Gears...lockers...axles

[dodgerammit]

If you guys end up with any hard pack, this is where a front limit slip will be more noticeable. In deep snow I doubt it will be. But on hard pack, it can cause a lot of under steer. Although in my experience the vehicle wont crab walk like it would with a locker up front. A front auto locker (or spool) on hard pack snow is a nightmare. Going in the direction that you want to go in is nearly impossible.

You do not feel a true trac at all in the front. I can attest to this. I would drive that Dodge anywhere on hard pack without any worry of how the front would behave. Just steer where I wanted it to go and it went. No understeer issue that I could tell. No fuss. Granted, I was driving cautiously. Many these days don't slow down. Maybe with more speed into a turn you would feel it, but I never felt like the front of the truck was not going to make the turn on hard pack. Can't attest to how a viscous TC would change this, however. My rig had a 208. Maybe one day my waggy will have one as well.

[jpswapmohn]

Your responses have been great and extremely educational, thank you!
My take away is that a trutrak would work well for what i am looking for. I understand that overdriving the road conditions is never going to end well.
I dont think a true locker in the front would be good for my application and it sounds like a TruTrac would be a good compromise, understanding its limitations and my intended application.
Unless someone has a recommendation of another product, i am heavily leaning toward a TriTrac for my front diff.
I would only be engaging it when i recognize a need and have locked the front hubs.

Based on my experience with the YJ, I generally can overcome most obsicles with just the rear locked. I only lock the front when the need calls for it. If the TruTrac gives me that extra traction on the front when i need it in the GW (which i imagine would be rarely), and does not make driving in AWD scary or greatly limit turning, i think it will meet my needs.

Derf, I will be interested in your perception in less than ideal conditions.

[derf]

Your responses have been great and extremely educational, thank you!
My take away is that a trutrak would work well for what i am looking for. I understand that overdriving the road conditions is never going to end well.
I dont think a true locker in the front would be good for my application and it sounds like a TruTrac would be a good compromise, understanding its limitations and my intended application.
Unless someone has a recommendation of another product, i am heavily leaning toward a TriTrac for my front diff.
I would only be engaging it when i recognize a need and have locked the front hubs.

Based on my experience with the YJ, I generally can overcome most obsicles with just the rear locked. I only lock the front when the need calls for it. If the TruTrac gives me that extra traction on the front when i need it in the GW (which i imagine would be rarely), and does not make driving in AWD scary or greatly limit turning, i think it will meet my needs.

Derf, I will be interested in your perception in less than ideal conditions.

We'll see how the snow accumulation actually goes tonight and tomorrow. There's the slightest chance that forecasts won't be 100% accurate.

[Pablo]

You can get more aggresive and less aggressive bias factors in the trutrac. I could tell my front had one, but it did not impair anything. Of course, I did have selectable 2wd 4wd fulltime and 4wd part time and electronic traction control in that vehicle. So it spent most if its time in 2wd. When in 4 full it was great with the front and rear trutracs.

In snow and ice, I would not put anything but a selectable in unless you have electronic traction control.

[dodgerammit]

In snow and ice, I would not put anything but a selectable in unless you have electronic traction control.

There's no way I'd run any form of locking traction aid on snow or icy conditions. With the exception of the ected by Auburn, the selectables are just open diffs unlocked. Turned on, they are locked. My neighbor had a Bronco with an ARB setup in the front, Detroit locker in the rear. I've had the fun of riding in it during inclement weather. If constantly playing with the throttle and counter steering are your thing, go for it. Again, I have had no problem with tru tracs. They just work. No input needed. No electric or air hookups to screw up. Engage 4wd, steer and go. Their bias ratio is between 3:1 and 3.5:1 from factory. Never seen where you could get a different bias ratio.

[derf]

Derf, I will be interested in your perception in less than ideal conditions.

We'll see how the snow accumulation actually goes tonight and tomorrow. There's the slightest chance that forecasts won't be 100% accurate.

I did forget to report back on how the XJ performed.

We had a couple of spring snow storms and I had the XJ out on the road. Ran full time 4WD in a couple of conditions. One was full snow cover with reduced traction but not slick ice. I had no problem at all keeping the Jeep under control on the road. I wasn't going the full 65MPH speed limit. More like around 45-55, slowing for the tighter corners. Never a hint of understeer.

I also ran the same road another day when we had low overall accumulation but parts of the road were drifted over a little with blowing snow. Going from wet pavement to drifted snow in 2WD (the first two drifts I hit) things got a little loose. Put it in full time 4WD and it helped a lot in the transition from pavement to drift. It was a lot more sure footed and stable. Still, I was driving under the speed limit and not over driving the conditions.

So for a daily driver with a full time 4WD mode, I would never hesitate to put TruTracs front and rear again.

[jpswapmohn]

Thanks for this! I am pretty sure i will go with a TruTrac for my front axle in the GW.

[Tatsadasayago]

X2 on the TruTracs if you can afford them.
One of the best features of the differential is the wear parts last forever unlike many LSDs or Lockers.

[Rod2]

I'm running Eaton E-lockers in both axles. I don't use them in ice and snow, but when one tire breaks in trail conditions, I just push a button to engage the other side, and away I go. And, yes, they are more expensive than auto lockers, but when I purchased, they were cheaper than OX or ARB's.

[COLORADOCRAWLER]

Unless you are doing hardcore rock crawling, save your money and leave the front open. Get a nice selectable locker for the rear and be done with it. I'm partial to ARBs because I've hammered on mine for years and had zero issues with them. My YJ has them front and rear and I rarely need to turn the front one on when wheeling over some nasty stuff. If I could only make a single modifi on to help my offroad performance it would be adding a selectable rear locker. It's nice to be able to turn it off once you've made it over an obstacle so you can make nice sharp turns between obstacles. As far as snow goes, it's nice to have both ends locked up if you end up in the deep stuff so you can put the hammer down to get you out of a mess. Other than that or plowing, lockers do more harm than good in the snow.

[jfliege]

I would vote for e lockers so you dont have to run a compressor. I've always felt that arb was over complicated unless you want onboard air then it makes a ton of sense. OX lockers are good too but the cable is harder to repair on the trail.

[SJTD]

They're still overcomplicated even if you have air.

They made sense when they were the only game in town. Not so much now.

[derf]

They're still overcomplicated even if you have air.

They made sense when they were the only game in town. Not so much now.

But, assuming they are installed correctly (a reasonable assumption most of the time), they work very well. And you get an on board air system at the same time.

I don't run them myself but there is nothing inherently wrong with the setup.

[shimniok]

I never seem to need my front ARB locker so I guess they are only needed for triple dog dare trails. (Most stuff I run is like 7/10 or less).

LockRight in back isn't awesome in light snow but I haven't swapped ends yet.

But mostly I just drive the Subaru.

However in the last few blizzards and when show bashing it seems to be more help than harm.

Sent from my XT1096 using Tapatalk

[jpswapmohn]

I used both my ARB's and both the sticks on my STaK on Daniel during ECI.. and broke my chit.. 8^(

Rear driveshaft sheared (the solid shaft, not the tube), passenger front u-joint exploded (fuseable link, perhaps in this case?), passenger front leaf spring now forms the letter "L", 2 of the bolts holding my skid plate to the frame pulled through the skid plate, lower ball-point is chewed up by the axles shaft (before I could get the hub unlocked and was trying to get down in FWD), drivers side tie rod end boot exploded.

I see this as direct correlation to use of the above devices and nothing to do with the equipment operator or the manner in which he decided to attack the terrain ahead of him. 8^)

My fingers are crossed that the R&P's are ok.. I called ARB Tech get an idea of what I might be looking at, and need to pay attention to, as far as impact to the lockers. He predicted no damage, and probably none to to the gears. Of course, I won't know until I get time to open them up. The ARB's and CrMo shafts have held up pretty well to abuse up to this point.

BTW, Carolina Driveline used my Cardan Joint and built a new, beefier DS for me at an AWESOME price. I installed it, but haven't had time to do anything else to it.

[Rod2]

I don't put my truck on Daniel, but I've climbed Dickey Bell several times with my E-lockers (once pulling fence rails) with no problems. Albeit, Daniel is infinitely tougher than Dickey Bell.

[Lumpskie]

Just as another input here. I've used ARBs for a long while now. My Tacoma had a rear ARB and I never had an issue with it engaging or disengaging. I have front and rear ARBs on my Landcruiser and haven't had an issue with them either. In my experience, they engage instantly and are really tough. I did blow up a cage for my tacoma rear locker. But, that was because I was in an emergency situation and had to lock it up with one rear tire spinning fast, to avoid getting hit on an icy hill. I called ARB, told them about what happened and they sent me all the replacement parts for free! Great company to work with.

This is a Non Jeep example but here's a video of my buddy engaging the rear ARB last weekend: (If you guys would prefer Jeep-only examples, let me know and I'll take the video down)