What happened to locking hubs?

[DanW]

Getting back to being a Jeep owner with a JL on order.I have been reading to bring myself up to speed with today's tech as it has been a few years. Reading on the move to ESS to improve mileage, I have to ask what ever happened to locking hubs? Seems you would have a lot less rotational parts creating drag and a much simpler and stronger front axle than one wit an internal system.

You wouldn't have shift on the fly 4wd, so your vehicle would be less versatile. In over a quarter century and thousands of miles of off-roading in Wranglers, (not to mention 4wd Chevy and Ford trucks, too) I've never broken anything related to the auto locking hubs. The closest thing was a vaccum line that leaked in my YJ and kept it from going into 4wd. It was a quick, easy fix.

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[nerubi]

And why don't they still have the manual windshield wipers that you turned with a knob on the windshield like I learned to drive with?

 

[cbrenthus]

Ahem. My current phone. And I still prefer manual hubs.

I have the same one. Was trying to use the flip as more of a "phone" and then my smart phone as more of a tablet. However, its tough in my world to make it happen. I found myself gravitating to carrying my smart phone for simple things like grocery lists, ease of texting my wife, etc. Not to mention my career is in technology so I kind of need the smart phone. Lastly, its hard to explains, but with he third line my company reimbursement went down, so I'm probably going back to smart phone full time

 

[jeepingib]

My TJ had locking hubs front and rear!

 

[UKCATS]

My TJ had locking hubs front and rear!

Did you flat tow it?

 

[WXman]

It's story time. On the older trucks and Jeeps with manual locking hubs, if you knew a snowstorm was coming or you were about to head offroad, you'd lock the hubs BEFORE you needed them. Duh. Then you don't get stranded. That's how that worked. It wasn't a big deal.

Then, some young spry engineer decided to develop an automatic hub that still functioned like a manual hub, except it would lock itself without driver input. That would make all the lazy guys in the world happy! Worked great on paper, but was garbage in the real world. They'd break constantly, and they required disassembly and lubrication periodically.

So then domestic automakers said, hey, let's permanently lock the hubs to the wheels, and move the disconnect to the differential instead! Well, this worked OK when the truck was new, but quickly failed with age. GM's design (surprise surprise) was particularly bad. They used a gas-charged cylinder that would actuate a pawl that engaged the front axle at the differential starting in the late 1980s. I had one, and it failed in the middle of a snowstorm. They'd leak the gas out over time, and they also didn't work in cold weather very well. GM ended up retrofitting those with an electric motor instead. Garbage. Other companies like Chrysler used vacuum lines to operate theirs. They worked better than the GM ones, but they were still garbage and they also created a weak point in the passenger side axle shaft because there had to be a small collar that would slide over to engage the splines. Idiots...

So, then Chrysler got really smart in the late 1990s and 2000s and said screw it, let's permanently lock everything. The front axle shafts and driveshaft will spin 100% of the time, but it'll be bulletproof. This was the pinnacle of 4x4 systems. This was used all the way through the JK production. Ford copied it for the Explorer and later the Ranger. It almost never failed, required zero driver interaction except a tug on a single lever inside or twist of a dial, and it would go 200,000 miles before requiring service if you didn't beat the piss out of it. Ahhh.... we'd finally arrived!!!

Then the 2010s roll around. And a guy named Barrack Hussein Obama empowered the EPA to completely screw the automotive industry by imposing unrealistic and unnecessary CAFE requirements. And so truck and SUV makers set out to try and save every drop of fuel they could. And here we are with the disconnecting axle shafts at the differential again. Sigh...

So the moral of the story is, manual locking hubs making a return is not a crazy dream. I could see that happening on certain 4x4s. It'll probably never happen on family haulers like Subarus or Ford Escapes, but I think it could end up being seen again one day if purpose-driven 4x4s like the Wrangler survive. The reason being that with the manual hubs, NOTHING is spinning in the front end. With the current JL system, the spider gears are getting a constant workout. Since every 0.1 MPG matters to an automaker....never say never!

 

[cbrenthus]

Does anyone remember how much better mpgs the 2WD JK got over the 4x4? I'm thinking whatever it was, (I seem to remember 2mpgs), less than half of that would be due to the front wheels freewheeling, and the rest is due to weight.

 

[Gorilla57]

And manual hubs are GREAT when you have a front Detroit locker. Unlock a hub and get back your turning radius. Then I got a twin stick for the transfer case and left both hubs locked in....just pop it into 2Lo to turn when wheeling.

 

[jeepingib]

Did you flat tow it?

Yep, but it didn't have oil seals in the rear and it was a bad idea. I ended up putting slugs in it.

 

[multicam]

And why don't they still have the manual windshield wipers that you turned with a knob on the windshield like I learned to drive with?

They do... on M1 Abrams tanks

 

[Nutmeg]

Just Noticed the Gladiator 5 Quarter and the Flatbill concepts appear to have manual locking hubs,


Jeep Five-Quarter Concept

Jeep Gladiator Flatbill Concept

 

[American Adventurist]

People still like combustion engines. 99.9% of people don't want manual hubs.

 

[CJ7nvrstk]

Factory locking hubs were last used on Jeeps in the CJ, well before flip phones.

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