Howdy. Anyone make a replacement manual hub for the 06 truck? I'd so much rather have a reliable **** than anything else...

 

sorry. no one makes these and i doubt they ever will.

 

What makes you doubt they ever will? I haven't had the wheel apart yet, is there some mechanical reason this is unlikely?

 

It think nobody will becuase if your doing the 4 wheeling that needs manual locking hubs because of their strength, you would probably have to change out a lot of other things too. Like SAS and the like. Theses hubs are plenty stong.

 

With all the IWEs I read about breaking, seems the system is not plenty strong. For me its not about the strength that manual hubs provide anyway, trust me just because they're manual doesn't mean they're strong, I would rather have a more reliable system of engagement so that an IWE doesn't break exactly when I didn't need it to.

 

Wow, I just looked for Warn and Mile Marker Hubs and they don't have one for the newer F150's. Lame...

I agree, it is a nice upgrade, the Hubs are one of the weekest links in the 4x4 system...

 

BHibbs, that was just what I did before posting. I'd never heard of AutoSpring before visiting this site so I was _really_ hoping there was just a different manufacturer making hubs too.

 

i've had hubs and they are breakable too, nothing is bullet proof. the amount of people buying the manual hub conversion would be so few, that it wouldn't be too profitable on the makers end.

 

I would bet that 33% of people replacing IWEs would replace them with manual hubs if they were available. There is profit in that. AutoSpring makes lift kits that very few people use, F150online is a poor representation of their market base, and I bet they turn a good profit.

Maybe there is a mechanical reason. First thing I plan on looking at when my shop manuals get here.

 

there isn't a manual hub because there isn't a market for it.

I contacted Warn and Borg Warner (maker of most of Fords 4x4 components) about 1 yr back about this.

Both companies said they have nothing in production and likely never will.




these hubs don't just fail. The vacuum solenoid or lines break/leak/just stop working. Then the hub gets partially engaged while driving. This causes a ratcheting of the HUB gears...and that causes the failure.

 

i bet less than 3% of people that have f150 would waste their money upgrading the hubs. 2nd autospring is a well known company for selling leveling kits, they sold thousand and thousands of kits for various trucks on ebay. 4300 feedback and 100% positive

 

It would be nice to have a better hub in our trucks but I have yet to see a broke one... most guys are not out running the trails in there F150, I have had my truck WOT racing in the dirt and not had an issue.

 

You answered your own concern. With manual hubs there is no useless vacuum engagement system to fail.

All the ring & pinion manufacturers said they would never make a 4.88 reverse gear set for the Dana 35. Six months later I was purchasing 4.88R/D35 gear sets. Arb said it would never make a Ranger bumper. Last year they put out a Ranger bumper. Four years after the Ranger was released with vacuum hubs a company made replacements for them.

Aftermarket companies have been making replacement hubs for Ford vehicles for 30+ years. To say there is not a market for them is to directly contradict the market that already exists for them and has existed for a long time. I won't argue the 3% vs the 33% but certainly plenty of people ask what they can do to the IWE to make sure they don't fail again. A certain percentage of those people would choose manual hubs instead of installing another IWE down the road.

Lets assume only 25% of people leave feedback. So they've sold 17200 units under this generous assumption. Another generous assumption: 25% of the AutoSpring kits are for 2004-2008 F150s. Ford sells something like 1,000,000 F-150s per year meaning 4 million were sold during the four year period. So that is 0.1%. In other words your guess of 3% for the manual hubs is THIRTY times larger than the market for the AutoSpring leveling kit.


AND you guys have missed my point and request in its entirety. I couldn't care less about hub strength. Check my sig, I off-road in a far more capable ride (with replacement manual hubs designed originally for a Jeep Cherokee mind you). I was hoping there was a system that eliminated the stupid vacuum engagement. Simple as that.

 

people don't want to jump outta the truck to lock in the hubs, they wanna twist and knock and be in 4x4. the only reason that arb is now making a bumper for the rangers is the rangers sold outside the us is more cheaper and catching on, the crew cab rangers they sell in mexico and south america kiss *** IMO. as for your theory on autospring, your forgetting to factor in that something like 93% of vehicles sold are left bone stock. what kind of ranger did you have? i loved my 99 til i rolled it, lol.

 

I for one would be very happy to get out of my vehicle to lock in the hubs so as not to worry about IWEs failing at the wrong time (is there a right time). AND even more so, I have never UNlocked the hubs in either of my Bronco IIs or the 1996 Ranger I just sold. I just left them locked in all the time and flicked the dash switch when I needed 4wd. That is what my father-in-law's Chevy does from the factory, the hubs are just always locked (according to him anyway, I haven't personally looked into it).

My point on the Arb bumper is what you said. You can't listen to sales people about the future, because the market changes and sales people are only interested in commissions today.

But I didn't forget anything about the AS lift kit. You're saying 7% modify their f150. I'm saying only 0.1% choose the AS kit (which is 1.4% of the people who modify their f150). And they're profitable. So there is a market for someone to make a manual hub if there isn't a mechanical reason they can't.