Which manual locking hubs to buy?

[The Zohan]

Hi everyone,
I have recently replaced my Nissan autohubs with a pair of aftermarket manual locking hubs. The reason for this is the Nissan ones were getting old and beginning to play up. I chose manual hubs because I am of the understanding they are stronger than the genuine Nissan autohubs. Whether I'm right or wrong is not the topic of discussion this thread will be about.
After only 2 four wheel driving day trips involving river crossings (something I have done many a time before changing hubs) I have found that water has worked it's way in and made a mess of both my front wheel bearings (which I'd personally checked and confirmed we're in good nick at the time of the hub changeover).
Being rather frustrated, my mate and I disassembled one of the aftermarket manual hubs to find the O-Ring at the locking switch (at the very front of the hub) was not robust enough to hold back water in any practical way.
Has anybody else had this issue with aftermarket manual locking hubs? Have you mitigated the issue by installing a better sealing O-Ring?
If not, then which brand of manual locking hubs did you buy?
Thanks everyone.

[GQtdauto]

Hello there mate , no problems on the manual locking hubs for the GQ which loves going for a splash and the GU which belongs to the misses goes around puddles and dodges anything deeper than 5mm .
Sounds like it's the wrong o ring or the fit isn't right with the ones you replaced .

[mudski]

No water ingress on my chinee hubs but I have just discovered one had a broken internally. Which was the cause of my horrible loud banging noises I was getting when in low range and descending hills.
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[JME_GU]

I initially bought some AVM hubs (the red High Performance version) and they are not very good. They are a pain to remove due to the very small Torx screws filling with mud and they really aren't strong enough to do the job. If you are replacing hubs, the only practical option IMO is to go with genuine Nissan manual locking hubs.

[The Zohan]

Thanks for the feedback. My mate and I are going to attempt to water proof these aftermarket one and conduct a series of bench tests to verify the water ingress issue is resolved. My Patrol has to endure some punishing terrain, so when these locking hubs blow up, I think I will give the genuine Nissan manual locking hubs a go.

[NissanGQ4.2]

If you still have the original auto locking ones, I'd put them back in but remove the auto lock mechanism as that is more than likely what is playing up

[Hodge]

If you still have the original auto locking ones, I'd put them back in but remove the auto lock mechanism as that is more tan likely what is playing up

+1
Been meaning to do this for a while. Should have done it when I tightened up bearings recently.

[mudski]

I initially bought some AVM hubs (the red High Performance version) and they are not very good. They are a pain to remove due to the very small Torx screws filling with mud and they really aren't strong enough to do the job. If you are replacing hubs, the only practical option IMO is to go with genuine Nissan manual locking hubs.

Yep. I bought AVM's quite some time ago and and had to smash one of the hubs of with a hammer for the exact same reason. The Torx bit stripped and nothing would get them out. So a bit of persuasion came in and fixed that. Lol.

If you still have the original auto locking ones, I'd put them back in but remove the auto lock mechanism as that is more than likely what is playing up

Thats what i did to mine after the AVM debacle. I reckon the OEM autos are quite strong. The body on them is very decent.