bogginyota

I've got another toy truck and this one has a locker in the rear. The thing make a hell of a racket on the street and I know it's wearing out my tires. My question is when I'm wheelin is it better to have the locker in the front or the rear?

The truck is an 88 4Runner with sas, 4.88s, on 35" BFGs. Boggers are coming soon I just got this truck last week.

bogginyota

Not sure how to load pictures

RJR

I've got my Aussie in the front and it works great. You can tell that the steering is heavier, but the power steering is more than adequate to handle it. There's more weight on the front (approx 60-40), and you have to be going up a roughly 30%(~15 deg) slope before the weight distribution hits 50-50 front-rear.

Advantages of having it in the front:
- With manual hubs (required with this arrangement), in 2wd and hubs unlocked the locker is invisible on the street.
- Front wheels are the first to climb an obstacle. With the locker in front, they pull themselves up the obstacle. With the locker in back, the rear wheels have to push the fronts up the obstacle. The first is usually preferable.

Disadvantages:
- Heavier steering
- Somewhat tricky on snow/ice, although not as bad as I feared.
- Rear axle is stronger and less likely to break. It's easy to break front CV axles with a locker and larger tires. (I see you have SAS, which makes this point moot.)

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Personally I would mount it in the rear.
If have need to drive the truck during the winter on the streets a fully locked front end sucks.
I run f/r.Aussie

Just out of curiosity about your avitar- did you actually own that Toyota Trailblazer?

bogginyota

I was thing the same with more weight it the front the locker would work better. If I put the locker in the front and I for some reason have to drive the truck home using 4wd because I broke something in the rear can I just leave one of the hubs unlocked?
The truck cam with an extra set of 3rd members that have 4.88s also. If I were to add another locker, what's the most streetable mechanical locker?

The avatar is in fact my old truck. 83 trailblazer on 38.5s. I sold the truck about 5 years ago and regretted it ever since.

RJR

It'll drive better with both hubs locked in. The steering is really nasty on dry pavement with only one front wheel pulling. The ratchet action of the locker will allow it to work with both hubs locked.

Honestly, though, other than a bad rear u-joint, I can't think of much in the way of rear drive train failures that would still allow you to drive it home with only the front operational anyway. Unless you have rear floating axles and locking hubs, a rear differential failure will pretty much stop you dead.

muddpigg

iTrader: (1)

Something sounds off with your locker. I hardly ever hear my lockrite and can't tell the tires are wearing more.

Once you learn to drive a rear locker it is no big deal. I've done this winter in upstate NY with it, so any one warning you of snow and ice manners don't understand how to drive with rear locker, have a malfunctioning locker acting like a spool, or are driving too fast meaning don't know how to drive on winter roads.

One slow rocky trails my power steering gets super hot with the front locker. Most times I drop into 2wd between obstacles. Got a cool to mount next time I work on power steering system.

I'm a bit grumpy so pardon me if I sound antagonistic.

ZUK

iTrader: (1)

I'm in agreement with muddpig.....something is up with your auto-locker or the tires are off in pressure or mis-matched tires or rear axle is not tracking straight ahead(crabbing). Unequal tire pressures or unequal tire wear. And if you have a Lockright then maybe broken pins will be the cause of your issues.

Regarding the locker front/open rear concept.....done it....been there and will never do it again
Was in Moab about 2 decades ago and my Sami for that particular year had an open rear and Lockright in the front. Having had Lockers front and rear in this rig before and a number of other rigs I thought no big deal with just a front locker.....figured that a front locker would be better than no locker......yes and no.....Yes, I was able to do my usual slickrock climbs but it was dangerous now.....now there was a tendency for the front to slide all over the place. Never did that before. I'm a good driver so I dealt with it. That never happened with lockers at BOTH ends. It was an eye opener for me.

The best behaved "full-bodied" auto-lockers are the Detroit SoftLocker and the imitation Grizzly Locker sold by Yukon.....I have installed a number of the Grizz lockers and the quality appears to be very good so they get a thumbs up from me.

The best lunchbox style locker is the Spartan....massive engagement pins and well behaved on the street.

......a close 2nd place by Aussie....decent sized pins...good strength....and a long history of good reviews

.....and a distant 3rd and having trouble seeing the name, wait, let me get my binocs out....ahhh, it's Lockright! Now owned by Richmond Gear Co.

Use straight 140 oil if you want the auto lockers to be whisper quiet(the clicking noise in casual turns).

muddpig-----get in touch with me when you want to change out your locker for a Spartan. You get the pig discount. Normally don't do a write-up for just a lunchbox install but would do one of yours to show the massive difference between the 2 lockers.....and I would also reset your BL and add a little more carrier bearing preload to help with your gear strength.
.



and you too bogginyota.....you might consider sending your 3rd my way to look at it and change it out.

.

MudHippy

I've had to drive home twice without a rear driveshaft. Not because of u-joints either time. Once because it's easier to snag a single-piece driveshaft on stuff with a LWB truck. Though the first time it happened was because 2" lift blocks grenaded...causing the rear driveshaft to pretzel itself(so I bolted on some new u-bolts and drove it home in FWD, the next day, sitting 2" lower in the rear). I've driven with bad u-joints for quite a ways(like until I could afford new ones). So it would have to be a REALLY bad u-joint before I'd take the rear driveshaft off and use just the front instead.

Anyway...rear. Not a fan of the locker in front. For the above reason and every other.

bogginyota

Thanks for all the insight. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do yet.

RJR

Zuk makes a good point about stability when both wheels lose traction. In my mind lockers are most useful when one wheel on an axle has good traction and the other doesn't (one wheel lifted, one wheel in mud and the other on firm ground, etc.) When both wheels have poor traction, the locker simply ensures both will spin leading to a nearly complete loss of lateral stability. That's why they are tricky on snow and ice.

If you do a lot of driving on snow/ice, I would spend the bucks on a selectable locker so you can turn it off on slick roads. You'll stay out of more ditches that way.

Just so you know where I'm coming from, I'm not a super hardcore offroader. I avoid mud and really steep gnarly stuff. I just want to be able to get through the whoop-dee-doos that cross up my suspension and stop me cold with open diffs. The front locker handles that well, and I have other AWD vehicles for snow/ice.

dfarr67

I just purchased the Spartan for my front IFS, have TT in the rear, auto truck converted to 5spd so the ratio is a bit different- not quite suffering from buyers remorse but I will definitely keep the spider gears in order if I decide I didn't like the locker. Did it mostly for cost conpared to a TT and the front diff is out of the truck getting the ADD axle removed and new seals, no new bearings or set up required. Bought mine off of Quick Performance of Ames IA and I hope squeaked in a Yukon $35 rebate. We deal with harsh winters hear I am concerned about highway quirks but I do have the manual hubs and am a conservative driver.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

the only way i would have a locker up front on a truck that sees DD during the winter is with a selectable locker like an E-locker or ARB.
fully locked front ends tend to pull straight even with the wheels pointed to left or right.
I spent several years in Alaska and upstate NY, having a locked front would have been a PITA.
When i finally get my SAS done on my 94 I will be pulling the Aussie out and putting the spider gears back in.

RJR

I daily drove my '94 with the Aussie up front for three winters here in Colorado, plenty of snow experience. It's not my favourite, but honestly, no part-time 4wd, locker or not, is a match for a vehicle with a center diff (AWD or full-time 4wd) on packed snow and ice. Once I got over my paranoia because everyone said it would be awful, I found it behaved reasonably well. It does not plow straight ahead if you give it light throttle in the corners. The heavy steering just makes you think it might.
If you do put a lunchbox up front, find an empty unplowed parking lot on your first snow day and do a little practicing. Push it hard and see where it behaves poorly, and you'll be just fine once you learn the limits. It's like any winter driving - easy on the gas and brakes, slow down for corners, allow plenty of room for stopping. It's still way better than driving around in 2wd.