locking hubs

bl17z90

bl17z90

New member
Hey guys I often hear about locking hubs on dynatrac axles and I know Warn makes them as well. I read about them on wiki and it didn't seem to make sense. Can someone explain what they are and the advantage to them?
 
so essentially they disconnect the front wheels in a 4wd vehicle from the axle shafts. If you break something in the carrier, say an R&P, you can simply place the t-case in 2high, turn the lockout hugs to off, and you are wheeling in a truely 2wd mode and nothing is spinning in the front axle.

In a Jeep the axle shaft is fixed to the wheel and into the carrier. If you break something, even if you have the t-case in 2wd, the axle shafts are spinning. In most cases you will be require to make a trail repair to get yourself off the trail even under 2wd.
 
so it exists so that you can keep driving and not have to worry about pulling your shafts until after you get off the trail while still staying in 4low so you will have your low gear ratio but you won't damage the front end by throwing broken metal shards around?
 
i wasn't planning to buy them i was just curious so I should know if it was something that i wanted to look into or not.
 
As is, your front axle shafts and drive shaft spin all the time as they are all connected. Manual locking hubs allow you to unlock your front wheels from the rest of the drive train and in addition to allowing you to keep on going even if broken, they are typically stronger if for no other reason than the fact they are often bigger than a standard unit bearing setup. Also, while it may not be much, there would be less drag when unlocked and that should provide slightly better MPG. As mentioned, they would require a conversion to a 5x5.5 wheel setup and are quite expensive. Not worth it in my opinion unless you're going with a 60.
 
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