Any advantage to manual locking hubs?

Is there any advantage to adding manual locking hubs to my 79 when I rebuild my axles? Right now I'm leaning towards adding a Powertrax no-slip to both the front and rear along with Superior 4.10 gears and one piece axles. I would like to add a full locker to the front. If I add an Ox or something like that, will manual hubs allow me to fully disengage the front drivetrain so I have normal steering and handling on the street?

 

Yes and it is inexpensive to add them. You'll be glad you did.

 

If you full time lock the front and add manual hubs, I hope that you don't have a lot of trails through the woods. Did this (similar, Lincoln Locked) to mine, and have been looking for a cheep way to undo what I did. Experience says, go with a selectable (ARB) locker. I will in the future.

Cons: Your turning goes to crap. You will find yourself running 3wd more often than not. Someone will have to get out in the mud or on the side of a rocky slope to lock or unlock the fourth wheel.

Pros: You can crawl over anything. You will not have much problems with traction.

 

Lockers in the front are highly over rated. Power Lock the front, lock the rear. You'll be very happy. I've run the Rubicon, Fordyce, The Ducy and Barrett Lake and never felt like I needed anything more for traction. The LS in front actually allows you to turn. Before you decide to lock the front I highly recommend that you drive someone elses rig with a locked front end. Selectable locker would be ok, but, if they are bound up they won't unlock until the pressure is off of them.

 

X2 what Posimoto suggest. I ended up using a Truetrac in my front because of the turning issues with a full locker. The Truetrac will slip similar to a LS but it holds a little tighter. So far, I have had great luck with mine.

 

I am running a power lock in my model 30 and so farthey have worked great. In the rear 44 I put a Eaton electrical locker and so far it has worked just great on the Rubicon and Barrets lake Trail. Just need to unlock the rear when going around a tight turn.

 

I hate to make everyone break this down so that a 2 year old could understand....but I never claimed to be smart! So here is my conclusion, please confirm if this is correct:

If I go with a full locker like the Ox that's selectable in the front, I don't need manual hubs and I can unlock the locker and the Jeep will drive like a 2 wheel drive vehicle.

If I go with manual hubs and a non-selectable full locker in the front, I can disengage the hubs and it will act like a 2 wheel drive. The only difference is that I will need to get out to do it.

Here are my thoughts: I'm definitly going Limited Slip in the rear for street driveablility. If I do this, I will want a fully locked front for when I really need 4WD. My off road riding consists of 70% trails and 30% climbing sand hills and over logs and such (no rocks, yet). On the trails I won't need 4WD too often but I would like to have at least 1 axle fully locked the other 30% of the time. Thanks again for all your help!

 

I have two thoughts.

1) You want manual hubs regardless. They disengage the tires at the hubs, so when you disengage your front axle at the transfer case, all the parts (differential, axle shafts, driveshaft)aren't being turned by the tires spinning.

2)As others suggest, you may want to re-think putting the limited slip in the rear and the locker in the front. Your rear tires do most of the work, put the locker back there and you will see a larger benefit. As far as drive-ability goes, unless you have actually driven with a locker in the back, you haven't had a chance to see for yourself that it isn't that big of a deal. If you are concerned, find a jeep that has one and ask to drive it; I wouldn't take anyone else's word.

Put the limited slip in the front for some added traction, better drive-ability, and better dependability.

 

X2 If you are worried about street driving with a locker in the rear, put in a selectable locker. Electrac, Ox, ARB....