Hey, ive been wanting to put front & rear lockers in my 95.5 taco for a while now, but I have very little knowledge about them. Currently I have stock F&R diffs, with the ADD in the front.
Ideally, I'd like a selectable locker (i THINK) on both ends. What is your guys' opinion on the matter?
Would it make sense to ALSO do a manual locking hub swap while I'm at it?

questions include: what model is the best?
what type of locker would I want? auto, air, electric? im leaning towards electric.
do lockers decrease durability and lifetime of diffs?
would I have to get a separate skid plate for the locker so I dont rip it off? (i know ive seen these under some rigs, usually painted yellow or blue for some reason)

I wheel not for the sake of wheeling, but to get me up mountains and down backroads so I can build/ride bike trails or hike. i.e. I probably average about 1 km in 100 offroad in the winter, 1km in 20 in the summer, so durability and ability to NOT wear while not engaged is quite important.

 

Have you researched your options?

:wabbit2:

 

Search??? what is that
I say this in jest

95 Tacoma??? Toyota factory rear Locker. find it at a junkyard or Craigslist

The number one easiest locker to swap and make it look factory-- push button to select on or off

Front is different- and pricey== ARB Many companies make rear Elocker guards

 

Yea sorry, I have indeed looked around, ive just found the number of combinations of options to be endless and was wondering what you guys, the end users, have found to be the best set up.
Metalhed: thankk youuuu I TOTALLY forgot toyota made factory lockers, will definately do that for the rear.

as for the front, as far as I can tell it usually involves swapping the whole front diff, which I know from experience (front diff filled with mud while stuck right before I did a 200km drive home (dont worry, $1800 later, I NOW have a $15 breather mod.. fffuuuu..)) is VERY expensive. what setup do you guys have?
Also, i cant really seem to find much info on how exactly the manual hub swap works, but the ADD actuator is inside the front diff, so i would assume swapping the front diff might make it easier and cheaper to do the manual hub swap. (???)

I also found this thread on TW:
front ifs diff locker
that might come in handy, its just HUGE. gonna have to read it after work, im already stretching my lunch break much too far...

again, thanks for any advice you can give me. I'd really value your guys opinions on the subject. as far as I'm concerned, going from 4wd to fully locked up 4wd is as big of an ability step up as going from a volkswagon rabbit to a 4wd tacoma. I would not have gotten stuck in the mud that ruined my front diff if I could lock.

 

OK, well after talking to my local "old 4x dude", i decided I dont need a locked front. Yota rear locker from a 1st gen TRD will work well enough for me. Now I just need to find one at a wreckers.
thanks anyways guys, next up: manual hubs.

Edit: for anyone that come across this thread, the reasons I have are 1) I dont do any sort of hardcore wheeling. Im probably not going to be climbing a 2 step 85 degree slope with roots at the top any time in the near future. I more need a reliable truck that won't get stuck when one side sinks into a soft spot while im 3 ft deep into a puddle on a deactivated logging road. 2) looks like even if i wanted to, the best bet (without totally redoing my front end) would be to put an ARB air locker in there, and although having on board air would be cool, those things are expensive as all hell. 3) it would not help at ALL with the cost of installing manual locking hubs
4-9000) I dont really need it, as far as I can tell.

 

Look into it though. You cannot, to the best of my knowledge, just put an elocker in with out cutting the housing or swapping the entire axle.

Sent from my iPhone using YotaTech

 

Thats what I have found as well. The thread on TW I linked above (once you wade through the horrible ARB flame war) is 12 pages of a guy trying to get an eaton Elocker in his front. ended up sourcing from all over the world and costing $1700 in parts & shipping. and he still hasnt gotten em intalled yet, so hes not even sure it will work.