What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

Stronger 35-spline lockouts?

koldsimer

koldsimer

1/2 ton status
GMOTM Winner
Joined
Jan 10, 2005
Posts
1,480
Reaction score
0
Location
texas
After much debate, i have decided to run flanges up front. I wanted the versatility of the manual lockouts but I refuse to be breaking 35 spline hubs all the time. From what I understand, the problem with the 35 spline hubs is that as the axle OD grows, it leaves less material to make the drive portion of the lockout. This thinner gear is weaker than the thicker 30 spline unit which is fairly weak to begin with. Long story short, why doesn't anybody heat treat/cryo or make some bling 300M drive gears for the lockouts? I know I would buy them just to keep it easy to drive on the street. If they did make something like this, I wonder how strong it would be?
 
Probably due to the limited calling for such a thing. How many people are really breaking 35 spline hubs either Tera or Warn? I have yer to see one blow. Even the 30 spline the stub blows and rarelly takes out the hub in my experience. That said maybe someone should mention this to 66CJdean or Bobby Long.
 
6.2puller said:
Probably due to the limited calling for such a thing. That said maybe someone should mention this to 66CJdean or Bobby Long.
Click to expand...

Your right about the fairly narrow market. I still think that if they could be produced fairly cheap, and I don't see why they couldn't be, there would be a lot of people interested.
 
how many people have you seen break a 35 spline hub????
 
79k20350 said:
how many people have you seen break a 35 spline hub????
Click to expand...
Never seen it happen first hand. Heard a lot of people say it's happened though.
 
I have seen 3 in one weekend break. They are pretty weak if you actually wheel your truck.
The way I see it is if you are going to be driving your truck on the street chances are you arnt wheelin it hard enough to break a hub.
I dont see the point of upgrading to 35 spline and running hubs since the hubs will be your weak link.
 
85mudblazin said:
I have seen 3 in one weekend break. They are pretty weak if you actually wheel your truck.
The way I see it is if you are going to be driving your truck on the street chances are you arnt wheelin it hard enough to break a hub.
I dont see the point of upgrading to 35 spline and running hubs since the hubs will be your weak link.
Click to expand...

That's why I'm going to run flanges. I prefer the selectability of the hubs because I enjoy driving my truck on the street, but I definately wheel it hard enough to break stuff. Ask anybody who's wheeled with me.
 
i gotcha guys. your basically just replacing one weak link with another. it really seems like it comes down to what you want to break...
 
85mudblazin said:
I have seen 3 in one weekend break. They are pretty weak if you actually wheel your truck.
The way I see it is if you are going to be driving your truck on the street chances are you arnt wheelin it hard enough to break a hub.
I dont see the point of upgrading to 35 spline and running hubs since the hubs will be your weak link.
Click to expand...

Never underestimate the 1% of us DD's.

I know half of you guys still don't believe my truggy is my only rig.
 
I DD with flanges for a year. Finally the front CV melted. Just drop the front d-line if your worried, and take it with you when you go wheelin.
 
balzackks84 said:
I DD with flanges for a year. Finally the front CV melted. Just drop the front d-line if your worried, and take it with you when you go wheelin.
Click to expand...

And you were running a detroit up front with a 205 case right?
 
The strongest 35-spline locking hubs I have seen were stock Spicers that started as 30-spline versions and were broached for the 35-spline shaft. The guy had been running these for years and had already gone through one set of Spicer shafts from wallowing out the u-joint ears, but had never broke a hub. This was a fullsize truck with a healthy 454 and 42" tires.

As far as driving on the street with flanges, as long as your front shaft is in decent shape and operating at a decent angle it will last a long time......just as long or longer than the rear shaft and u-joints. Something like a Detroit shouldn't make a difference in the front either.

Along those lines, I don't know why you would bother pulling the front shaft out if you were driving on the roads with flanges considering it's a lot easier and quicker to simply pull the flanges out. I know at least some aftermarket flanges are set up so you can remove the drive gear and then reinstall the cap, or just get a pair of the factory style push-in caps to keep gunk out of the hubs. 78Buford has been pulling the flanges out for street driving for awhile now and it only takes a couple of minutes to do.
 
balzackks84 said:
So how long have you been running flanges?
Click to expand...

I've been running flanges for probably a couple of years and so has 78Buford. I trailer mine so the flanges are always in, though we commonly drive 10-20 miles roundtrips from the trailer parking areas to the trailheads. 78Buford drives his pig to and from the trail, and therefore pulls the flanges for the long road trips. He has mentioned before it would be nice to have locking hubs, but removing the flanges isn't too bad considering we typically spent 8+ hours at a time on the trail and his truck is basically dedicated to the trail.
 
I'm assuming that you guys are running the WARN ones also. How hard of a time does he have keeping that screw/guid plate in a position to screw the cover on without the flange in the hub?

If you were planning on pulling the flanges stay away from the Polyperformance ones. IIRC they did away with the screw plate in order to make room for the thicker gear. So you cant pull the flange and still be able use the cap.
 
So would the warn flanges be the best choice if removing the flanges for extended street driving? Any other brands that you guys have used/seen used that allowed the cap to be replaced without the slugs and also had a good seal?
 
That's interesting info 6.2blazer. Thanks for all the good info guys. As far as broaching the stock 30 spline hubs for the 35 spline shafts, i've having trouble seeing how this would be stronger. I thought the overall od of the drive gears in both 30 and 35 spline hubs were the same. Seems like they would be about the same strength. Any more info on how this was done or how much stronger he thought it was?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom