Forum:
Greetings fellow Sportrak drivers. I have a question the answer to which most of you will think is obvious but bear with me because I've not had my Sportrak very long and I don't know much about cars. In the Tips section, one of the tips is to lock the wheel hubs before your journey if you think you may need to change to 4 wheel drive at some stage. Why can you not just leave the hubs permanently locked and change to 4 wheel drive as and when you need to without needing to get out of the car every time? I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason for this - I'd just like to know what it is.
Ian
Locking hubs
Hi Ian and welcome to the world of Daihatsu's!
The main reason you don't leave them locked all the time is mainly because it uses a lot more fuel leaving them locked all the time and can wear them out. There are other reasons such as makes driving feel a bit heavier. So it is best to only lock them when you think you may need 4WD at some point on your journey.
The counts as situations such as when it been raining a reasonable amount, snow, or that you'll be driving off road. Are your Hubs manual locking ones or automatic locking ones as most Sportrak owners seem to have automatic ones which is handy as they lock soon as you go into 4WD mode and unlock once you reverse once back in 2WD. However reversing in 4WD with automatic hubs does seem to cause a grinding noise after a few feet.
Easy enough to see which you have as the hubs at the front if they are Daihatsu ones will say on them.
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N-Reg Daihatsu Sportrak Midnight. A-Bar, K&N, more to follow!
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Locking hubs
Thanks for that quick response, Lurch. I think my hubs must be manual ones as I have had cause to use 4WD when it snowed in January and I just assumed that that was the case and locked them myself. It was on the way to our shoot near Slaidburn and I could not believe the difference it made.
A friend of mine got a Landrover Defender of a similar age and condition to mine for twice the price and he's always banging on about how great it is, but I reckon my Sportrak's the better vehicle.
Sportrak Vs Defender
On road I would say the Sportrak is the better vehicle. Especially considering you have the modern extras such as central locking, electric windows, etc. Defenders are a bit basic and rough looking.
Offroad even though ive not done any offroading with mine yet as only had it 7 months, from what i gather it is suprisingly capable, so probably can rival a defender offroad too. Though you'd probably be more careful not to damage a Sportrak.
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N-Reg Daihatsu Sportrak Midnight. A-Bar, K&N, more to follow!
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Locking hubs and 4 wheel Drive
Sorry lads but I have to come in on this one...Never drive your Sportack in 4wd mode for continued lengths of time on tarmac. This could seriously damage the transfer and or gearbox.4wd drive should only be used when driving on snow,ice,sand or offroading as suggested.The reason is obvious really...4wd means all 4 wheels are being driven and therefore you have traction on all 4 wheels to give you GRIP.Locking the hubs transfers power from the front half shafts (and therefore traction) to the front wheels. If you dont require the additional traction (on tarmac)why lock the hubs ?Driving in 4wd on tarmac will also wind up the front diff putting it under stress...owww!!
OK if roads conditions are adverse before you set off i.e...theres 3" of snow..lock yer hubs and use 4wd. If conditions deteriorate when you are already on the road..it takes 2 mins to stop and lock them hubs.
You will not be stopping and locking the hubs all that often ..methinks. In normal driving conditions,on tarmac you should always be in 2wd.
Personally I dont think you can compare a Landrover Defender with a Sporty as far as performance is concerned..the Defender is a completely different beast altogether...The Sportrak is light in comparison
If you dont want to get yer Sporty 'dirty'..never take it offroad lads..COS YA GET COVERED IN MUD AND STUFF
locking hubs
Hi Ian,
the reason why you don't leave them in the locked position is
because in normal driving conditions,you set your wheels to 'free' so as to reduce resistance on the wheels,this would reduce wear on tyres and also possibly reduce fuel consumption(this is stated in my manual which accompanied the sportrak i bought!).I hope this answers your question,btw i have uploaded some pics of a sportraks' manual locking wheel hub in the Sportrak gallery section,hope these pics will clarify some things for you,in sport,
Paul(higgin).