Good perspective backed up with practical experience. Thanks!

I would have to agree with you that more than likely if you break a CV you'll be forced to fix it anyway to get out but there are plenty of trails with a "Gate Keeper" sort of section and then the trail mellows out for a long time. So, you'd have the option to unlock the hubs and keep driving and maybe just get tugged or winched through any upcoming hard sections until you reach camp or the highway. With unlocking hubs, you could drive highway speeds with a broken CV but I don't think that would be prudent with an A.D.D. setup.

I think I'd still like the option of being able to unlock the hubs and not have the CV grinding around under me making me wonder if it's doing some other damage, possibly to something critical like brake lines.

I personally don't think manual hubs are worth it. Why take the weakest link and make it even weaker? If you break a CV on the trail, you should just stop and fix it whether you have ADD or Manual Hubs. It takes 30 minutes to do and keeps you in 4wd when you need to be. No point in limping home. You can drive on a broken CV, just don't go fast. That's literally the only benefit I can see with manual hubs is going fast with a broken CV, but who needs to do that when you can just swap it out.


This is what I've done. After I broke my 1st CV, I cut the ends off and now I just keep the stub shafts to plug the axle and diff if I break my spares on the trail. It's basically free to do.

Another reason to do manual hubs we haven't touched on in this thread yet is if you're running a limited slip in the front diff. This is not a conventional choice but has some benefits depending on what you do with your truck. I've been super happy with mine. With ADD the drivers side axle and the stub shaft on the passenger side are still turning all the time and it doesn't play nicely with a limited slip. ECGS can install a high performance bushing in the carrier that largely eliminates the wear problem but it's still a consideration.

Just curious (and I consider your opinion valuable - as it relates to these trucks anyway lol)...

Would you think differently if your truck was built mostly for street driving but able to make that turn off the hwy and be capable for real trails?

I daily my 4runner with a lift and the CVs are constantly working. If you drive a lot of highway miles, is it better peace of mind to hit a trail with fresh manual stubs that are smaller, or with CV that turn unnecessarily for 15k miles per year?

That said, I really don’t know if you daily your truck or if you do put many miles on it, but I do know what you do on the trail

I’ve been thinking about this swap and would consider it if the swap parts cross my path. A broken CV is easy on the trail, but it just seems silly to always be turning them on the highway everyday and having to check the boots for a blown wad.

To hell with compromises. Seriously. I just wanna go fast.

This is really my thought process behind it. I'm no where near done with the truck yet but when it is finished it will be driven a lot. Between camping trips and lugging around the little one that's on the way it'll have some miles put on it. not to mention its a long drive to get to any good trails as I'm in Maryland and there isn't a lot of trails around at least none that I know of so I think it will be beneficial.

Couple thoughts on this. I never really daily drove my 4Runner in the sense of 15k miles a year or whatever is standard, but I tore boots all the time. I fully believe my numerous torn boots were caused by excessive lift and not the fact that they were spinning. OEM CV boots can last 100k+ spinning all the time (my own first hand experience, YMMV) . I would venture a majority of torn boots are caused by excessive lift in relation to the CV itself and not generally accepted lift heights. I dropped my front lift down to somewhere around 2-2.5" and haven't torn a boot in a year and half with similar driving habits.

As far as the joint itself goes, I really doubt spinning it on a daily basis is putting that much wear and tear on it. As long as its greased up (back to the boot issue) you should never see a problem on pavement because they were designed to spin.

My unknown boots tore in short order as I lifted 2” at 195k. I have a few thousand miles on new boots they are fine so far. I’m sort of inclined to spend the money elsewhere and just let em spin. If donor setup was easily avail I’d prob have done it already but I’m not going to buy an $1100 kit for it. I don’t have a locker yet, for me that’s the next chunky.

For me this falls into the same category as the full floater rear end from FROR. Sure it would be a nice peace of mind to know that the only thing holding my axle shaft inside the rear end isn't a press fit wheel bearing but am I really going to spend a grand on something I may never see the benefit of? Probably not.

I see stories like this and it always makes me wonder if I've not really lifted the front as much as I thought. Been a while since I've measured, so might do that. The rig I drive has the SS 1.2 rebuildable (2015 version) with 2" Radflo's up front and when it was lifted I bought two AA CV's in anticipation of ripping a CV boot. They've been sitting in the garage unused for 4 years now

That’s exactly why lol. Bc you bought them. That’s how it goes

I semi-daily mine. I put about 7000 a year on it. I'd say about 5000 highway and 2000 dirt is a pretty good estimate. I also wheel a little bit harder then most will.

The CV's turning isn't an issue. They are meant to. If going to manual CV's made the rig a better wheeler all around a lot more guys would be doing it. The truth is it doesn't.

If you want to have a capable daily/off-road rig I'd way rather spend that 800 bucks on a locker, or sliders, or skids, or a bumper, or tires, or just about anything that actual improves my rigs ability to wheel.

I'm odd man out here, I suppose; I'm setting up both my trucks for manual hubs (against sage advice, I might add).

I've been wrong before.

I don't think there's anything wrong with locking hubs as a conversion. I don't think you'll break that many CV's. I do think you'll bust a few hubs. Like I said upthread hubs are an easy fix.

I just believe for the average weekender, which you are not, there are a lot better places to put that money to make the rig more capable. Once your rig is already fully capable and you have some extra cash go ahead and get them.

When I went to RCV CV's last year it cost me easily twice as much as going to manual hubs would have. But in that 9 months I've yet to break a CV. I've yet to snap a stub shaft and I have as bullet proof of a front drive train as you can currently get for our rigs.

Oh, and RCV doesn't make manual CV's. Just a heads up. lol

A very good discussion going-on here. No right or wrong, just pros / cons to consider...

Matt - Is this what you got?

Ultimate IFS CV Axle Set for Toyota Tacoma ('95.5-'04) and 4runner ('95-'02)