Manual hubs vs Auto hubs

[brokemechanic3000]

It seems that everyone agrees that the worst thing about manual hubs is that you have to get out and lock them in, Whereas with auto hubs you aren't really sure if they will engage or not. I switched to manual hubs and like it better but I will be making a tool to make locking and unlocking easier to do. I was thinking of a piece of pipe small enough to fit in the hub and then notch it to fit the switch and then put a handle on it.
I think that auto hubs are better for vehicles that hardly ever leave pavement, It is nice to be able to go to and from work or town in bad weather and just have to flip a switch on the dash and keep driving. As long as the system is working.

 

[bigmark303]

I think that auto hubs are better for vehicles that hardly ever leave pavement, It is nice to be able to go to and from work or town in bad weather and just have to flip a switch on the dash and keep driving. As long as the system is working.

This ^

Anyone who never leaves pavement and dosnt want to ever think about 4wd besides the switch on the dash uses auto hubs.

Anyone who needs to rely on their 4wd to actually get them back to a road to get home uses manual hubs. I have the electronic 1354 transfer case in both my trucks. I like it but as anything automatic (electronic) you hope it will work when needed. I always put my transfer case in 4wd high when I leave pavement for the day and it stays that way until I get back on the road. I use the manual hubs to engage/disengage my 4wd after that point. That way I never have to worry if its going to engage when I need it.

Cant say how many times ive been out and gone through freezing rivers and swamps and the auto hubs would get so cold they would just click and not engage until they wormed back up. Same with the transfer case motor.

 

[exbass94]

I kind of like the live axle on my Ranger. It's nice not having to manually lock hubs AND not have to worry about unreliable auto hubs. Still, I would prefer being able to unlock them for the 95% of the time I don't need 4wd.

My Explorer had auto hubs. They worked reliably for over 160k miles before they started to not engage/disengage properly. A pair of manual hubs were about half the price of a pair of auto hubs. Hmm, spend twice as much for hubs that are known to be unreliable, or spend half as much and never have to worry about hubs breaking again?

I switched to manual hubs. Locking them manually isn't a big deal; if you think you might need 4wd, just lock them before you go.

I still have electric shift t-cases on both the Explorer and Ranger. I had to replace the shift motor on the Explorer for the first time last year. The Ranger has always shifted reliably. I would prefer manual t-cases but don't really want the hassle/expense of converting them.

As far as SLA vs TTB: I like SLA. The ride quality and handling are better, aligning it is easier. I'm not convinced that it's terribly weak.
So what if it has CV axles? All front wheel drive cars have CVs, even powerful, high HP/torque cars. Even on this site, you don't hear about too many axle failures.

 

[4.0B2]

my auto hubs served me okay on the d28, I wasn't doing anything extreme...
I did strip a plastic gear or 2 though....

when I did the d35 swap I went manual hubs and the first time out forgot to even lock them in and I thought my 4x4 was messed up... of course, I'm in a Jeep club so none of them thought about the manual hubs either.... lol. Then I randomly checked the hubs...

 

[RangerNielsen]

I like the manuals over auto for most all of the reasons listed above. My dads mechanic friend was saying that if the spring in the manual hubs breaks you have to rebuild the hub. That doesn't phase me. I like being able to lock the hubs before I go wheeling, and if I feel the need, put the clutch in, pop the tcase into 4hi, and let the clutch out with throttle and the front tires are spinning. As I stated above, the 96 f250 I had would spin the rear tires for a few seconds while the hubs engaged. And to me, it seems like auto hubs require more maintenance and such than manuals, and there's more parts that are likely to fail. I prefer manuals and I wanted a truck with a d35 manual hubs, and thats what i have now. So I'm happy, and keeping the manual hubs, they're not that big of an inconvenience.

 

[adsm08]

As far as SLA vs TTB: I like SLA. The ride quality and handling are better, aligning it is easier. I'm not convinced that it's terribly weak.
So what if it has CV axles? All front wheel drive cars have CVs, even powerful, high HP/torque cars. Even on this site, you don't hear about too many axle failures.

The CV axles aren't the weak point. The CV axles are actually probably better than the TTB axle shafts because they handle the extreme angles of steering better than U-joints. The weak spots are the wheel bearings and ball joints.

 

[RangerSVT]

...I pull on a stick and it's in..

Totally sigged....

SVT

 

[adsm08]

Totally sigged....

SVT

I really gotta start paying attention to what I am saying.

So much of it sounds so bad out of context.

 

[wildbill23c]

I've only had 1 set of manual hubs fail in a 1988 Ford F-250, not that they really failed they just started making weird noises, so I had them both replaced before they failed when I really needed them. Had the auto locking hubs fail in a 1988 Dodge D50, the hubs in my grandfather's 93 ranger liked to get stuck in the engaged position.

I'd rather get out and turn 2 knobs and pull a lever than rely on electronics that may or may not work. Not to mention oftentimes the electronics will give you a false light per say. It says you are in 4WD, yep transfer case went into 4WD but the hubs never locked in type problems. I've never had a manual 4x4 system ever fail, been around too many electronic 4WD systems that fail at the worst possible time.

The auto-locking hub and push button (electronic 4x4) systems came about because people are just plain lazy. I've never had a problem locking hubs in and pulling a lever. Anytime the weather is extremely bad I'll turn the hubs in when I go out and start my truck and as its warming up I'll reach down and turn in the hubs that way all I have to do is pull the lever if I need the 4WD, if not the hubs are already locked in. In my 1988 Ford F-250 I occasionally would realize in spring that the hubs were still locked in from winter and the truck had 220k+ on it when the hubs started making strange noises, so even having the hubs locked in for long periods of time didn't seem to hurt anything.

 

[YooperSteeze]

My explorer came with auto hubs. First time I had it on dirt the hubs failed me and the ex ended up getting jumped through a ditch in reverse to get it out of the situation it was in. Bought manual hubs, never looked back.

 

[4x4junkie]

As far as SLA vs TTB: I like SLA. The ride quality and handling are better, aligning it is easier. I'm not convinced that it's terribly weak.

I disagree about the ride quality... My experience is the SLA IFS pitches side-side a lot more over bumps than the TTB does. Disco'ing the overly-thick sway bar helps a lot, but then your handling goes right out the window (lots of body roll).

And manual hubs for me also.

 

[kryptonitecb]

My .02 on the TTB vs SLA is that more off-road race trucks are going with some sort of TTB variant. They wouldn't do it if it was a bad design.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

 

[6.2]

I'm assuming you mean baja trucks and the like.

In which case the TTB vs SLA argument is 100% invalid as most are 2wd. (If not all, I don't know)

 

[bigmark303]

The 2wd suspensions on the TTB year Rangers is refered to as TIB but is the same exact concept as TTB. Both have radius arms and two twin beams that operate independent of each other.

TTB in Prerunners, Baja trucks, trophy trucks, whatever you want to call them is very popular and much prefered over the more common IFS (SLA) front suspension setups 4wd or 2wd. Its about travel with Prerunner trucks and TTB has a lot more and for cheaper. Thats why if you ever head out to the western part of the U.S. its very common to see Toyotas, Chevrolets, Dodge, and newer Fords converted over to custom TTB front suspensions.

 

[6.2]

Wow. So many things I could pick apart in that post lol.

But I won't.