Free wheeling hubs

Hi guys
First Post (ever) on a forum - and I’m OLD. Older than anyone’s Suzuki 4x4. My first Suzuki 4x4 was an LJ80… and I paid £5 for it because the windscreen was smashed!
I’ve just had a minor epiphany and I’m trying to see why it wouldn’t work and what the drawbacks would be….
If I physically lock the front diff - permanent like - and fit freewheeling hubs….
Hubs free: road driving
Hubs locked: dirty driving
can anyone come up with a decent argument against this other than “you’re gonna get dirty swapping to 4WD”?
Should add: 2005 Jimny Manual
Cheers
H

It's been done before. You don't even need to change the hubs. The Jimny comes as standard with vacuum locking hubs. They are automatically engaged when you select 4x4.

You will need to be very careful to only engage 4x4 on low traction surfaces. If you forget to disengage 4x4 and drive on a grippy surface the hubs may well be unable to disengage and you'll put the CVs under a lot of stress.

I have a locker in the front and I don't like the way it affects the steering when the locker is engaged. Also keep in mind that a locked axle only helps in conditions where you have significantly more grip on one side than the other, for instance if you cross axle climbing over rocks. In deep mud it doesn't make a lot of difference.

I have a welded front diff but I have kept the standard vacuum hubs and modified the wiring so I can switch them on and off as I please from the drivers seat. Think of it as automatic manual hubs for free. I wouldn't want to have a permanently locked front diif with manual hubs. You have to be much more selective about when you engage 4wd, and with manual hubs it would mean getting in and out a lot!
But with the way I have it setup it's a very effective modification!

Just a thought Busta, if you have a welded diff you could have a permanent lock on one front wheel and then use your selection switch on the other hub then in general conditions you effectively have drive to one wheel per axle like a normal Jimny and the switch then operates like a simulated diff locker but for a fraction of the price?

A differential is not the same as one wheel drive.  With a locked diff, the speed of the one wheel would be fixed to driveline speed so it would still bind up when turning on high traction surfaces. It doesn't offer any practical benefits over my current setup.

No I wasn't meaning for road use I was meaning for general off road work when you need just a little traction from the front to maintain progress but aren't in the more desperate circumstances requiring the fully locked front axle.

There isn't really any downside to having a fully locked front axle in those circumstances. Thinking more about one wheel drive, it would also be trying to pull the steering in one direction which could be a handful!