Automatic hubs switched to manual ... what to expect??

Reliability

The main difference will be when you step into that mud. Try to make planning ahead sort of a sport, if you can. The manuals are far superior in many ways.

Agreed, and it is easy to 'plan ahead'. You can engage the hubs anytime. Just leave the transfer case in 2wd until 4wd is needed. I stopped stepping in mud 50 years ago.

: > Thanks in advance. : > -- pj : :

The other advantage is if you do not lock in the front hubs you can use

2 low. Jim F.

Yes, and that is the quickest way to snap an axle or a drive shaft. DO NOT DO IT. The low gear ratio is designed to distribute that extra power to 4 wheels. If you load it down while delivering the power to only two wheels, you are applying double the load that it was designed for. Be prepared for an expensive repair bill.

sorry!)

bull

the power is the same

the speed at which it is delivered is halved

I have a friend that put a transfer case in a 2wd Truck JUST so he'd have the lo-range for pulling his goose neck trailer full of hay out of the fields. If the drive line fails, it was defective to begin with. My Willys jeep was equipped with a twin stick transfer case and I used to use 2 lo all the time. Just have to use your head.

Maybe I've misunderstood but if you are talking about running with the transfer case in low and the front hubs disengaged, a broken driveshaft or axle is a good possibility. The power may be the same but torque is going to be much higher due to the gear reduction in the transfer case. Bob

For cryin out loud Tyrone! :(

You are a critical guy (of others) but not a critical thinker it seems. Do some of that critical shit you do so well, to your own post this time, take it apart piece-by-piece. Don't make me do it.

Alvin in AZ

You sir, are a total moron, if you believe that crap. Try this crap on your own truck. Don't encourage others to do something you know nothing about. The power is not the same. When in 4WD the total power is delivered to all 4 wheels. When it 2WD all of the power goes to only 2 wheels. Your drivetrain is not designed to handle all of the power delivered to only 2 wheels when in Lo range. When in 2WD, where do you think the power that is normally delivered to the front wheels, in 4WD goes? You obviously think it just disappears into thin air. Try reading your owner's manual.

designed

so the truck makes more power in 4WD, according to you........................

By 'power' I presume we mean 'torque'?

: > the power is the same : >

: > the speed at which it is delivered is halved : >

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: > > > > Agreed, and it is easy to 'plan ahead'. You can engage the hubs : > > > > anytime. Just leave the transfer case in 2wd until 4wd is : needed. : > > I : > > > > stopped stepping in mud 50 years ago. : > > > >

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: > > > > : > Thanks in advance. : > > > > : > -- pj : > > > > : : > > > > : : > > > >

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wrote in message news:braf5d$2um$ snipped-for-privacy@reader2.panix.com...

I don't need to. I spent 20 years designing and building custom machinery. Pulley, chain, hydraulic and gear drive, and any combinations of those. That includes gearboxes, both straight, V and 90 degree. You don't seem to understand that you could wring the axle or drive shaft with only 5 HP if you used a high enough gear ratio. It will just happen at a much slower speed. To give you an example, visualize trying to loosen a large nut that is frozen. You put a wrench with a one foot long handle on it and pull with everything you have, yet it will not budge. So, you find a piece of pipe that is 6 feet long and slide it down over the handle of the wrench. You again pull with everything you have. You are still applying the same amount of force at the end of the pipe as you were applying at the end of the one foot handle before. However, the force delivered to the nut is now 5 times what it was originally. This is because you have changed the ratio between the input and the output. 4WD Low is basically doing the same thing. Just as you are able to break the nut, the bolt or the wrench, you are now able to break the drive shaft or the rear axle. In 4WD, that added power is delivered to 4 wheels. If you disengage the front hubs, there is no more work being done by the front wheels so the extra power becomes available at the rear wheels. The rear driveline is not designed for that much power.

Tyrone -

This thread leads me to ask a question that has come up on numerous occasions in our little circle of trailer towing folks. I have always been curious about it also. I kinda sounds like you have answered it, but please excuse my simple little mind, adn indulge me and comment on my question for me.

If I have a F250 (a common truck in our group) with automatic transmission and manual hubs - and towing a heavy trailer - up a very steep hill - and can't get up the hill in first gear - and I shift into 4WD low - but don't engage the front hubs - so all the power is going to the rear wheels - but don't do anything stupid like tromp the go peddle - but just gently go up the hill (now made much easier) - do I run a huge risk of breaking something - or would I have to be doing something stupid - like the aforementioned tromp the go peddle.

This may sound stupid, but you would be amazed at the number of folks I know that have purposely ordered manual hubs just for this exact reason.

Thank you for your kind response.

Signed, Curious is Vegas.

Don -

You are most likely very safe in doing what you are. At low engine RPM, you are not developing any major horsepower. In theory, you should be pretty safe until you start applying more than 50% of the available power. Remember that other 50% was designed to be used at the front wheels under normal operating conditions.

question for

transmission

That's correct.

manuals

wrench,

----- The next to the last sentence should have said ----

In 4WD *Low,* that added power is delivered to *all* 4 wheels.

Your wrench example is bogus unless you add the fact that the 6 foot cheater pipe makes the whole assembly move, instead of breaking the bolt or the nut breaks loose and turns like it's supposed to. (in other words)

The truck moves and provides the torsion relief.

I bet I could break/ruin just about anything if I tried to, but in this case a guy's not trying to break the vehicle... he's trying to move it. If it's that glued to the spot then it's not the gearing's fault.

How many have you broken with 4 low in 2wd?

We've had company tucks with their front ends 6 feet up in the air before trying to pull obsolete "poured in place" cantilever signal foundations out or pulling up swelled-butt, line-poles up without digging so much. ;)

This dumb hammer mechanic has used cheater bars/pipes a lot longer than 6 foot before. :) I have combination wrenches with the open end cut off, so a pipe can be slipped over them- 1+7/16 (36mm) and

1+5/8" (41mm) and a 1+13/16" (46mm). For some reason never needed to do that to the 1+3/4" or the company owned 2+3/8". :)

"in theory, theory and practice are the same, in practice, they are not" -who is credited with that one? I just read it as a sig file :/

Alvin in AZ

I'm curious, what kind of truck was this and just where did you have the cable or chain hooked to it? Bob