Usually if they really loosened it was due to the races not being fully pressed in. Some of the tools shops use to press them in do not quite fit the Vanagon bearings or hub. On the outer bearing the tool may bottom out and for inner most of the bearing tool driver sets do not have the correct size for that large bearing race. If the peening on the nut was not sufficient that would be obvious. 

More concerning is that most of these spindles now have enough wear on them that the outer bearing is not a tight fit. As such even after proper adjustment (preload-gap) the unloaded wheel will be able to move up-down, back-forth slightly making the bearing look loose. In this case tightening until the play is gone will mean an overtightened bearing with a resulting short life or unexpected failure. Bearing need some room for thermal conditions and space for the lubricant to be between the rollers and races. 

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Roy Nicholl
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 2:25 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: {front} wheel bearings on an '88 Westy

All,

Since I am still relatively new to the T25/vanagon world (3 years vs 30 with air-cooled).  Is anything different about the front wheel bearings on a T25 (vs the old buses and vans) which would lead to them loosening over a distance of, say, 7000 kms (4350 miles}?

I had the hyena in for its annual inspection and got dinged for 1-hrs labour (min charge) to tighten the front wheel bearings.  I had the bearings replaced by a reputable shop in Calgary before my son and I had our cross country adventure in 2014.

The BRM replica wheels the previous owner had put on the van do not have the correct offset - they’re about half of spec causing the wheels to run outboard more than I like.  Would this cause the bearings to loosen?

In all the years with my ’66 Westy and ’74 Thing, the wheel bearings never loosened off between re-packing.