I searched, all i found was people telling the poster to go with an aussie or other auto-locker..

I dont care about all that.

All I want to know is if you have manual hubs up front, you put in a spool, or weld gears and you drive around with one or both front wheel(s) unlocked all the time, would there be any negative effects?

The front driveline would be spinning the whole time if you go with one wheel locked, but the other wheel would be unlocked. In effect creating an open diff. Also, if you put it in 4x you would still have the same effect as an open diff, one wheel driving, the other not.. but when you feel the need for a locked front diff you could lock your other hub, and have a locked up front diff.

am I incorrect?

and what spawned this thought process whas the FROR free floater conversion. The kit allows you to put manual hubs on the back. If you have manual hubs on all 4 wheels, you could (in theory) put spools in front and rear, run one wheel locked and the other open on both diffs (the opposite wheel to replicate the stock open diffs when in 4x) and when you need true 4x4 lock up all the hubs...

am I way off base on this or what?

I am just thinking here, I dont have plans to get lockers in my rig for a while, i'm no rock crawler, but I have been in some situations while in my open diff jeep, that possibly could have been alleviated by having lockers..

so... no opinions, just facts. would it work, or not.

thanks.
Bill

 

dont get a spool get a aussie..




haha jk. yes, if you ahve a spool up front and manual hibs, when the hubs are unlocked you will not know the spool is in there. be ready fro the spool hater to tell you to not get it. ive never had a spool, this is just info ive found on the internet and from other spool users. spools are like body lifts, the people that HAVE had them or do have them, like them, the people that have no experience with them hate them. just my 2 cent

 

If your not a rock crawler Just lock up the rear and call it a day.

 

im gonna second this. i have a spool in the rear and i had one in the front. it was hard to steer off road. so i put a lock right in front. works great! i miss the spool on the rocks though

 

....so.. heres the thing.

all i want to know is if my thinking is correct.

spool+manual front hubs unlocked=no spool drawbacks
spool+manual rear hubs 1 unlocked/1 locked= no spool drawbacks

 

I think you've got it all figured out. Don't see why a new thread is needed on this...but...

There are drawbacks to anything. Your going to hate to turn the thing when your fully locked up. More wear on the drivetrain especially the front half shafts driving around with one locked and one unlocked.

 

where do you live? any chance you will be driving in snow/ice on the street? if so, a non limited slip up front is a bad idea.

other wise go for it.

 

So let me see if I'm on the same page as you. This whole thought process is theoretical, and your not planning on doing this.

Your thinking is correct, but it wouldn't be very nice to the front drive line, especially when trying to turn. It would be especially hard on CV axles, if said spool were in a IFS truck. In a solid axle, it still wouldn't be nice on it, but they are a little stronger. One way or another though, that would be hell to try and turn with.

 

I created a new thread in case anyone else was thinking about this, and only being told to get an auto locker or an arb...

Yes it is totally theoretical, but if the theory is sound i may, in the future, try and do something like this.

I think that the only time you would need to even lock the front up is if you were stuck.. in the mean time if you were running one fron wheel locked you could try and maintain that wheel as the driving wheel so as to help avoid getting stuck, and if you do, just hop out and lock up the other hub. (if you can reach it)

the real interes in this is the rear free floater axle kit, it costs about ~700 bucks, plus all the extra stuff you'd need in addition to the kit, around 200 more, a spool costs ~200
thats ~1100 bucks for a rear locker thats "selectable" and has minimal moveable parts so it is more durable..ad for another 200 bucks you could toss one up front too.. but you could do that right now with minimal to zero mods..

but all this is without uinstall, cause a spool requires your gears to be reset right?

 

Correct. You would need to factor in the install cost's of the gears, unless you set them up yourself. The only advantage I see to that free floating conversion is if you were flat towing. WARN made a kit for the rear of the TJ J**p wranglers that converted the dana 44's and 35's in the rear to free floating diffs with ford ranger front manual hubs. The main reason for this was for people that towed their rigs alot. Other than that, the kit's ate wheel bearings like you wouldn't believe, and were pretty costly for that reason. After a few years, WARN quit making them and even quit selling the bearings to discourage people from putting them back on. I've helped covert a couple jeeps back from this set up.

 

I forgot to add that the kit is also a rear disk brake conversion too..

 

It's going to pull to the side of the locked hub front or rear.
And, if you only have 1 hub locked in the rear and both unlocked up front you'll be driving circles all day until you get used to it pulling as well.

My father has an electric wheel chair for example. Both drive wheels can be disconnected independently of each other. Disconnect only one and it turn circles all day, no matter what, no way to go in a straight line like that.

But since you have steer and drive wheels independently on your truck you may be able to go in a straight line but it'll be hell on the street. Pulling, wandering, crappy tire ware.. Etc.

Devils advocate here. Put a lockrite or an Aussie in both ends and most of all, quit thinking about it too hard and making it so complicated.

 

interesting, I hadnt thought of that.

thank you for the reply...

 

I have a welded front diff in my hilux (Solid axel) an a lsd in the rear. When offroad, i just lock one hub, untill i get stuck then i lock the other to pull me out. Pulls a little in direction of whatever hub is locked but not too much, not hard to turn at all.

 

You're just plain over thinkin' it my friend. If you're worried about manners and tire wear, don't run a spool/weld your diff. Pick up an e-locker or ARB if you wanna get real fancy.

My DD has a welded rear, don't notice it anywhere but in a parking lot (little hop/shimmy/bark action, drive-thrus are good for this too), other than that it's not like it's some unmanageable pig the rest of the time, you don't know it's there.

Spooled/welded fronts, are a pain. Plain and simple. If all you plan on doing is going straight in the mud, they work fine, but on the trail they're just a recipe for broken hubs/axles/gears, not to mention how hard they are on the steering in a rig.

 

Old thread .

Did you ever do this and how did it work out??

I can think of one problem with no give when it is all locked up in low range how would you ever get it unlocked without having to jack the vehicle up each time??:wabbit2:

 

had a spool in an old truck of mine, all there good for it mud, plain in simple, driving on the street is loud, barking, and obnoxious, aussie lockers for around 300 bucks, i mean really, a spools, 200, a good lockers 300, is it worth your tires and broke parts and unmanagable steering to save 100$?

 

Interesting that this thread popped up just now. I've been looking at the FROR Full Floater kit too for a few reasons. Basically I'm looking to eventually turn my truck into more of a tractor. I don't really wheel for fun (well ok, I do have fun while I'm out there), I wheel to get places and haul stuff. The truck doesn't see much highway use either. I need to primarily be able to pull and haul heavy loads down the trail, so a FF would be nice, but the thing that interested me was the rear locking hubs. I'm running 32" Guard Dog MTs which are plenty big and aggressive enough, but a little more traction wouldn't hurt so I'm going to spool the rear eventually. I'm still running stock gearing, so I'm looking to go down to 5.71s, which probably seems like way overkill for 32s, but again, very little if any highway usage. With 32s and 5.71s in 5th gear it'll turn at about 2800 doing 55 MPH which is plenty for what I'll be doing with it.

The one thing that does concern me about the spool is snow and ice driving, especially on roads with a good crown to them. When we do get a lot of snow I ditch the DD Corolla for the truck, but I don't want to end up sliding into a ditch because of the spool in the rear. I was thinking, what if I did the FF conversion and ran in the snow with the rear hubs unlocked, essentially making the truck front wheel drive? In theory the rear wheels should just roll and track nicely behind-there might be a good bit of torque steer up front, but nothing unmanagable. I don't think it would hurt anything-might put a little more stress on front driveline parts since there wouldn't be any "push" from the rear?