was cheaper than the Timken today. The SKF and Timken are probably made in the same plant. Both are made in Slovakia and look nearly identical down to the numbers on the hub surface. The only difference I could see is that the Timken looks slightly better machined and comes in a "Cadillac box" whereas the NAPA/SKF comes in a plainer box that says right on it "Made in Slovakia". I will run both with confidence. I have no reason to doubt the quality of either Timken or SKF products manufactured in Slovakia.

The factory original with 320,000 is the one that was going out most recently. It started to smell about 1/2 mile home from NAPA. I never felt any play in it, but it was certainly bad. The passenger side that I replaced last week was a Precision from O'Reilly's as far as I know, about 220,000 on it.

that's a lot of mileage!

I was putting new u-joints and hubs on my 97 today.

I was pretty surprised when I went to tighten the axle shaft nut with a torque wrench and noticed the new hub had about 3/16" of play in it.
Bad out of the box. I was pretty surprised and so was NAPA since it was their premium SKF bearing. I imagine its the same as you can buy on Amazon or Rock Auto. They exchanged it no questions asked. Sometimes you get a bad bearing.

true. And sometimes people put bad bearings into the box after cleaning them to get a 'refund'. Also double check parts when installing