Well here in NJ, the forcast is snow. I'll also be driving to my girlfriends house friday morning and she lives right next to BlueMountain ski resort, where they have been getting snow! Im used to my wrangler where i just pul the 4wd lever and go...but with the HUBS havign to be locked on the YOTAR im a little confused. I have WARN hubs (i know i know get aisins) But can I have these locked in all the time? That way, i dont have to get out and lock them when i need 4WD..i can just pull the lever. I'll be driving with them locked in around town, and then about 2 hours to her house with speeds upwards of 65-70.

 

It won't hurt it a bit to leave it locked in, provided that everything is lubed well. The only thing that will suffer is fuel mileage, but probably not by much.

 

i know people that drive around all winter long with their hubs locked in, so i dont see any problem with it.

 

Shouldn't be a problem. Like others mentioned, you'll see a dip in mileage, but you should be ok. On my previous Toyotas I used to leave mine locked accidentally for days, and it never caused a problem.

 

leave em locked. the day before spring break last year we had a blizzard, and roads were all screwed up when i left @ 5am the next morning to drive home so I left em locked in the entire 650 miles with no issues.

 

when the snow starts sticking around here, mine will be locked all winter.

 

leaving them locked is just like having the automatic locking plates on the hubs. Same concept..

 

I drove 200,000kms with my "hubs" locked You'l be fine.

 

You beat me to it! I was going to say I have driven 150,000 miles with my hubs locked and all is well.

Frank

 

there was a discussion the other day on ttora about this. a guy was saying the add cv boots and shafts were stronger in the ADD trucks because they are technically always "locked". he said thats what he thought. any idea if that is true?

 

I have heard that as well but can't say for sure.

Even if it is it doesn't matter.

Frank

 

We used to have a 90 standard cab 22R-E five speed four wheel drive, and over the course of our ownership, I am willing to bet that the hubs were unlocked maybe 10 times.

We got the truck in 96 and it was totaled in 05. We put 140,000 or so miles on that truck during our ownership.

So, roughly 9 years and 140,000 miles, and we had no problems. They were locked and ready all the time.

And, as far as long distance goes, we drove the truck to North Carolina and back with them locked (We live in PA), mostly because we forgot to unlock them.

Don't worry about it. In fact, the owners manual says that you should drive at least 10 miles a month with the hubs locked in to lubricate and turn the front drive train.

 

awsome tahnks guys! Im on my way now to clear them of snow and lock em up! We hardly have any snow now, but its suppose to snow al night. Plus....if i do need them i dont feel lik egetting out of the warm truck to lock hubs ;-)

 

In the winter time what uses more gas? spinning the rear tires all over the place, or putting it in 4x4 every now and then for traction?
My guess is that the gas mileage thing is a wash. Your actual mileage will probably be pretty close to what you'd expect normally.
My hubs are locked for the winter.

 

my winter mileage just sucks no matter what. I carry a tool bag, a survival kit, shovel and a 50 pound bag of icemelt. The survival kit has a spare change of clothes,towel,blanket,some food like beef jerkey and stuff like that, and a gallon of water. YES Ive been stranded in the snow over night. The survival kit is a must!!

 

You will see a small hit on your fuel milage but over a year it's not going to be significant. The one thing to make sure of is that they are both either locked or unlocked don't forget and leave one locked and the other not your vehicle will be pulling to one side or the other and you could get other problems as well. I always had to check my 87 there were a bunch of kids (and a few "friends") who used to think it was hilarious to half lock one or both of the wheels... jerks...

 

Im not a person that says "oo my gas mileage sucks" I drive an 86 toyota with 7 inches of lift, and a buick 3.8L motor haha. It comes with the territory. I just want to make sure it was safe and wasnt going to wear parts out faster.

 

I had a couple of wheeling buddies back in college that we used to do stuff like that all the time to each other... Or we'd take plastic zip-ties and wrap them around the drive shafts of each other's trucks. Once you get to speed it sounds like your truck's gonna blow up, but it doesn't hurt a thing.

It hilarious to watch the looks on their faces, but then again, when it happens to you...

 

yea..ive done that to a few people ^^. BUT I have industrial zipties that are like 15 inches long and 3/4 an inch wide. You wanna talk about sounding like its gonna blow up! HAHAHHA

 

Yup, those are the ones I'm talking about. The ones used in HVAC. They're huge, and clear, so you don't see em. It'll scare the daylights out of you if it happens to you...