I am considering Trail Gear premade 3rds with 5.29 gears and ARB lockers for my rig.

Are TG gears, "trail creepers" as they call em' any good or are they more on par with Genuine Gear from 4Wheel Parts? Do they do a good job of putting thirds togeather and setting up a ring and pinion?

Do any of you TG dealers know if the thirds come with the wiring, switches and air fittings for the ARBs? Also, if anyone can do better than TG website prices, lets talk

I really want to get complete thirds to save on install time and cost.

Thanks!
Lamm

 

Nice buildup, btw, Lamm. Can you explain why you are choosing the ARB lockers?

I've been following the build and didn't know you were going with lockers. The debate between air lockers, automatics, and e-lockers still confuses me, too.

 

I believe they include everything, if not when you buy the compressor they do. i know because i have to buy one soon

 

Thanks!

My decision to get lockers is based upon the obvious off road advantage they offer. 9/10times when I have been stuck I was just spinning tires on the weak side, not hi-centered or bogged down to deep. If I had a locker (or 2) I could have kept on chugging. You can also go much slower with lockers as you do not need to depend on momentum as much. In muddy Ohio with lots of trees, it's good to go slow off road.

I chose ARB because it seemed silly to skimp a few hundred on lockers for a truck that I have thousands of dollars into. I also do a lot of street driving, it is my only vehicle and did not want to even risk dealing with handling quirks of auto lockers, even more so in the winter. I have driven trucks with detroits and powertrax before and it was often a little odd.

ARB is the best choice for selectable lockers for 4Runners because they are prooven and do not require any custom work to install (like swapping an E-Locker). Comments about ARB being weak or unreliable are unfounded.

I considered many options too, detroits, trutracs, lunchbox, etc. ARB made the most sense, the only downside is cost and install time.

Lamm

 

Take a look at Inchworm Gear. They built both my diffs (ARBs/4.88s) and I have had zero problems over the last 3+ years running them and Jim Christiansen (owner) was great to deal with. After glancing at both websites, it looks like Inchworm might be cheaper than TG also.

 

Email me if I can help. You will have no problems with any TG product or I wouldn't waste my time selling TG stuff. Complete diff with ARB comes plug and play with everything you need except air source and wiring harness.

 

1. ALL Trail Gear stuff (to my knowledge) is built overseas (China). That doesn't necessarily mean it's lower quality, just sayin' for those who like to support "built in USA" ...

2. How do you figure buying NEW thirds is going to save money? Time, yes, but money, no. Just went on their website, and you're looking at $1400 just for the rear, haven't done the front or a compressor yet! I had a little over $2000 in my 4.88/ARB's, everything, out the door, installed (I took the third members to the shop). I went with a package deal from 4WP (with Genuine Gears with a lifetime warranty).

3. What about junkyard thirds? Could even get them with 4.88's already, then just have the ARB's put in and everything "freshened up".

 

Quite a pointless point when you are talking about owning a Japanese truck with Austrailian lockers and who knows what else made who knows where on it.

 

Please buy local stuff on gears. If it takes a dump, you have someone around you to fix it and stand behind it.

I bought a shop built diff from the west coast when I was in Wisconsin. After 3 years of use, it was nuked from a bad wear pattern.

If all you want to do is save money, go to 4Wheel parts and get the blow out deal.

I have no experience with TG labor products. I would bet they are not built overseas because that would be a big pain logistically.

Buying built and selling stock can be cheap if you can recoup from the stock. Depends on how stock they are.

 

I will have to look into Inchworm, thanks.

Brian, if I go the TG route I will hit you up for sure as I know you are a great guy and will get me a good deal.

Troy, I NEED new thirds, at least a rear or I can't regear them, only loke them due to the orphan housing of the Toyota 4.88s. I was also considering buying Robinhoods front diff with US Gear 5.29s and an ARB, he is aksing like $900. With two ready made thirds install cost would be WAY low compared to getting the kit from TRDparts4u.com along with new housings, new gears and having someone set them up. It won't be cheap no matter what.

Cheese, you make a good point but too bad for me "Local" is a 2 hour drive to 4WheelParts There are 2 other 4x4 shops in the "area", one on the West side of Cleveland, one on near Columbus and I have never delt with them and have herd no opinion on them except one has a neat test track you can use. I'm not counting them out just yet, but it just dosen't seem the best route for me.

Lamm

 

japan and austrailian= good
china=bad

 

 

isnt everything made in china?

 

The relevance of gear manufacture seems the oddest to me. If they make them in Africa out of white rhino tusks, that may be objectionable. If this is turning into a moral stand, I am sorry I missed the memo.

I have used and broke Precision gears. I have Yukons that were not stamped YG, but did not have any mark suggesting other source. They were borderline out on pattern funkiness.

The more pressing question to me is who builds the diffs. Toys are different than Dana's, pattern, break in and gear quality are the big players in longevity.

 

actually, I would never buy a no-name brand part made in China, ever. I would not buy any part from China if they could not guarantee the exact alloy that was used in manufacture and if it had some sort of reliable warranty for defects.

Chinese quality control is known to be horrible. Their steel quality is questionable as well. You'll notice many parts they build claim 'stainless steel'. Well, that's about where it ends. The alloy could range from the 300s to the 400s for the same length of pipe or same chunk of steel. That's going from auto quality stainless to bathroom quality in ONE PIECE!

Be extremely careful with chinese parts....is all I'm saying.

 

are you trying to say china has the quality of japan's parts? I won't run any china man stuff on my truck (or cars) I've been building imports since '91 and i've never seen a nice part come out of china

 

This has now gone way afield and personal BS is getting in the way of facts.

I have experience with one bad woman. Does that mean whenever anyone asks about women, things women may have done or things women may yet do, I have to tell them, in no uncertain terms to stay away because it will be bad?

No, I can only say what I did with that woman.

If you have a beef with Trail-Mart, take it elsewhere.

If you can comment on personal experience with Chinese, or even better yet TG gears, that would be helpful.

I believe it to further be conjecture on where those gears are cut, though it seems unspoken. Please bury the personal hatchet elsewhere.

 

Alot of the factories in China are monitored closely by American engineers... it is quickly becoming that "made in China" does not have to mean "crappy."

I have been told that 30 years ago "made in Japan" did not have the same connotations of quality that it has today.

 

I thought they WERE ALL scheming and evil.

 

I can tell you from my personal experience that my Chinese customers have much higher quality expectations than their American counterparts making the same product.

Forgot you had unregearable 4.88's Brian ... yeah, I'd go with the TG ones.

You don't need to go to an offroad shop for regearing - most performance/drag racing places do it too. Wouldn't be a bad idea to get some pattern paint, run the pattern and post up some pix for the experts here (especially Zuk) to evaluate. I agree with Flygt - setup is more important than the gears...