Dave here: Seth and Roger both shared links to his Facebook post showing a Cutlas Automatic Hub, which is a rarity to see in the wild. That got me thinking that I’d never done a post about the different, early attempts at creating auto-engaging hubs, which appeared to generally be a failure (none ever caught on).

WARN INDUSTRIES Mid 1950s:

I believe the first commercial attempt at an automatic hub was Warn’s hub by that very name, the Warn Automatic hub. This hub appeared as early as 1954 in this brochure (from this post),  Willys Motors was promoting the hub as of October of 1954.

Hugo Vidal, through his Brazilian company, AVM, also produced the Automatic Model, an example shown below (from this post):

According to Hugo, the technology was never perfected and customers had problems, so eventually the hubs were pulled from the market.

THOR AUTOMOTIVE early-mid 1960s:

The next production hub with claims to being automatic was the Thor Industries Automatic hub, advertising for which appeared in the early-mid 1960s in Four Wheeler Magazine. While the company’s Electro Hub was sort of automatic, in that you could electrically engage it from the dash, the compass Automatic Hub claimed to be fully automatic. Over the years I’ve seen a few of these, but again this hub didn’t become popular, though I don’t have any reports as to why.

This Thor ad appeared in the July 1963 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine (front this post):

Ad from the July 1963 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine

Here is an example of the hub. Allstate also private labeled this hub, as can be seen at the top of this post.

CUTLAS ENGINEERING early-mid 1970s:

Around 1960, Cutlas advertised an “Automatic” hub, but it wasn’t actually an automatic hub, but rather it had ‘automatic axle positioning’, which I believe meant that it made engaging the axles easier (so don’t be fooled by this advertising)!

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Jeff posted photos of these unusual hubs to Facebook. I’ve never seen a set. It appears they are 10 spline, automatic hubs. The name Powr Matic is stamped in three spots on the hub’s cover. Google searches weren’t any help either. There is a PowrMatic company that specializes in HVAC products, but there’s no evidence that they produced any hubs, though the company was around in the 1950s and 1960s.

So, anyone know anything about these?

Josh is looking for a reproduction of the rare orange Warn dash sticker below, though his original one (damaged in a fire) was blue

Does anyone know of any reproductions or even a quality image that he could get reproduced? Josh explains things below ….

The blue one below is apparently similar, but, like the one above, his did not include a reference to “Warn MFG CO” at the bottom).

Link from this page: http://www.earlycj5.com/xf_cj5/index.php?threads/warn-locking-hub-dash-sticker.144960/#post-1613141

These are examples of M16 hubs (he has M18 hubs).

Josh wrote: “I’m hoping you might have run across a locking hub dash sticker like the one attached at some point. My 1956 GMC NAPCO 4×4 had WARN model WL-15828 hubs, which are more commonly referred to as M18’s. My truck had a dash sticker ( actually it was inside the glovebox door ) that was identical to the orange image I attached [ed note … the image at top], except that it was printed in a medium blue color. I believe this type of sticker to be the predecessor to the more commonly seen type with the illustration of the WARN style locking dial. This particular sticker that I’ve attached a picture of was in an NOS set of hubs for a heavy duty IHC that was dated from 1956 or 57, as I recall.

Anyway, I’m hoping someone has this sticker and I can get it reproduced. I believe it to be the correct sticker for any WARN model hubs that predate the addition of the raised stamped area where the “M” series model number is typically stamped. That was added some time around 1965 or 1966 as best I can tell. As an example, I’ve attached a picture of  what are typically referred to as M16 hubs, also a late 50’s NAPCO 1/2 ton application, but the one without the raised stamp area would have been stocked under the part number WL-54-21 originally.

My truck was severely damaged in a forest fire. Otherwise I’d go scan my own sticker and get it reproduced. Eventally I’d like to resurrect my truck, and this is a detail I want to be faithful to.”

This looks like the initial one-screw style of Free-Lock Hubs: http://www.ewillys.com/2021/09/09/free-lock-hubs/

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“Working on selling parts for my dad who is 82 years old. Is a bit tough to get information because of his memory. I will do my best. He says he bought these hubs for his 1946 Willys Jeep years ago. They seem to be in fine condition. He has had his parts stored for a number of years.”