Tom,I never found lock-outs hard to deal with, either.

Without locking hubs, you never disconnect the front driveline: you merely cut the power to it.
With lock-outs, you completely disconnect your front axles, diff, & driveshaft from turning & eliminate the wear on those components unless you are actually four-wheeling. This also eliminates the drag of pushing the un-powered front driveline when it is not in use. What effect this may have on fuel mileage probably varies from vehicle to vehicle.

When the need for 4 wheel drive was a possiblity, you just locked in your hubs & left the x-fer in 2 wheel drive. Now you are equal to those vehicles without locking hubs. Even the most basic x-fer, such as the Dana 20, can be shifted "on the fly."

Locking hubs went away becasue of a need for convenience. I still think that they, along with manually shifted x-fers and other such goods, are a better idea.

InCommando
Not sure of the convenience of it, well maybe due to people being lazy about doing things like rolling up windows, locking hubs, changing oil bath air cleaners, and all of the other things that were great but now we are stuck with all of this computer crap that will not let you drive your own vehicle anymore.

Anyone that says locking hubs are a pain have never experienced the true joy of 4 wheeling in my book!

I'd argue the point about increased wear. If the parts are not under power than the only wear would be from the spinning of the axle against a bearing surface. And if a rear differential is capable of running hundreds of thousands of miles without any need for rebuilding than what's stopping the front differntial from doing the same thing? The bearings wear out sure but I don't think the mechanical systems are really at a loss because they are always locked in.

Locking hubs are cool but not necessary in 99% of the vehilces on the roads today.

Always locked them in when you thought you may need them and then you were ready , I would still rather have them that way, wasn't hard at all to do!

Not to mention everything near it. Mine has eaten an O2 sensor's wires and is now tearing away at the insulation above it.

I thought that only happened to me! Thats why I had to replace my O2 sensor on the drivers side!

Nope, you're not the only one. I've read of at least two others that have had this problem. I even diagnosed one of them but, I have to admit that I first diagnosed my own after reading one of your posts. Thanks, Tom.

Whether the wear is a factor or not sure is arguable, but their HAS to be more wear even if it is minimal.

Maybe another reason that most every 4x4 has a "beefier" rear end is to handle constant usage as opposed to the truly part-time use that lock-outs allow?

TJKJ, you could market your conversion as a lock-out kit for KJ's....

Tom, every day is one step closer to "push button A to climb hill" instead of 'wheeling, to me.

It will be,it'll be called the Godzilla SFA lift kit.