auto hubs
Elder User
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 707
Likes: 1
From: Mulege south Baja ca. Mx.
keep them serviced up and they will work good for the life of the truck. for mose peple that dont get off the rode much they are far easier to use. it is mostly the rock crawlers and mud bagers that change them out
Postmaster
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 3,978
Likes: 0
From: Central PA
They can work great . I have them on my truck still because they were new. But the autos are not reliable under stress. If you are going down road or need to get off wet grass they are fine.
Even with mine being new they pop out if backing up or rocking truck under stress. So I just use them in winter for my road truck and swap to manuals for in woods to get the fire wood. Other wise I carry a tow chain with me. LOST
Even with mine being new they pop out if backing up or rocking truck under stress. So I just use them in winter for my road truck and swap to manuals for in woods to get the fire wood. Other wise I carry a tow chain with me. LOST
Postmaster
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,816
Likes: 1
From: Davis & Newcastle, CA
I have posted about this several times before due to my awful experience with auto hubs. The problem with the auto hubs on these trucks (as opposed to vacuum lock hubs, for example) is that they are engage by centrifugal force. This means that they engage when your front axle shaft starts spinning. So whats the problem? Well when you are rollin' along in 4wd and for whatever reason you have to stop and end up rolling backwards a couple inches (or need to back up), when you come to a complete stop the hubs will DISENGAGE, then reengage when you start rolling again. Now if you change direction too quickly you will toast the hubs. This happened to me when I got stuck in a snow bank this last winter season. I was trying to rock myself out (yeah I'm a *******) and the hubs just took a ***** because I was going forward-back-forward-back. Long story short, those stupid hubs cost me $450 in tow and tire chain fees. Would much rather listened to the guys on the forum and swapped them to manuals BEFORE this happened. I'll never ever drive another Ford truck with auto hubs, BAD BAD BAD.
-Chris
-Chris
