Lockers

[White90Bronco]

Which kind of locker is better: Air or Electric?

What are the pros and cons of each one?

I'm not very up to speed on them.

 

[ofthesouth05]

I was wonderin the same thing. I have thought about air lockers being pretty convenient and no electrical connections to worry about. But how do you get air to the lockers to lock in to begin with? Here's an interesting link on installing an air compressor on your rig http://soderblom.net/bronco/tech/york/

 

[rubberdust]

I've had both the ARB Airlocker & the Eaton e locker. They are both good units & seem to hold up well. From a driver stand point they work the same push the button & your locled up. Push the button again & your back to an open diff.

I got rid of the truck with the e-locker after about 50,000, but I have had the ARB units in 3 trucks that have gone over 200,000 & had no problems.

The nice extra with the ARB is you'll have air onboard & that comes in pretty handy when it's time to air back up.

You need to drill a small hole in the differential with both units for either the wires or the air line. Careful routing of the wires or the airline will prevent any problems.

 

[ofthesouth05]

Does that ARB air locker always engage as soon as you mash the button? How much did that thing cost?

 

[rubberdust]

As I recall I dropped about $1600 on a pair of them installed a few years ago.

The guys at ARB will tell you that you can just hit the button anytime while your driving & lock it up!! That is exactly what it does you'll hear the pump start them a second later bang it's locked!

I will say I only did that a few times though, the thought of all those spinning gears suddenly locking together under power just seems like a great way to break a gear or axle. I almost always tried to engage the lockers while sitting still lots less chance of snapping something in my mind. I have a few friends that compete in rock crawling & they engage & disengage them under power all the time, they also break more stuff than I do & it's not the locker that breaks.

 

[ofthesouth05]

Those sound pretty sweet, I was looking at some Powertrax No-Slip lockers too. heard anything about these?

 

[rubberdust]

I hope they improved them it been a couple years a buddy of mine had them in a Jeep & broke it a few times. It was fairly inexpensive compared to others at the time. As I recall they treated him OK replacing the locker but still quite a bit of work & trouble to go through. I tend to get nervous when something is too cheap & makes the same claims

 

[cowboydan]

has anyone heard of the sure track?? i heard they were a mix between posi and a locker. but that's all i've heard.

 

[silicon_bronco]

So out of this list what it the better and who has the best rep? I know it comes down to what are you going to use it for, so let's rate it like this 1-10

4 and below is on road and 6 and above is for off road if you are 5 it's good for both.. Or give comments on each if you would like. As I am looking at lockers to and have to re-bulid my trans and all it would be nice to know what pep's have used and what works and does not work..

Detroit Locker

Detroit EZ Locker

Detroit Electrac Locker

Powertrax Lockright & No-Slip

ARB Air Lockers

Auburn Gear Ected Lockers

Eaton Elocker

thanks

 

[rubberdust]

I have the most experience with the ARB no problems & used them in several different vehicles.

As I mentioned earlier I have less experience with the Eaton e-locker but it was a good unit.

Both of these are great off road & allow you to completely unlock them when on road