they'll be no sympathy from me about this one unless the driver is in a wheelchair.

 

You're free to have your opinion too.

 

thanx brother.i value yours as well.

if you theoretically saved the $ by the slight mpg decrease by unlocking your hubs when you didn't need them locked, during those 30 working years,and instead took that $ and invested it into your retirement fund (ira) and let those few bucks per year compound interest,you could be sitting on thousands more dollars coming your way when you begin to pull the $ in your golden years.no smoke.it would have been thousands.(that is,unless for those 30 years you were able to max your legal limit anyway.)

so lets say by not unlocking your hubs for a quarter of each year costs you on an avg of an extra 100$ per year.if you invested that for 30 yrs into your ira instead,there would be another 3k in there right now plus the compounded interest over the years.

 

What if he only plows a 100 yard long driveway when it snows and the truck sits till he has to plow again?

 

well it wasn't a devoted/directed comment to just Tom.

 

I see now lol

 

nah, not a 100 yard driveway, i had a 13 mile road route.
my trucks average 1 gallon per hour fuel use plowing.
i do not pay attention to fuel mileage during the year, if i want fuel mileage, i drive the car.
and yes, the trucks are all primarily plow rigs and once the plows go on, they stay on. the trucks normally plow in 2 wheel drive with hubs locked, and the t-case only goes into 4 wheel when needed.
the trucks only goes out when a truck is needed, otherwise i drive the crown vic in the winter.
the past 2 years i went from a road route to a 1 million square foot warehouse truck lot that is also 1 million square feet.
the town i plowed for changed rules and demanded a 1 million dollar insurance bond that would have cost me close to $5,000 per truck per season.
to make around $3,000 per season per truck.

the parking lots pay $100 per truck per hour, and i only need the standard plow insurance policy that costs me $2,500 for the season for all the trucks.

last year i made just about $25,000 after fuel, drivers, insurance, and repairs for the plow season.

 

Speaking to the original question, if you get auto hubs to replace your manual hubs remember to get the spindle nuts. Auto hubs require different spindle nuts than manual hubs.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread hijack

 

Oh boy, never had this many replies this fast.

Ok I worded that horribly by I don't 4x4 often I meant I don't go out mudding all the time. (If I do I use my junker rusted out F150) I need to put my pickup in 4WD almost every time I come home when it snows because my house is on a hill and my driveway is quite steep. God forbid I get out there and move the snow before my roommate and neighbor drive on it 50 times and pack it down.

What I simply don't get is why every single half ton pickup made since 2000 has auto hubs. (Unless they just don't unlock at all?) And the newer super dutys still rock auto/manual lock outs. Which would be awesome if I could get something like that for my pickup.

 

A lot of the lighter newer trucks had axle disconnects and they do not rock at all.

Not sure what the effect of an axle disconnect would be on your retirement savings, but I know the purchase of a new truck will put a significant dent in your bank account.

 

So newer pickups disconnect between the axle and the transfer case? I guess I don't really see much point in that.

 

Not between the axle and T.case. The center axle disconnect, used by Chevy and Dodge, has a splined collar that slides over the ends of two halves of the right axle shaft, so when it disengages the right stub and outer part of the axle shaft are spun by the right tire, the entire left side side is spun by the left tire, and then the open diff spins the inner half of the right axle backward. The only stuff that doesn't spin is the ring gear and driveshaft.

Jeep might have used center axle disconnects as well, but they also just abandoned any means of unlocking. My son's '01 Cherokee just spins the entire front driveline all the time, just like if you never unlocked your hubs.

The thing that i find the most amusing about it all is that as they kept "improving" things they went full circle, right back to where they were in the '40s when there were no such things as unlocking hubs.

By the way, a lot of newer Fords (the Super Duties anyway) use vacuum-actuated auto hubs. They automatically lock when a vacuum signal is removed, unlock when they get a vacuum, and can be locked manually. Oh, and they also usually jam in the locked position (not such a great idea either).

 

This is only true if you're replacing a 3-bolt cap auto locking hub. 5-bolt cap are direct swaps and won't require the spindle nut replacement. In the opposite way, just get some 5-bolt cap locking hubs to replace your manuals and you'll be fine.

 

Ford went full retard for a couple years on the Explorers, they had center axle disconnects for I think 96 and 97 model years.

The vacuum auto/manual hubs... apparently not too many folks like them due to the vacuum drawing dirt and water into the hub internals. Just what I've read since I don't actually own anything with them on it, but if I did I would cut the vac lines and cap them off.

 

the F150 and smaller trucks with the auto hubs and ESOF are for the soccer mom and he man drives a pickup types of people. you know, the ones that are afraid to get out and put it in 4 wheel because they may get dirt under their fingernails.
super duty trucks have locking hubs because they are usually bought by people that are not afraid of doing a little work.