Its not that bad of a setup, sure its complicated, but they did make it easy to grease the bearings, just most got neglected. It wasn't designed to be disassembled for maintenance.

There are trucks on the road today with factory bearings in them, so they weren't that bad if used as designed.

Now when you start adding big ass tires, and offset wheels, then your going to have issues.

If you dont take the front wheels off and grease the hubs your going to have issues, but if you grease the hubs when you rotate the tires or at least twice a year, they will normally live a long and happy life.

I put a 78 D44HD under my 93 Ramcharger, partly because I got a smoking deal on a military surplus rebuilt unit, and mostly to be rid of the goofy self locking front end that I dislike.

I wont run over about a 32" tire on the front, and my wheels are a typical 8" with near center offset. I'm sure I will get plenty of use out of the setup once its out on the road and not in the garage.