Axle swap for locking diff

Ok, so I bought my SR5 a couple years ago cause I couldn't find an OR in decent shape for a good price. After burying it a few times I really would like some kind of diff improvement, have looked at trutracs, aftermarket lockers etc. But money is tight and I want to do things inexpensively.

So, truck is 13 years old, I think the brakes and bearings could use replacement anyways (just did front brakes, doing front bearings next week) and a wrecked 2013 OR just showed up locally with lower mileage than my truck, rear axle going for 800$. So I'm thinking, buy the axle, wire in the diff lock, and just swap the whole axle.

So I would get: newer bearings, brakes, less rusty axle and a locking rear. Sell the old axle for 300$ and im out of pocket 500-600 with less work (hopefully) than a full brake/bearing job.

What's the TW consensus? Makes sense, or dumb idea?

 

Makes sense to me, a lot of people swap open diff axles with the TRD ones for the locker.

Just make sure that the gearing in the donor truck is the same as the gearing in your truck...if you end up with mismatched gears front/rear you're going to have a bad time when you engage 4wd

If it's different then you'll need to change your front diff gearing to match

 

Do you wheel the truck enough where you see the need for a locking rear diff?

I would budget more $$$$ for parts just incase. You might as well do the rear wheel bearings while you have everything apart. I would budget at least $1000 said and done.

How many "miles" does the wrecked truck have? If its a lot you could be opening a can of worms money wise. MANY Tacoma owners never change the rear diff fluid. You could do all this work and get the truck on the road and rear diff needs a full rebuild.

 

I'm not a hardcore wheeler, but I've spent maybe 8-10 hours on a shovel in the 3 years I've had the truck, getting it out of snow or mud. I hunt and camp and need to be able to self extract, and at least two times I was stuck, a locker probably would have rolled me right out. The mud on oilfield roads around here is serious stuff.

 

The wrecked truck is at 130 000 km, vs mine at 170 000. But it's also 5 years newer. Obviously, it'll be dependent on the shape of the axle, but looking at the truck in person I ought to be able to see what kind of shape it should be in. And it's not like I'm gonna buy it and then think it's good for the life of the truck -- it'll just put off the bearing job and a brake rebuild for a year or 2.

 

If the only reason you're swapping out the axle is to get new bearings, I wouldn't do it. No guarantee that new axle has bearings in better shape than yours just because the mileage is lower. Change the rear bearings in your current axle, and you'll be out the same cost as that swap. Also, the elocking axle is known to be a weaker design because of the lack of bearing cap truss.