What brand of manual locking hubs do you use? What’s the best manual hubs to buy?

Looking for recommendations as to what’s the best hubs to buy?

I would prefer to use the correct ones for a 2008 Jimny rather than using sj or older Jimny ones with spacers.

Is there any brand that is much better than the others? I know of AVM and tyre x

Thanks in advance. T


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AVM comes in two series. Blue and red label. The blue ones are the cheap series and have some kind of plastic thing inside where the red ones are the all metal and much stronger I'm told.

I run original Aisin SJ hubs. Strong and works great. And you don't need that spacer.

I thought you had to use a spacer with sj Aisin hubs too? The Avm hubs I looked at were the avm 457’s, they only listed one option for my year.
Thanks for the info though I’ll have a look.


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The SJ Aisin hubs does require a bit of work. But only takes 5 minutes to do.

The unthreaded part of the bearing lock nut needs to be cut off. It's easy to do and doesn't do anything to how the nut holds the bearing on place.

I’ve updated the title, plenty of people looking but not a lot of advice (thanks tomdk).

Lots of people recommend manual hubs at the first sign of 4x4 issues so I assumed more people would mention a preferred brand or a pro/con of one over another.

Are the ones online (eBay etc) all the same but in a different box? I have googled it but it’s a bit like closing my eyes and sticking a pin into a list.

I appreciate the advice on this forum and real world reviews, go on, let me know what you are using.

Cheers. T


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Sorry I can't help with your choice, other than to suggest that you don't fit them and stick with the vacuum hubs.

We had pretty bad snow around here and the road conditions were changeable due to drifting. Patches of clear road, then deep snow, I would have been in and out setting the hubs every five minutes.

Green lanes can be a pain too with tarmac sections between each lane, in and out again.....

I think the vacuum system is great and it only slowed a little on the coldest of days.

I can understand manual hubs for a dedicated off roader but enjoy the lazy luxury of pressing a button on my mainly road going car.

sniper

I originally had AVM hubs on S200KYS (the big blue greenlaner) but during a recent rebuild one fell apart, although it had had three years of abuse greenlaning at least once a month...

So, having already bought a pair of slightly cheaper Tyrex ones for the daily driver, I bought another pair for the big blue one... they look the same but with a different badge, but they may well be made from cheaper materials?

The outer caps on both are chromed plastic, although this is just the cap that winds the metal cog into the base to engage drive with metal internally and externally cogged ring, so it's construction is immaterial (lol)

You don't have to keep jumping in and out to engage the hubs (sniper), I drive to whatever area we're greenlaning in with them disengaged, for that miniscule extra fuel economy, and then when we gather up and have a chat we engage hubs and disconnect the anti roll bars... The hubs then normally stay engaged for the day, unless we have a good few miles between 'laning areas... They then get disengaged for the tarmac run home at the end of the day... (and the anti roll bar gets reconnected).

I also tried to keep the vacuum hubs going originally, until they failed going down a steep 'lane and I couldn't reverse out even with back air locker engaged... Luckily I have a rear winch as well as a front, and was able to winch back up off several trees to make my escape... since then I too haven't trusted the vacuum hubs...

As with all things though, it depends what you're planning to do with your Jimny as to which hubs you want to run, and the prices of course!

I use the tyrex ones. They are ok, first pair I got had a faulty one that wasn’t obvious, they replaced FOC ok tho (raptor 4x4 I think).

The cheaper ones are plastic, so buying again I would go for the avm, which look to be alloy of some sort, so probably last better.

Sniper: you don’t need to disengage the hubs when on tarmac, just come back to 2x4 on the transfer box. For a day out I would put them on in the morning and not disengage until heading back home.


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I've got AVM Reinforced ones and no problem with them, they work.

And you don't have engage/disengage them every time you select 4H/4L, you just leave them engaged and drive like that - when in 2H they will spin the front diff but no harm in that. When driving on road/terrain that requires constant changes from 2H to 4H/4L I just leave then engaged until conditions get better.

Sniper. I stuck with the vacuum system as long as I could and had some great off road days last year with it working with no problems. Then March time when I needed it the most I was having issues engaging 4wd, and then when I did get it into 4wd disengagement was becoming an issue. Lots of hours have been wasted trying to get it working properly. I’ve replaced the vacuum hubs with 2nd hand ones too as one of mine would not stay in the 2x4 position reliably. I now carry an e10 socket on a ratchet in the car in case I need to be 100% it’s on/off as I need. I don’t want to spend this coming winter worrying about reliability, hence the manual hub route.

Thank you everyone else for replying it’s very much appreciated. The one thing I don’t like about the avm hubs is the big chrome shell. If I get them I might be tempted to etch prime them and go satin black.

So are the tyre x ones plastic/resin on the inside? And avm alloy of some sort?



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The ones I have are all metal, inside and out.

Forgive my old mind, I had it in my head that I had read somewhere about not driving at sustained speeds above 30mph with the front drivetrain dragging. Might have been an old landcruiser thing...... I now know better thanks.

I've been lucky and had no trouble with the system but now having described your situation NineCherries, you've got me thinking.

sniper