Free Wheel Hub

[Slate8]

I've read quite a lot on this forum about manual and automatic free wheel hubs. It seems they probably will help reduce wear on the driveshaft as it stops them turning when not in 4wd, which is most of the time for me.

Another clam from sites that sell them is that they will help save fuel.

Is this true and if so what kind of saving are we looking at?

[Gamedawn]

The main reason why I fitted mine is the "reduce wear" aspect. The more you lift the truck the more the cv angle increases so the less they turn the better. As a side effect I got around a 1 mpg improvement in fuel consumption - not much but when you're talking 20-22mpg as the base figure, every little helps!

[da SLUG man]

and you can use 4wd on the road if you have manual hubs!

hehehe!!

[TJG]

Not sure if surfs are the same but many landys with freewheel hubs suffer a lot of wear inside the hub as they rely on the gubbins inside turning to splash the oil around. Things have probably moved on since the 70's though........

[openback]

was allways told to "lock" the hub once a month or so to ensure that all the axle/hub internals are kept lubed.

[Linda]

was allways told to "lock" the hub once a month or so to ensure that all the axle/hub internals are kept lubed.

Unless you use it... mines offroad much more than once a month. When I first fitted the manual hubs they werre stiff but with use loosened off. Never saw any change in mpg though!!

[sam]

yes

[dirtydog]

yes

indeed

[sam]

indeed

Well, it was about insuring you dont hit Horse left speed bumps at high speed before locking manual hubs but i thought 'yes' would sum that up quite well...

[Chillitt]

indeed...

[TonyN]

Not sure if surfs are the same but many landys with freewheel hubs suffer a lot of wear inside the hub as they rely on the gubbins inside turning to splash the oil around. Things have probably moved on since the 70's though........

Nothing moves inside the hub if the hubs are unlocked?

Unless you mean the knuckle swivel domes needing oil, Surf's don't have them, only soild axle pickups and they came with free wheeling hubs from the factory, so I guess its a Land Rover thing.......

If you realy want to be pedantic, the CV grease could slowly come off the CV's in about 50 years! but one press off the 4WD button will spin them round, even with the hubs unlocked.

[Slate8]

So it sounds as if MPG savings are negligible, and the main advantage for fitting these hubs is reduced wear...

Shame really, would have been nice to get more than 1 extra mpg

[da SLUG man]

a bit lighter steering, pehaps slightly less tyre wear?

[Medieval Dave]

and you can use 4wd on the road if you have manual hubs!

hehehe!!

Am I missing something here? surely that makes no sense, If its locked it's locked, if it ain't your just spinning the driveshaft against nothing.

Or is that obvious and I'm just the dense berk who's missing the joke?

[da SLUG man]

Am I missing something here? surely that makes no sense, If its locked it's locked, if it ain't your just spinning the driveshaft against nothing.

Or is that obvious and I'm just the dense berk who's missing the joke?

yeah...
just cos the 2nd gen doesn't have a centre diff so you can't use it on road with 4wd engaged (don't know why you'd want to!)...

could use low ratio with manual locking locking hubs though... um... don't really know why that would be useful either!!... perhaps for slow driving or racing from 0-10mph?