Front lockouts or Yukon spin free hubs discussion
- Thread starter John Middleton
- Start date
So where are we on these new AVM hubs? Anyone purchase one yet and which one?
I just broke a stub shaft on a Warn 37780 and getting it out of the hub ruined the bronze piece inside. I had spare parts from another broken hub from a few years ago and made a complete unit but moving forward, I'd like to know what my option is.
I just broke a stub shaft on a Warn 37780 and getting it out of the hub ruined the bronze piece inside. I had spare parts from another broken hub from a few years ago and made a complete unit but moving forward, I'd like to know what my option is.
I bought my set direct from Yukon in March 2023, at the time, they had to make an exception as all their sets where destined to go into their spin free kits. The only other set that I know works and I have used is MileMarker 428. They are nearly identical with the Warn set and share most of the internal parts, but the MileMarker hub body is significantly lighter, and weaker. I've broken 3 MileMarker hub bodies and I just got tired of it, (note: Oreilly's sells them with their lifetime warranty), so I bought the AVM one from Yukon. AVM one is substantially heavier duty, body is steel, internals are beefy. Breaking a hub is much easier to deal with than a broken stub shaft, and I was a bit concerned, but the MileMarkers where just not cutting it, I'd sneeze on them and they break. So far, no issues for me on the handful of wheeling trips I've done.
What part number did they have? RPSLH465XP?
You said that the MileMarker hubs share the same internal parts as the Warn. I have an extra outer body. I wonder if I could purchase the internals from MileMarker. That would get me two spares.
wow, I did not realize this. How did they manage to screw that up? All they had to do was machine the features on the end of the stub shaft in the right place.
I guess with as many as there are out there it must not be enough to make anything bind up, but dang the poor execution dampens my enthusiasm about and makes me question the engineering on the whole thing.
that's the part number on my invoice. I can't confirm if all the internals of the MileMarker will interchange with the Warn hub body, I didn't have a complete MileMarker internal or body, but one of the main rings inside was identical to the hubs and they slid right in. It's been a while since I had them all disassembled.
I still worry about them being steel rather than cast. I just broke a stub shaft with the Warn. I can't imagine that the steel is going to give way before the stub, u-joint, inner ears, etc. unless they made the internals a little less robust than the Warns.
How you managed to break a stub shaft before shattering the Warn's cast aluminum housing is beyond me. Breaking the internals of these AVM hubs before anything else has yet to be determined. Not much user experience out there, unless you can track down info from Brazil users. If I had to do it all over again, I'd go to the 5x5.5 pattern with the heavy duty hubs with internal fuse, or just go RCV's and uni-bearings and be done with it.
That stub shaft was the original I bought in 2007. I broke about 3-4 hubs on it. I'm sure it was from fatigue over time.
I suspect that Warn used an existing Ulven yoke blank for the smaller shaft rather than the larger diameter but longer 30 spline blanks. Nothing else makes any sense because they know how to do it, just an issue of whether or not they wanted to. That would mean cutting a bunch off the end and machining a lot of extra material away to get it down to the 27 spline stuff or making a new forging blank.
It swings just enough fore and aft to disallow the use of those stupid tube seals and that's not a bad thing.
That has been our experience. Break a few hubs, something else will go the next time. Ours was typically the 27 spline inner at the splines.
Yeah, it’s dumb, not really a problem but it is dumb and not proper. It is what it is. I wouldn’t avoid the kit because of it. The biggest reason I avoided hubs was I wanted stock rims, but they would be a good option overall. I don’t really need them though and while they have their definite benefits, they also have their cons that I don’t really want to deal with.
Ultimately I need them. But the choice between the 4.5 kit and the 5.5 kit is a turd sandwich.
4.5" kit = change to WMS width leaves you choosing between a very limited wheel choice or more scrub radius than is needed
5.5" = cost a metric butt ton more money if you're not already needing new wheels and tires.
Not to sidetrack the discussion, but what about the SpynTec conversion? Is it a viable solution?
https://solidaxle.com/collections/j...its/products/jeep-tj-xj-yj-spyntec-conversion
https://solidaxle.com/collections/j...its/products/jeep-tj-xj-yj-spyntec-conversion
It is, and it is a heavier duty version of the Warn/Yukon kit in all the ways that really don't matter. Seems odd but that is the way it is. The bearings, seals, etc. are all the same, same u-joint, same stub shaft size, but all the rest is just beefier for no good reason.
Yeah, no interest whatsoever in using those tube seals. It was just alarming to learn they'd missed on something so elementary and my mind went to imagining all the ways having that bind up could damage something, like a cyclical bending load on the inner shaft leading to fatigue failure. The small amount it moves sounds like it could be within the slop in the inner splines so I guess it's ok.
I had not noticed this thread until this morning. It reminded me of when I was researching manual hub kits in 2018.
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/advice-needed-choosing-a-manual-locking-hub-conversion-kit.16093/
Milemarker had a kit using AVM hubs manufactured in Brasil, so did Rugged Ridge, but comments about the hubs on the various boards weren't particularly positive. Another guy known as the "Ram Man" also marketed a kit using AVM hubs and a modified Timken unit bearing, but he came across in his promotional videos as a snake oil salesman so his kit was off my list as well. At least one of the suppliers recommended a maximum tire size of 33" with AVM hubs and Randy's/Yukon had no positive comments about them. I decided to stay away from kits using AVM hubs because I run 35" tires. How ironic that 5 years later Yukon is using AVM hubs.
I purchased the Yukon 5x5.5 manual hub kit (YU-WA-08) on Amazon, sale price $1,078.41. Black Magic 16" brakes were installed at the same time. I sold my 5x4.5" wheels and purchased a new set of 5x5.5" wheels, but re-mounted my existing Mickey Thompson 35" tires. A few months later I was able to purchase a pair of spare Yukon hubs, bearings, seals, etc. from a board member at a good price.
I have not experienced any negative issues with my Yukon hub 5x5.5 hub kit, have not yet needed any of the spare parts, and would make the same decision again.
Since I'm running a Rock Jock HP44 with 30 inner splines, the 27 spline stub takes the abuse. Let's hope it stays that way. I'm still concerned for the future with these AVM steel hubs. I'd like to know more about them when I need to move to them at some point.