Planning for lockers and hunting trips

90% of off roading depends on the skill of the driver, not the vehicle.
Go take an off road course and learn how to drive. If you still feel you need lockers (hint: you won't) then go get them.
A class would be the best few hundred you ever spent.
Everyone always blames the tool, not the user.
Also, while I love Cooper AT3's, ( on my fourth set) they are not real good in the mud.
If you are serious about this stuff, get some mud tires. A locker would be like my 5th choice.

 

No plans to regear since I have the manual gears, and I have zero intention to run larger than a 33” tire.

Im open to an off course course, Actually a great idea. Do they let you drive their trucks?

At3 seems to do better ih mud than any AT tire I have tried (to be fair, that would be BFG and hankook). I considered an MT but truthfully, I do enough road travel?on trips and in heavy rain (FL) that I decided to stay AT. I decided an AT would best serve my needs.

Would a rear locker still be 5th, or just the front?

 

Yes they let you drive your own trucks and teach you how to use it properly.
When you know what you are doing, our trucks are scary good.
My order if I want to improve off road traction:
Take a class, then
Get an air compressor so you can deflate/inflate. Then get proper
Tires. After that get
Max Trax and recovery gear, then, if you still can't get where you want to go, get a locker.

 

Local and semi local places are charging $1300-1500 a day for off road entry level classes - does that seem right?

 

No. Too much

 

$600 http://www.overlandexperts.com/recreational/training/off_road_driving_school.php

 

See if there's an off-road 101 class. They have them all over the east coast held by clubs, mainly I've seen jeep clubs, 4 runner etc do them. They're a day long usually and you use your own vehicle, what good is wheeling someone else's when you'll be driving yours off-road when you leave that day. They're usually 40-100 bucks and usually have lunch and other stuff there. There's one, once a month that the jeepers do around here. A locker would def help in the slick stuff, but how are you actually getting stuck? Are you off camber, a wheel in the air, one side spinning etc? I’d air down, get a cheap 12v compressor for now and try it. I can go anywhere locked, but wouldn’t know how if I didn’t know how to wheel, locked or unlocked. Get to know your truck a little better, might save you some loot

 

Sell the truck and get a ZR2!

 

Currently Im not getting stuck. The vehicles that do get stuck are getting stuck due to wheel spin when climbing out of the mud hole. There are two roads in my club that I would not drive down unless We have a verg dry spell because they are too muddy and they both have areas that can get a wheel in the air. I dont have a reason to go down them, so I dont. I firmly believe the tool between your ears should be put to good use. Thats probably why I havent gotten stuck, yet. Close? Yes.

Im not going out looking to conquer terrain as a challenge, just not get stuck. Thats why I wanted to avoid the winch. With that said, a winch sure would make hoisting my harvest on to the skinning rack easy!

My thinking was that lockers would help with traction and help reduce wheel spin. I already know to air down, but I was looking for a larger margin for error.