Gears and rear locker vs dual transfer case

Hey everyone I need some help, I’m pretty new to wheeling and ive saved some money for parts, I just myself in the dilemma of either re gearing and adding a locker or getting a dual transfer case
What are your recommendations?

 

I don't know what kind of wheeling you're doing, but I could never see a reason to run dual T-cases in my Toyota. I will be gearing mine this winter, 4.56s and a truetrac L/S in the rear

 

If it were me I'd choose the lockers. But we (and sounds like you) don't know what kind of wheeling you're into. Maybe you don't need either of these so would be best to save your money.

My advise- go meet up with some buddies and actually go wheeling. Get stuck, unstuck, learn what YOU like to do. Then make your decision. It might be a totally different question after that.

 

Now granted you have a 2nd gen and im speaking from a 3rd gen TRDOR owners perspective but even the SR5 models are ridiculously capable.

You would be surprised just how little you actually need to have a good day on the trails and embarrass. 90% of fellow wheelers while your at it.

Get a good set of A/T's and some recovery gear and enjoy your truck.

If you feel the need to modify than feel free, but dont fix it if it aint broke.

 

I really appreciate all of your responses
I’m new to off roading and haven’t done anything crazy
the setup I currently have is
285/70r17 bfg km3
2.5 lift with king coilovers for the front and 1.5 lift with ome hd springs on the rear

I’ve only gone off-roading to trails in Arizona like broken arrow in Sedona, end of the world in flagstaff, sycamore creek near highway 87 which are mostly easy trails but the biggest challenge I’ve had is a trail called crown king with some steep hills and rated moderate to difficult, crown king trail has a bypass on each hard obstacle and I find myself having to take the bypass easier way because I get stuck
For example
I have 2 friends who both own a Jeep jk sport with no lockers and no gears open open diff and just have 35s and 2 inch lift and they can climb up those hills on 4lo a lot easier than me, my wheels keep spinning and I won’t go further up

that’s were I found myself looking into upgrading

I’ve found crown king 2 times this year and run into the same dilemma