Tests were run to compare the fatigue life of two-row tapered roller bearings to that of spherical roller bearings. Both bearing types had an outer diameter of 110 mm with the spherical roller bearing having a 22 percent larger dynamic radial load rating than the tapered roller bearings. All tests were run at 165 percent of the respective two-row dynamic radial load ratings. The results show that both the indirect mounting (double cup or outer ring) and the direct mounting (double cone or inner ring) tapered roller bearings gave significantly better fatigue lives than the spherical roller bearings. These results appear to contradict the present ISO 281 standard which assigns a 1.15 bmrating factor to spherical roller bearings compared to a bmrating factor of 1.10 for that of tapered roller bearings.Presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting in Detroit, Michigan May 17–21, 1998