Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I keep blowing my free wheeling hubs on my patrol. When I bought it it had the auto hubs which where already stuffed so I replaced them with a apair of AVMs. They where fine until I fitted 37s and a front locker.

In the 6 months i've had the front locker i've done 4 AVM hubs. So the other day I went to Opposite Lock and bought a pair of ORA hubs. 2 days after I fitted them I read a thread on here about them being crap too.

Well who ever said that was right because they lasted about 8 hours driving before one exploded into a million bits. I've taken them back to Opposite Lock to see about getting my money back. I told them i'm going to try and get some genuine ones from the wreckers and fit them instead to which they tried to tell me that the genuine ones are crap and the ORA ones are better.

So my question is what brand of hubs do you guys use on your comp trucks in particular GQ, GU Patrols ?


Cheers Mick.

Go original. always better. OL will always try to tell and sell what they sell.

Nic

Use factory Nissan free-wheel hubs.

Years ago a mate of mine used AVM hubs on a locked Intercolled comp used GQ Tray and never busted a CV as the AVM hubs went well before the CV. Kinda a CV elliminator. Anyway the could be changed in les than 7 minutes so they were good for comps but ended up busting way too early so went back to original and changed driving style and I can't remember busting a CV. Now he drives a Rangie
I'd stick with Nissan.
Jonesy

i replaced the auto hubs on my gu with manual hubs after the auto gave up and had no drama's with them. you can get genuine manual hubs for about $200 from wreckers when they have them in stock. some times they can be a bit hard to get hold of. i got mine from central coast 4wd wreckers

A few others on this board have had this problem in the past. The best way around this would be factory hubs if you can get tour hands on some.

yeh so did i, havnt had any probs so far. will give them a workout up at the wattagans next wednesday and find out for certain

when i was looking at replacing my auto hubs i went to ARB and wanted a set of whatever brand they got and the guy rekons anything larger than a 33 and they break.. so he recomended the factory nissan ones as being the strongest...

go nissan, never did a hub, try central coast 4x4 wreckers on 4352 2443

Thanks for your advise fellas. I've tried all the wreckers I can think of and no one seems to have any. Central coast 4wd said they would ring me if any turned up but said it would be unlikely.

I ended up getting a pair from one of my mates but only one works. I priced them new and there about $400 each.

Wooders is going to see if he can get me some Warn ones with the fusable links.

Cheers Mick.

My understanding of the hub fuses is that the idea that they are the weak link is pretty hit and miss. The torque loads that a CV will fail at depend on a whole range of factors and as warn hub fuses won't really be tuned for exactly the setup you are running, you could either be replacing a lot of (hard to source) hub fuses or still do a CV.

Petersen's played with these when they came out and found that in their application (I think it was Dana 44, but could be wrong, it was a few years ago) they still busted stuff if they were steering under power. Straight ahead, they would bust before the uni's/diff lock/axles.

Not many people bust anything straight ahead, so if that was the way they worked, I couldn't see much point.

They don't run them anymore.

I would just go with stock nissan manual hubs. I too have seen AVM's blow pretty easily.

Steve.

Gwagensteve,

I'd agree with your observation on the fusable hubs - I've not been that impressed with the Jeep hub fuses - Infact I personally think they are a waste of coin
But as I said to mick I got NFI regards to Nissan gear - heck my supplier is still scratching his head about the Partol too (which they don't get in the US).

Mick I'll still follow up - but if I were you I'd keep on the bower looking for a local set of nissans....

Mick. wrote:Thanks for your advise fellas. I've tried all the wreckers I can think of and no one seems to have any. Central coast 4wd said they would ring me if any turned up but said it would be unlikely.

I ended up getting a pair from one of my mates but only one works. I priced them new and there about $400 each.

i must have got the last pair from them last week

they had one ready to go in a bag and when i got there they had to go and get another one out the back somewhere.

Wooders wrote:Gwagensteve,

I'd agree with your observation on the fusable hubs - I've not been that impressed with the Jeep hub fuses - Infact I personally think they are a waste of coin
But as I said to mick I got NFI regards to Nissan gear - heck my supplier is still scratching his head about the Partol too (which they don't get in the US).

Mick I'll still follow up - but if I were you I'd keep on the bower looking for a local set of nissans....

Ben from Hytec 4x4 in Penrith has found a guy in the states that will make me a set out of billet that are suposed to be unbreakable.

They are around the $800 to $1000 a pair but they will have payed for themselves after about 5 trips.

Cheers Mick.

I suppose its all up to whether yo uwant to break hubs, CV's or diff centres. Ive heard of the guys on IH8MUD talk about the billet hubs, CrMo CV's then busting centres...

I definitely don't think you want "unbreakable" hubs... that means that next thing in the line will always go, which in this case will be the stub axle or CV, both of which are more of a PITA to change than a a hub.

I know stuff all about nissans.... Do GQ hubs fit GU? can they be modded to fit? How about MQ? Navara? Nissans are pretty modular, there has to be a source for cheap hubs so you can carry one in the toolbox.

I'd much rather change a couple of hubs a year than a couple of CV's, especially if wrecker plentiful parts can be made to work.

Ps if you wanted somehting bombproof.... why bother with freewheeling hubs at all - just get some drive flanges broached. No moving parts there.

Steve.

i did a cv the other day and it munched out the seals an housing had 2 be machined not cheap

yeh GQ is same as GU..
i been looking at a MQ? i think its the one just before GQ and the hubs looked identical to mine, but i dont know for certain if they would fit and i dnt know what they look like on the inside either but GQ and GU are definately the same..

MQ hub will not go on the GQ. Need one in a comp and was offerered a MQ one which looked the same so set out at removing it from the MQ only to find it didn't fit the GQ
Jonesy

Mick. wrote:[Ben from Hytec 4x4 in Penrith has found a guy in the states that will make me a set out of billet that are suposed to be unbreakable.

They are around the $800 to $1000 a pair but they will have payed for themselves after about 5 trips.

Cheers Mick.

In the US? We've been getting TJ billet hubs made here. Usually about $700.

Early AVM hubs made for GQ (545) did seem to break easier than the later ones (GU ones AVM445 will fit)

For the money its better to break a hub than an axle or CV (which I have done in the past a few times )

It also shows how much extra loading 37s can put on a drive line.

Bazzle

OK, quick Q: my lux is makin a funky cv like noise from the front ATM, and the hub is HARD to turn< may i have averted damaging my cv and still get this noise from a stuffed hub???

Joe.

roverlux wrote:OK, quick Q: my lux is makin a funky cv like noise from the front ATM, and the hub is HARD to turn< may i have averted damaging my cv and still get this noise from a stuffed hub???

Joe.

You will have to pull apart. Hubs dont always break. Ive broken a few CV's and axles also.

Bazzle

Wooders wrote:

Mick. wrote:[Ben from Hytec 4x4 in Penrith has found a guy in the states that will make me a set out of billet that are suposed to be unbreakable.

They are around the $800 to $1000 a pair but they will have payed for themselves after about 5 trips.

Cheers Mick.

In the US? We've been getting TJ billet hubs made here. Usually about $700.

That would be about right. The thing is they havn't actually made any for the patrols yet. That price I think is including us sending him an old hub over to copy off and than sending them back. I'd say if it was something they did all the time than it would be cheaper but these are are one off at the moment.

I'm still trying to get hold of another genuine one at the moment though because like others had said if the hubs are unbreakable than something else is going to break.

I might even see if the GU AVM hubs actually last longer than the GQ ones if they are different part numbers. I'd just guessed that they where both the same.

BTW I broke another hub yesterday. (AVM)

Cheers Mick.

Gwagensteve wrote:I definitely don't think you want "unbreakable" hubs... that means that next thing in the line will always go, which in this case will be the stub axle or CV, both of which are more of a PITA to change than a a hub.

I know stuff all about nissans.... Do GQ hubs fit GU? can they be modded to fit? How about MQ? Navara? Nissans are pretty modular, there has to be a source for cheap hubs so you can carry one in the toolbox.

I'd much rather change a couple of hubs a year than a couple of CV's, especially if wrecker plentiful parts can be made to work.



Steve.

I do keep spare hubs on me all the time. The problem is i'm blowing a hub every single day that I go off road. I've blown about 6 this year already which if it keeps happening the hubs are going to stuff the end of the CV anyway.

I have an auto locker in the front so I don't want to have permantly locked hubs in the front either.

I wish the MQ hubs did fit because there seems to be heaps of them around.

Cheers Mick.

I just got some more AVM 445 hubs for a friend from ARB.
Sales person told me the locking ring has changed from cast iron to steel earlier this year. as a result of customer feedback on this model.

Bazzle

Mick which oppsoite lock did you go to? I bet it was Balcatta? I saw the pics of your hub after your trip to Harvey, apart from your damage looked like a good weekend.

baddboy wrote:Mick which oppsoite lock did you go to? I bet it was Balcatta? I saw the pics of your hub after your trip to Harvey, apart from your damage looked like a good weekend.

It was Newcastle but the guy who told me this isn't there anymore. The boss there is a good bloke and I try to speak to him whenever possable.

The trip where it happened was in the Watigons and I broke that hub half way up hell hill which may me slip and slide. I ended up on a pretty bad angle from memory.

I was even running my front tyres at about 22psi to take some presure off the hubs. I've since bit the bullet and forked out $500 on a new one.

Cheers Mick.

bloke i knew had same problem turned out his locker wasn't set up right.