Thread: Locking hubs

Firstly - fitting FWH to a series landie only accelerates wear of the swivel pin bush and brinneling of all the front end bearngs, with no measurable benefit to fuel consumption.

Selectros are weak and prone to cracking the main casing. I have cracked one (before I saw the light and removed the FWHs entirely), and I know several others who have done the same.

The other type you mention are stronger than selectros IME.

However - do yourself a favour and flog them all off on ebay and ft some drive flanges instead.

The third set (one central knob) are labelled "Warn Locking Hubs", I'm assuming it's a brand name not an instruction!

Experience with a Hilux has indicated that freewheeling hubs give better fuel economy, a better turning circle and logically reduce tyre wear, though I've never really noticed one way or the other.

Interesting that they don't improve the fuel economy on a Land Rover, and that being the case there is really no reason to have them fitted anyway!

Originally Posted by Warb

The third set (one central knob) are labelled "Warn Locking Hubs", I'm assuming it's a brand name not an instruction!

Experience with a Hilux has indicated that freewheeling hubs give better fuel economy, a better turning circle and logically reduce tyre wear, though I've never really noticed one way or the other.

Interesting that they don't improve the fuel economy on a Land Rover, and that being the case there is really no reason to have them fitted anyway!

A hilux is not a landie. Hiluxes have grease lubricated CVs and swivels, which means lots more drag and therefore fuel consumption gains with FWHs.

However - There is no way that fitting FWHs will give you a better turning circle - on ANY vehicle.

I doubt there would be a measurable improvement in tyre wear - even on a toyota.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

There is no way that fitting FWHs will give you a better turning circle - on ANY vehicle.

I always figured that the additional drag of the CV's and diff when the locking hubs were locked was what caused me to be just unable to do a u-turn in the laneway when the hubs were locked, when I could make the u-turn when they were unlocked. I guess I just noticed whether they were locked when I stuffed the turn, and didn't bother looking when I didn't. It's entirely possible, most of the farm vehicles either make that turn easily or not at all, but that Hilux made it or missed it by an inch!

Looks like the '59 will get those hubs removed!

I never thought about the swivel pin wear my series III always had warn swivel pins, they would not get any oil on them.
The other bad point I never thought of is if you break a rear axle. This happened to me good thing the wife was with me. I broke an axle going up a hill in the middle of town and free wheel hubs were unlocked I found out you don't get any hand brake either. The old push down the yellow know didn't work.

Originally Posted by Warb

I now have three different types of locking/freewheeling hubs, ...
...This last set, and I'm assuming they're locking hubs although I haven't experimented with them, require a screwdriver or coin to rotate a pair of discs/knobs on the face of each hub, being marked with arrows ("V"') on both the hub and the disc. Presumably the arrows are aligned to lock (or unlock?).

Does anybody know anything about these particular hubs, and how they compare in strength and reputation against the Selectro's?

They are Shute Upton Engineering (SUE) hubs and are about the poorest of all designs. Behind that slot is a cam of a half circle, and the halfshaft is connected to a sprocket.

Turned one way, the cam has the half circle to the outside of the hub and the sprocket rotates freely within the space of the cam. Turned the other way, the half circle engages in the sprocket and prevents the halfshaft turning freely.

The problem is that it is easy to have one cam engaged and the other one disengaged, this will put all the load over one point in the alloy casing and explode out the side, although they also had a reputation of exploding the cams out both sides at the same time. It was not unheard of to see vehicles with a clamp around the SUE hub to reduce the risk of housing failure.

However all this is moot, because as others have said, FWH have more disadvantages than they do advantages.

Diana

In my experience, the Warn hubs are the pick of them, and I actually have them fitted to my 2a (paid $15 for them, complete with a rolling 88 chassis).

However, I carried out tests of performance and fuel consumption with and withoout them engaged, and have been unable to find any difference. There may be a barely perceptible improivement in acceleration, but that is it, and it would be less than the accuracy with which you can repeat the test.

In my view they have two advantages - firstly, they enable the use of low range as a creeper gear on hard surfaces - useful for such things as hooking up trailers, driving in parades etc, and secondly they allow you to put off replacing the spline joint in the front prop shaft after it has got to where it has excess slop for high speeds, but is OK for offroad.

My hubs remain engaged almost all the time.

John

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

The problem is that it is easy to have one cam engaged and the other one disengaged, this will put all the load over one point in the alloy casing and explode out the side, although they also had a reputation of exploding the cams out both sides at the same time. It was not unheard of to see vehicles with a clamp around the SUE hub to reduce the risk of housing failure.

Having removed all the bodywork and pressure washed the chassis and mechanicals, with all the dirt removed I can see that one of the SUE hubs has buckled outwards and cracked as described above...........