A truck and trailer thread.

[Lil Foot]

After a couple hundred thousand miles, my '03 F350 hubs became sticky, & hard to engage/disengage.
Told my diesel guy to disassemble/clean/lube the hubs while it was in for other service.
(they actually sell a service parts kit for this)
When I got it back, he had put new hubs on it.
When I asked why, he said it was cheaper/quicker to put new hubs on it rather than go through the labor of disassemble/clean/lube.
He then sells the old hubs to a guy who refurbishes them and sells them on the 'bay.
He kicks back some of that $$ to his customer (me) to lower the cost of the new hubs.
Everybody wins.

 

[Botamon]

After a couple hundred thousand miles, my '03 F350 hubs became sticky, & hard to engage/disengage.

Take my hubs apart once a year to clean and lube. Part of the regular maintenance schedule. Never had any problems with them (several vehicles), and they always turn easily.

 

[McMXi]

I jacked up the front of the truck this morning and confirmed some things. First, both hubs are a little "sticky" but the driver's side one is worse, and clockwise locks the hubs and counter clockwise unlocks them. I'll take a good look at the hubs in a month or two and either service or replace.

This got me thinking about the F-450, and to my surprise it only has one locking hub up front, and that's on the driver's side. I've never seen that before. The passenger side says "ALWAYS LOCKED" on it.

Driver side.

Passenger side.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I sent the lock-o-matic hubs to Warn to fix(Lifetime WARNtee), they couldn't, so sent them back WITH a brand new 'manual' set of hubs.

 

[L35]

I jacked up the front of the truck this morning and confirmed some things. First, both hubs are a little "sticky" but the driver's side one is worse, and clockwise locks the hubs and counter clockwise unlocks them. I'll take a good look at the hubs in a month or two and either service or replace.

This got me thinking about the F-450, and to my surprise it only has one locking hub up front, and that's on the driver's side. I've never seen that before. The passenger side says "ALWAYS LOCKED" on it.

Driver side.

View attachment 170471

Passenger side.

View attachment 170472

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2023/MC-10247157-0001.pdf

Rotational hub. There has been issues with them making grinding noise in 2wd then they replace it with a real hub.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2024/MC-11011938-0001.pdf

 

[Lil Foot]

Take my hubs apart once a year to clean and lube. Part of the regular maintenance schedule. Never had any problems with them (several vehicles), and they always turn easily.

I probably should have, because the heat out here undoubtably cooked the seals & grease.
If I remember right, the dealer cleaned & lubed them under warranty at about 90K miles, then they worked fine till about 220K.

 

[Botamon]

I sent the lock-o-matic hubs to Warn to fix(Lifetime WARNtee), they couldn't, so sent them back WITH a brand new 'manual' set of hubs.

"Best practices" is always to get rid of those problematic "lock-o-matic" hubs and replace them with manual ones. Every Ford owner I've known who had those "automatic" locking hubs on their trucks has had trouble with them. Worse part was, some of them didn't even know you could still lock those hubs manually!

What is so difficult about engaging manual locking hubs?? If you're worried about getting your fingers dirty then buy or make a little tool so you don't have to touch the hubs themselves.