Hill decent control plus manual hubs?

saxj wrote:

Hill Descent Control works by detecting difference in wheel speeds, the wheels are then braked the same way that traction control works, so won't be affected by manual hubs. It only gets activated in 4wd, but can be overridden by long pressing the ESP button.

Not sure this is correct, as all 4 wheels could be spinning at the same speed. HDC is there to limit maximum velocity or wheel rpm. While it may also activate like TCS for a single wheel spinning too quickly, in order to maintain a set speed, it should also work without any difference in wheel speed. Else it just wouldn't be able to function as a decent control.

On a side note, Lambert, why would you go for manual hubs anyway? Surely your new Jimny can't be having any vacuum issues? Coming from the Land Rover world, I'd hate to have a 4wd system that required me to get out of the vehicle to use it.

Reason is for manoeuvres of trailers on hard surfaces via 4x2 low and because of access it is usually necessary for me to haul full trailers out of our valley bottom in low to save clutches and in temeraire to save cooking the transmission fluid. It gives me the versatility similar to the land cruiser where I have 4x4 low on the road if i don't lock the centre diff. Effectively my view is that I'm asking them to work extremely hard so anything that mitigates some of the pain then yes, please.

Rather than using manual hubs for 2 low (crude, tiresome) I'd look at how the vehicle detects you have selected 4wd and interrupt that signal. On early gen3s this is as simple as unplugging the wire to the 4wd switch on the transfer case and instead running those 2 wires to a switch inside the car. Now you have completely manual control of the vacuum hubs without leaving the car.
With the gen4s also having a stick-operated transfer case there must be a similar hack that lets you manually move the stick to wherever you want without the car knowing you've done it, and at the same time manually controlling the bit that tells the car where the stick is. Anyone got a gen4 wiring diagram?

 Found this!

So you have 2 wires that matter. One that tells the car it's in 4wd (7) and another for low range (6). Find these wires, redirect them to some switches and have a play. Both go to earth, so it looks to me like there is a very simple solution to getting much more control over the 4wd system.

Having already got the hubs I'm half way through fitting them, it's easy enough. I'm not saying that your way is any worse just different. And for me I'm always going to have a gate or other to open to need 4x4 so I'm already out of the car so it's nothing to switch in the hubs. Also I'm kinda used to doing it as I've had manual hubs for close on 15 years now so it's second nature.

Lambert wrote:

Reason is for manoeuvres of trailers on hard surfaces via 4x2 low and because of access it is usually necessary for me to haul full trailers out of our valley bottom in low to save clutches and in temeraire to save cooking the transmission fluid.

Fair do's, all valid points. 

Again, having exclusively only had Land Rover's on the farm, you take if for granted having a centre diff and being able to use low range for backing trailers up.