Manual Locking Hubs

[nfpgasmask]

Pardon my ignorance, but can someone explain exactly what the advantage to having locking hubs would be? I mean, we are AWD to begin with, and then we have 4L, so what would having locking hubs add in addition to what we already have going for us?

Now, I know a 4WD/2WD toggle switch would help with gas mileage and possibly with wear on our front end components, but is that all we are talking about here?

Bart

[kodiak]

Nope, that’s about it other then its fun to have 2wd sometimes and you get a little more street cred with the off road crowd.

[kodiak]

And if you don’t have hubs you still get wear on the front components.

[JHarris1385]

I am in the same ball park as Bart..... I would like a little more insight on this. So if I installed manual hubs my front IFS would not be powered? Grease what is needed in order to make only the rear driven?

[tom4bren]

Check my logic on this please someone:

1) You are still sending power down through the half shafts but it doesn't reach the ground since your wheels are now free spinning.

2) The gear train for the front drive is designed to operate under load and it MAY not like freewheeling.

3) Since the gear train is still active, you may save some gas but not much.

4) Since the gear train is still active, you may gain some power but not much.

5) No increase in reliability since the drive train is still active (maybe less since 2) may decrease the longevity of the transfer case).

IMHO - not worth it, my front drive train stays functional.

[kodiak]

I am in the same ball park as Bart..... I would like a little more insight on this. So if I installed manual hubs my front IFS would not be powered? Grease what is needed in order to make only the rear driven?

Grease

All the manual hubs do is allow you to ether connect or disconnect the front wheels from the front axel allowing you to do what’s called free wheel the TOD will still sent power to the front axle when it thinks it needs it but it just wont make it to the wheels. Now when you are cruising down the freeway the TOD usually isn’t sending anything to the front wheel so if you have the front hubs in free wheel your not needlessly turning the from axle and wasting gas.

[So-CalVX]

we ship a JDM transfer case over and swap it into one of our VX's... Would that work? Or would we need the tranny, t-case and bellhousing since the jap engine is different. (although I think it's only the heads that are different, correct me if I'm wrong)

If I had the money that would be my conversion. Especially since its a PITA to get a RHD legal in Cali.

[Greasemonkey]

Hi the JDM and the US vehicross are almost identical the difference in the engine is a shorter con rod and a longer crank web to get the 3.2 to a 3.5 the TOD is identical and i recon its just a gear lever gate that stops you selecting 2wd the TOD can be swopped form 2wd to 4wd and back at any speed upto 50 MPH
i would have a good look under the gear gaiter and see if you have the facility i will make a short video of the 2wd this weekend and post a link for you - NB in 2wd the front prop still turns but the drive is disconnected by the electronic clutches in the gearbox - i find it hard to beleive that Isuzu would make 2 different TOD gearboxes the cost just wouldn't be viable
cheers
Steve
PS call me GM for short