Has anyone ever done the conversion from the automatic hub to the manual locking hub. It sure seems cheaper than replacing the automatic hubs. What would I be getting myself into or is it an easy job??

Quite a few people on this forum, including me, have replaced the automatics to manuals. It's not a hard job at all, and I'm sure you'll be satisfied with the results. I went to Superwinch manuals for around 200 bucks. A guy replaced his with WARN manuals for around the same price. The Haynes book will show you what you need to do to pull your automatics off and the replacements will come with instructions for istallation. Not a bad job at all. Good luck.