I'm building a Dana 60 (Frankendana60) for my 89 and just wondering what your thoughts are on hubs. I have a 90 F150 that I took the autolocks off of cause they were junk! The new lockouts for it work perfectly. I have a 94 that is now a donor truck and it has autolocks that worked flawlessly until the truck was retired. My 89 has lockouts and they are moody, sometimes no problems and sometimes no way! The donor axle came with lockouts on dually hubs that the previous owner said worked fine. I have plenty of parts to use, but just seeking everyone's opinions on what I should use. Thanks.

 

sums it up for me.go with manual locking hubs and you'll know your in.

 

Automatic hubs have the advantage of not requiring as much thought to use. They might be my first choice if the truck was going to be driven mostly by my wife or kids. There's also a convenience to them if that weighs heavily for you.

Manual hubs have the advantages of being generally more reliable and of not self destructing if you reverse direction a lot (like snow plowing or rocking to get unstuck). They also allow shift-on-the-fly at essentially any speed with no trauma to the transfer case as long as you locked the hubs first (you can drive around with the hubs locked in 2wd if you think you might be using 4x4). Shifting on the fly with auto hubs hammers the transfer case pretty good.

edit: I should add that my only experience with shift-on-the-fly Fords was a '93 Explorer and a '95 F-150, both of which came with auto hubs and an electronic shift transfer case. The electronic shift t.case has a synchro clutch in it that hammers the front driveline up to speed when you shift into 4wd while moving. As far as I know, with a lever shift t.case you can not shift into 4wd while moving unless your hubs are already locked. So I don't think auto hubs give you any ability to shift on the fly if you have a lever shift t.case.

Personally I'd never have auto hubs on my truck, but I do recognize advantages and I'd never tell someone they shouldn't have them.

 

You can have shift on the fly with a lever shift t-case and auto hubs, sort of...
Once the hubs are locked, you have to reverse directions to get them to unlock. If you shift into 4wd at a stop, start driving, then shift into 2wd, the hubs will stay locked. Then you can shift back into 4wd on the fly. You just have to be sure you haven't reversed in 2wd... I do this often with my 93 F250. That being said, I've had auto hubs fail, and intend to put Warn premium hubs on it.

 

Having had a recent experience with the auto-hubs, I'll throw my 2 cents worth in. Go with manual hubs. I replaced mine with the Warn Premium hubs after a rather embarrassing incident. One of the parts to the left front auto locker essentially broke into two pieces preventing it from locking in.

I do not do a lot of 4WD stuff and definitely do not get into the mudding and seeing how big of hole one can dig with the rig. Having said that, while out hunting last year, I parked on a log landing. When leaving, the rear wheels would not do anything but spin and start to dig a hole in the soft dirt and mud. Put in 4WD and all I got was more rear tire spinning and a sound from the LF reminiscent to a bicycle tire with a card stuck in it for sound effects.

Needless to say, and this is the embarrassing part, we had to tow my pickup back onto firm ground. My hunting partners vehicle that towed me out - a Toyota Tacoma.

I have been told that auto hubs are for a light duty to maybe medium duty application at best. While the auto lockers were a convenience, I don't need to have them fail on me when I may not have help. It doesn't take that long to get out and spin the locks. This was the first time (and hopefully the only time) I have ever had a set of hubs fail. All of my other pickups have had the manual hubs.

 

True. I was over-simplifying to avoid that much detail and possible misunderstandings. But yes, any time your hubs are already locked, manual or auto, you can shift into 4wd on the fly.

Auto hubs are less reliable, but I think they get a little worse rap than they deserve. For light use, they are usually fine, and for some the convenience is worth the risk. Manual hubs are definitely less likely to strand you, but autos usually don't either.

And by the way, after putting Warn Premiums on almost every truck I've had, I put the standard Warn manual hubs on my F-250 this summer (replacing Mile Markers where one of them was loose even when all the bolts were tight). The standard Warns turn much easier than the premiums. I decided that was worth it on a mostly street driven truck when I've been unable to lock in some Warn premiums without taking off my gloves (not fun in a MN winter). I don't know how much strength I'm giving up, or if I'll have any reliability issues with the standard hubs. But they do turn a lot easier than the premiums, especially when wearing thick gloves.

 

When I bought the PSD with the auto locks, the first thing a lot of people told me was to get rid of the auto lockers and put the manual hubs on. I had never had auto lockers before and I thought the convenience far, far out weighed any other consideration. I still do. I am retired now and don't particularly need heavy duty, every day application of 4WD. If the auto lockers are working, leave them alone until you are forced into changing them. To me the price of the auto locker repair - replacement vs the cost of conversion did not justify not converting it over after the auto lockers had failed. It was the cheaper way to go. Had I had a spare auto locker in the parts bucket or just laying around, the pickup would probably still have auto lockers on it.

With one exception on my 87 F250, I haven't noticed any real difference with turning the premiums over the standards on my rigs. The only thing I've noticed is that the premiums seem to have to be turned farther or "more" than the standards. The only problem I have ever had with the standard hub is that the plastic "handle" eventually weather crazed and cracked off on one occasion. Of course if you don't keep your pickups around for 20 years, that may not be a problem.

I went with premiums on the power stroke only because I fell into a deal where they were close enough to the same price as to not make sense not to. Plus, they are all metal with no plastic.

 

All Warn hubs used to take almost a full turn to lock or unlock. The Warn web site when I was looking for hubs this summer claimed that they all still did. But when I got the standard hubs they were only about 1/4 turn to lock and unlock, and they were spring loaded into the lock position with a detent to hold them unlocked. So to unlock them you just barely move the dial and it snaps all the way to lock. It's still pretty easy to turn it back to unlock too. I don't know if that means Warn is changing all of their hubs, or if it's just the standards.

But the significant difference for me between premium and standard is how easy it is to grab the dial. The premiums have smaller, shallower pockets to het your fingers into, so they are harder to grab.

If the standard hubs break on me I'll sure wish I had gone for the premiums. But if it's just that the plastic is crazed in 10-20 years, I'll be happy to put new standard hubs on then.

 

If I hadn't gotten a good (standard) price on the premiums, the standards are what would have gone on the truck................................

Your recollections of the turn amount on the hubs, at least the older ones seems to fit what I have although I would call it a half turn. Push in slightly, turn and they "pop" back to detent when they get to the locked position. 72 and 78 seem to work this way. The 87 just spins about 3/4 of a turn with no detent and no real "resistance". Many times I locked them in and tried "spinning" on the gravel road just because I didn't believe they had truly "locked" in. These were all put in at various times quite a few years apart. Probably be like a "Warn Museum" if I were to line them all up.

 

Here are pics of the Premiums on my Bronco and the standards on my F-250.

 

Yep, one thing about Warn. They are consistent over the years.

 

When I rebuilt my 91 last summer, I went with Super Winch Premiums and have been very pleased with them, easy to turn in and very durable and less expensive than Warn. I have got away from Warn, their quality has decreased and their prices have increased. There was a time when I ran nothing but warn products on my rigs and they did make the hubs for Ford for a long time. I get rid of the auto lockers right off the bat and put on manuals.

 

I hate how people argue the point of automatic locking hubs have a bit more ease of use. Bullcrap. Lock your hubs on manual ones one time and go. 4wd now engages full time with the shifter. It might be a bit more tension in the hubs but not enough to cause damage. Mine are always locked. Plus then you get the other advantages of manual locking hubs.

 

I respect your opinion too. For my own truck I lock the hubs when I expect to need 4wd and that's great. But for my wife who doesn't want to think about cars and truck, and for my kids that are just figuring it out, auto hubs are definitely more convenient.

 

There is a false statement in the second picture, that is a STANDARD hub, the premiums still look like in the picture above, and require the full turn.