Offroad-Express

So i reached the limits on my hilux yesterday and got stuck, i want to put a diff locker in, from what i have read the cheapest option is an auto locker for the front.

Anyone got any ideas of costs, reviews for different makes?

Thanks

pull the cap off the front of the diff weld it up and put manual hubs on it that is wot i did and it worked well

Dont weld up tyhe front diff....it wont be road legal anymore.
Put a locker in the back...accordling to Lock Right thats the best place if your only fitting 1.

tallsam66 wrote:Dont weld up tyhe front diff....it wont be road legal anymore.
Put a locker in the back...accordling to Lock Right thats the best place if your only fitting 1.

I don't agree with that, im sure as a general rule the back is the best place, but as far as ifs surf's go i think you should be putting one in the front.
And as far as welding goes, i am yet to find a wof officer that has tested any of my trucks in 4wd so they would never no. BUT i locked diff in the front is not much fun if they don't unlock and i would go as far as saying dangerous because they have a habit of straight lining it right when you'd rather they didn't.

Go a front locker and you'll never look back, obviously doesn't affect the road manners at all because the front hubs wont be in/driving (un like a rear locker) but makes off road performance great.

rangimotors wrote:

tallsam66 wrote:Dont weld up tyhe front diff....it wont be road legal anymore.
Put a locker in the back...accordling to Lock Right thats the best place if your only fitting 1.

I don't agree with that, im sure as a general rule the back is the best place, but as far as ifs surf's go i think you should be putting one in the front.
And as far as welding goes, i am yet to find a wof officer that has tested any of my trucks in 4wd so they would never no. BUT i locked diff in the front is not much fun if they don't unlock and i would go as far as saying dangerous because they have a habit of straight lining it right when you'd rather they didn't.

Go a front locker and you'll never look back, obviously doesn't affect the road manners at all because the front hubs wont be in/driving (un like a rear locker) but makes off road performance great.

I suggest you read the literature that comes with a Lock Right.They manufacturer speciffically say if you only are fitting 1 Locker it should be put in the REAR as it will be make the most improovement.

tallsam66 wrote:I suggest you read the literature that comes with a Lock Right.They manufacturer speciffically say if you only are fitting 1 Locker it should be put in the REAR as it will be make the most improovement.

Thats the age old arguement, some people swear by the rear and others by the front and it seems to depend on what sort of vehicle you have and what you do, all the safari guys seem to prefer the front, personaly I find the back one in my LWB truck makes a bigger difference than the front. I dunno about those hiluxes but I think I'd be looking at the rear rather than risking broken cv's on the front.... oh yeah and I'm lucky coz I've only broken 3 front cv's with my front locker

you can drive it on the road i went tho heaps of wof with front lock dif

arbhilux wrote:you can drive it on the road i went tho heaps of wof with front lock dif

you CANNOT drive a locked diff on the road its ilegal
if you have locking hubs then you can unlock them and then your front diff is not connected to the road so it is fine
the stock unlocking dog is not good enough

tallsam66 wrote:

rangimotors wrote:

tallsam66 wrote:Dont weld up tyhe front diff....it wont be road legal anymore.
Put a locker in the back...accordling to Lock Right thats the best place if your only fitting 1.

I don't agree with that, im sure as a general rule the back is the best place, but as far as ifs surf's go i think you should be putting one in the front.
And as far as welding goes, i am yet to find a wof officer that has tested any of my trucks in 4wd so they would never no. BUT i locked diff in the front is not much fun if they don't unlock and i would go as far as saying dangerous because they have a habit of straight lining it right when you'd rather they didn't.

Go a front locker and you'll never look back, obviously doesn't affect the road manners at all because the front hubs wont be in/driving (un like a rear locker) but makes off road performance great.

I suggest you read the literature that comes with a Lock Right.They manufacturer speciffically say if you only are fitting 1 Locker it should be put in the REAR as it will be make the most improovement.

i have read it all well when i have fitted and driven with them, thanks for your suggestion, now i suggest you also fit a front one to your truck and then come back and tell me which one made the biggest difference (remembering to fit one at a time)

The reason i asked about a front auto locker was because of the advise and info i have read, in an IFS hilux (with manual locking hubs) a front locker seems to work best for the least amount of money

The reason? two fold, 1) more weight on the front, and most importantly 2) with IRS you hav less articulation in the front than the rear, so the chances of one front front wheel being off the ground are higher, hence a front locker will keep both front wheels turning.

I dont want to weld the front, i want to put an auto locker in, but not sure on price etc, was hoping someone would be able to shed some light on price.

i run a lokka in a surf with auto hubs no worries in fact i rarely broke cvs where as beforehand every weekend broke cvs if you go front lokka and lsd in rear you wont look back...........and as a good reference i drive harder than the average joe on here

i had lockrights front n rear before the sas in my surf, i think rear is best improvement but saying that me mates 4runner has one front only and it goes damnd good too. two together r unstoppable (njv6)
all down to peoples perception and personal opinion.

Ryan.

I have run ARBs front and rear for about 12 years. Mine have modified wiring so that I can operate them individually.

In Nelson we have many big steep firebreaks and over the years I have done a number of tests to see which one is more effective.

To test I would drive up steep firebreaks without any locker in until I lost traction and couldn't get any further. I would then engage the rear locker and try to drive further up, but from a standstill I would not get any further. I would then disengaged the the rear locker and put the front in . The results of this were that I could take off and would generally get further up the hill, but would still struggle, so the front was always more effective than the rear.
I would then engage the rear as well and continue up without any trouble.

Quite often I have backed 50 metres down steep firebreaks to tow someone else that didn't make it and with both lockers in could still take off and tow them up so that is what I would recommend.

Cheers Richard

as for price, last one i got i think i paid 500 for, i think they are about 700-750 now depending on where you get them from and who you no
you can always bring in a couple from across the ditch.

Shop around..often you can get them off trademe cheaper than you can from 4wd places.
id also budget for new oil..maybe cost of having someone fit the locker to your diff head & maybe for bits to put a breather in that diff.

and budget for $80 for new spider gear pinion shaft (shaft spider gear/lockright run on)
better to fit new one as that sets clearnace for lockright

I am also looking at runnning auto lockers in my IFS 4 runner, will hunt out some prices and see what they go for from various places.

[EDIT]
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motor ... 245703.htm
seems 695 for front, 695 for rear i guess,

http://www.4wdaccessories.co.nz/index.p ... ucts_id=58
699...

The hunt continues

funkyflynz wrote:The reason i asked about a front auto locker was because of the advise and info i have read, in an IFS hilux (with manual locking hubs) a front locker seems to work best for the least amount of money

The reason? two fold, 1) more weight on the front, and most importantly 2) with IRS you hav less articulation in the front than the rear, so the chances of one front front wheel being off the ground are higher, hence a front locker will keep both front wheels turning.

I dont want to weld the front, i want to put an auto locker in, but not sure on price etc, was hoping someone would be able to shed some light on price.

Front definitely. Not just for ability but for the reasons quoted here, Surfs have very poor artic in the front and the locker overcomes this by driving the wheel on the ground. The best thing about this is it saves diffs ten fold! The IFS surfs have a weaker front diff and everytime you spin a wheel and drop it again you risk detonating your front diff. with the locker it reduces this risk and if anything it moves the weak point to the CV's which are ten times easier and cheaper to fix. Let the back take care of its self for now and fix that expensive little weak spot with a locker.

just on the topic of what's legal and what's not in terms of locked diffs, i went through this recently with my nissan laurel while getting a WOF at VTNZ (yeah yeah i'm a little hoon... love skids) it is not illegal to have a locked diff. What IS illegal is to have "excessive driveline shudder", this driveline shudder is (usually) caused by having a locked diff, but the locked diff itself is not illegal.

ike wrote:just on the topic of what's legal and what's not in terms of locked diffs, i went through this recently with my nissan laurel while getting a WOF at VTNZ (yeah yeah i'm a little hoon... love skids) it is not illegal to have a locked diff. What IS illegal is to have "excessive driveline shudder", this driveline shudder is (usually) caused by having a locked diff, but the locked diff itself is not illegal.

you are prob right as if it were illegal arb airlockers would in effect be illegal

ike wrote:just on the topic of what's legal and what's not in terms of locked diffs, i went through this recently with my nissan laurel while getting a WOF at VTNZ (yeah yeah i'm a little hoon... love skids) it is not illegal to have a locked diff. What IS illegal is to have "excessive driveline shudder", this driveline shudder is (usually) caused by having a locked diff, but the locked diff itself is not illegal.

not to be picky but even a lokka in the rear of joe smoes car will unlock not causing excessive driveline shudder were as a welded diff will shake like a bastard i know cause i done it.......my opinion.......

So the general concensus I get here for an IFS hilux
BEST option is to get a locker in both diffs.
Welding the front if you have FWH's is a cheap option that will still give ok results, best to run with a locker in the rear.
I am all new to this, and discovered I have a stock toyota LSD in the rear of my LN61, though it doesnt really seem to work well. I am going to change the oil in it this weekend, perhaps take it out and inspect, maybe put some tui shims in it if its that sort of LSD (I do this on my mechanical LSD in a mitsi VR4) to tighten up the clutch packs.
I was looking to weld up my front diff as I pretty much cannot climb much at all, as I end up spinning front left, rear right (or vice versa) and go nowhere. But upon reading this, if a 'lokker' is only 5-700 then I dont mind forking out for one in the front for now, then get one in the back.
Can someone point me in the direction of where to buy one, and maybe a link to a site with some info on what they are etc?
I dont really go too hard offroad, but am just getting into it. Ideally, id like to sell the truck and get something without IFS, but I just forked out 3k for a new motor, and would like to get some use out of it. I have seen some IFS trucks get in and out of some pretty tight places, so would like to give it a go...

http://www.4wdaccessories.co.nz/index.p ... ucts_id=54

That seems to be the easiest so far, unless you come across one second hand or hunt trademe, i`m about to put mine in the rear, and will then decide if i want to go front or not.. as this stage I dont think I will unless its switchable and that = $$$.

weld it up works mint. ur hubs r unlocked when ur on the road anyway.

Gotta agree with Bulletproof on this one, and he owns a hilux, well some of it is anyway. Got an auto lokka in the front of the saf and modified factory locker in the rear, the rear only goes in like Bulletproof said, on steep ascents and decents. I swear by a front lokka.
Al

Dollar is high now! best place to get auto lockers is www.rocky-road.com got two for my surf for $700 when the dollar was 80c to the US.

mike wrote:Dollar is high now! best place to get auto lockers is http://www.rocky-road.com got two for my surf for $700 when the dollar was 80c to the US.

Man that works out cheap...

Must not be tempted .....

albundy wrote:Gotta agree with Bulletproof on this one, and he owns a hilux, well some of it is anyway. Got an auto lokka in the front of the saf and modified factory locker in the rear, the rear only goes in like Bulletproof said, on steep ascents and decents. I swear by a front lokka.
Al

Have you ever had any trouble with the front auto lokka kicking on steep descents and taking away your steering? Thats the only thing that worries me about getting one for the front.
In saying that, a lot of people seem to have them up there with no dramas.

Have you ever had any trouble with the front auto lokka kicking on steep descents and taking away your steering? Thats the only thing that worries me about getting one for the front.
In saying that, a lot of people seem to have them up there with no dramas

.
No problems at all. I run 80W140 in the front diff. Oil quite alot thicker, stays around the pins etc. Before changing to a thicker oil it did lock up steering.
Al

Al, how do you think the front CVs of a Navara would hold up with a front lokka? did you have a lokka in the front of your terrano? or can anybody else help? since were on the IFS lokka subject.cheers