ok, rant warning in effect...with some rambling tossed in.

let me get right to the point.
i know that are little riggs love to munch on hub assemblies.

with that being said i am replacing yet another one this weekend.
i have had my ride for just over 134k, and this is my third set of hubs...so with some estimating i was getting about 40k out of them or less. particularly my last set with a new low of 20k on them, which brings the avg way down.

now my question is this.
is this the price i pay for my 33's? (guessing yes)
i am also gonna say that my spiffy camaro wheels with the 4.5 backspacing is helping the death march along.

am i right to assume that hubs are going to be on my yearly maintenance list now?

and yes i am a cheap bastard that didnt buy timkin...my first set i bought was...i just have a hard time swallowing the 150.00 each pill sometimes....things never break when you have cash.

honestly...would it help at this point to have timkins? i look at it this way, i can get a pair for 70.00 and one timkin for 150 with a 3 year warranty. so using my cheap bastard calculator i come to this conclusion.

for the price of one timkin i get four cheapbastard inc. hubs and have to change them annually.
or i get one timkin...change it within warranty and have two.

i know the logic here is terrible....and i know that i shouldnt use cheap parts. but cash is cash. and honestly i dont charge myself for labor..and i have done this so many times its getting quicker and easier.

i found the bad hub while doing my oil change/chassis lube/general maintenance tour.

i guess really i am venting a little. i knew there would be a price to pay to ride high...i cant be the only one...unless i am doing something wrong. i torqued them right...and i wont lie..my baby is an asphalt queen (98% of time). so why does my baby eat hubs like a fat kid eats bacon.

also, that nice bds steering stabilizer...well that seems to have puked out its guts into the boot (see there is a good use for them, shock barf bag) not even on there two weeks!! what did i do...go over one to many train crossing??

 

Anytime the ride height is changed parts are going to wear out faster, there's not much you can do about it. You just have to ask yourself if the pros out weigh the cons of lifting. I am still toying with the idea but I am a cheap bastard and hate going through parts.
I have a set of timkins that I have ran for a little over 3 years with no problems and hopefully I will get 3 more years out of them.
I do love the look of your truck, I think if I had everything done to mine as you have, I would keep buying el cheapos. It sucks that you have to change them so often but at least at the end of the day you can sleep well knowing you have one of the most badass blazers around.

 

It may be a little late to ask this, but what brand of hubs are you running on your blazer? Are you running the pair sold on ebay by detroitaxle?

 

When my blazer was still my DD i was replacing hubs every year. I always just bought the c cheap ones. One time i did go with a good GM one and that only lasted fir a year and a half and was around $300.

 

Well mine appear to be on factory but I just bought some Precision hubs and didn't know if anyone ran them and I'm pretty sure warthogdriver was running the ebay hubs recommended on someone's build thread I can't remember

 

I agree with the Cat on this one. If you keep chassis ride height within factory specs, and camber at zero degrees, tire size won't matter and even the cheap hubs will last.

 

yes and no. Keeping the alignment within specs would help prevent failure but having wheels with different offset and the bigger tires puts a lot more stress on the hubs since the centerline of the tire is being moved outward.

 

ok, here is a little more info

yes i am now running detroitaxle off ebay. the first hub i blew out long ago i replaced with a timkin...i thought, like the fuel pump issues it would be worth the money. it went out outside of warranty. i then at the time saw the detroit axle, and cash was tight so i have been using them since. they last just over year and a half. when i just recently did my hub swap the driver side was shot and the pass was fine. seeing as how the offer is on a pair i swapped them both out and stored the pass one for a rainy day.

now my alignment is within spec, i have no tread wear issues that would show other wise. trust me when i did have camber issue it showed the signs quickly. also the wheels i have are the camaro fancy pants set with the 4.5 backspacing.

in short i just think i am at a point in which i have to chose what i can afford and what is realistic as far as what i have put together.

 

Thanks for confirming.

I definitely understand where you're coming from. Everytime I go to buy parts I always see a huge gap between brands and I honestly have barely any cash to put towards my truck so it's hard to choose the "best" brands everytime