Diff lockers and Cheetos

I'm more of a Doritos guy but I love locker talk.

After reading-up on cost, installation, proper use of, etc., I decided to go with ARB front and rear, with their compressor. I did the installation myself; it wasn't easy but I learned a great deal about the mechanics of my rig. ARB's instruction manuals are excellent and their customer support is, too.

When you wheel solo in remote places, as I do, having front and rear lockers, and on-board air, is very useful.

 

All about the cost side of things and what you value. If it's street manners, reliability, or ease.

I wish I had passed on an ARB and gone lunchbox to have saved the money and had an absolutely fail proof locker. So if you know anybody that wants a 5.29 ARB third and axle housing....

Go lunchbox and buy a crawler is my vote

 

So it's sounding like I am going to just do the rear for now and wait to see how I want to treat the front, but I am getting a sort of mixed vibe about the rear talk of lunchbox and detroit lockers. Are they always engaged? If not what makes them engage? Some of you are saying that they have abnormal characteristics when driving in snow, which I do. Others are saying they are basically awesome.
I'll be doing a little research on the subject myself but I like to hear personal experience and opinions.
Thanks for everyone's input thus far.

 

As a person who drives in icey/snowy conditions half of the year its not that bad. If your worrying about snow conditions you should be in 4x4 anyways. Drives no different than any other autolocker or clutch type lsd ive been in. The no-slip diff i have works the same as the lock rite but its quieter and has better street manors. After you get used to driving with it it is unnoticable.


Even with a little strain on it heres how it spins and sounds.

 

Reading up on the powertrax no-slip sounds like what I may be looking for, in reality my truck its just a daily driver but when I do go trail riding and wheeling I don't want to be stuck at the bottom of the hill waving to everyone at the top.

 

I'm not a no-slip fan at all. Mine let go while I was running down the interstate. Wrecked the gearset and the transmission in one shot when it locked up the rear end

 

Wow, how does that even happen?

Looking up cost though the powertrax lockrite locker ends up being roughly $150 cheaper than the powertrax no slip, go figure.

Lol this decision has not gotten any easier but everyone here has helpful information towards my choice.

Most certainly am looking at something I can install myself without changing the gears, as much as I would like to change the gears eventually I only want to lock the rear first and see how that goes.

 

Cost aside, air lockers give you manners, reliability and ease; there's no downside.

Which is not to say that other designs are inferior.

 

What do you mean let go?

 

Air lockers are not as reliable as mechanical lockers like a Detroit, Spartan/Aussie/etc. There are air lines to snag, compressors to fail and solenoids to fail. I've had to replace the solenoid on my setup once already and it sucked wheeling all day with no locker. With a mechanical locker you will always be locked.

According to Chase at ECGS the no-slip is a junk design that will fail with time. One of the halves sheared on mine and a big chunk came out

 

Good to know.

I'd say that proper routing of the air line(s) mitigates that issue. If you can snag a fuel line, you're wheeling pretty hard.

 

Ive heard of the pins wearing and the teeth rounding but not the castings breaking. Done a whole lot of looking around before i bought mine and seen few failures. They seem to be a proven design and without abuse will last a long time.

Op. Since you dont do much hardcore wheeling you should look into the trutrac limited slip aswell. Only other option i would consider because i prefer the autolocking diffs over the selectables.

 

Then definitely go with the Lockrite, it won't change the gear mesh and you can install it yourself. It simply replaces the stock spider gears and you get instant gratification.

 

Carnage pic...

 

BTW, every time I hear the term "lunchbox" I imagine an old grey metal lunch box, thermos inside, next to a bologna sandwich, and maybe a small bag of Doritos.

Can someone clue me in on the origin of the term?

 

A "lunchbox" locker is a locker that is installed in your existing carrier. You are just removing the spider gears and replacing it with the locking mechanism.
A Detroit, ARB, and a few others replace the carrier entirely, usually stronger than stock and requires that you pattern the ring and pinion gears again. This is usually the route most will go when they replace the gears too. two birds with one paycheck.

 

Detroit full locker minus the ring gear.

This is a Lockright, or a "lunchbox locker"

This is a lunchbox locker installed in a stock carrier, but not a Toyota.


And the good old Lincoln Locker

 

I can imagine a Miller locker, too.

 

To the OP if you get a lunchbox, look at the spartan locker. It has bigger pins, stupid easy to install, and they are cheaper. The road manners kind of suck, but that's how they all are including a Detroit. I hated it at first, but fixed my floppy rear frame rails and learned how to drive again and it now does not bother me. After driving my buddies zj with a detroit, i will take a spartan locker over one of those. The spartan install took less than 5mins, it took me longer to lug the 3rd into basement and back upstairs then it took to install it. I had a lockrite in my jeep and it was a PITA to install. I'm expecting the aussie to be the same that i just bought to go in my front solid axle once i get it built.

ARB's have too many possible failure modes, and are way too expensive for me. I would take an elocker over an ARB just by cost alone.

 

Sounds like you're looking for a lock right. I think most people that have experience with both will say "if you can afford it go Detroit." They're very similar, the main difference is going to be strength. For the price of one Detroit you could have two lock rights so that's something to consider and like I said before you're not going to notice a huge improvement from a rear locker alone but once but axles are locked it's night and day.

The strength of the Detroit is likely going to exceed anything the Tacoma axle can even with stand in the first place. If you plan to keep your tire sizes under 33" I would say lock right will be just fine. If you want to make the jump to 33"-35" tires I would consider a Detroit.