WTB Cheapest Auto locker?

[Beastmavster]

I have to agree there, every one is diferent.
One thing I have noticed is that tyre pressure plays a huge part in the amount of noise generated, my Sierra is as light as they come, and with open diffs I run about 15 psi on the road and find that ideal, when I had the CIG in the rear, I kept the pressure up around 22 psi in the rear, (to make it slip easier) and it seemed to work ok, tyre wear is a non issue in a car as light as a Sierra.
Also, my welded rear did 2 years of hard service in my Sierra, and it now resides in the rear of my fathers LWB W/T Sierra and is still very quiet (gear & bearing wise).

On a dirt road a solid rear is a delight to drive (welded, spool or air locker) but the reason I wanted airlockers was that sometimes you dont want the two wheels locked together, like when driving across a slipery off camber hill, if you have diff locks the car just slids sideways down the hill, where as if you had open diffs one wheel seems to hold on and the other drives, I have seen this on many occation.

My piont is, dont waste your money by buying an auto locker, instead put that money towards an air locker, you will be much happier in the end.

Peter.

Could it be the extra track of the Vitara and then the rim offset I'm running increases that. This would generate more differentiation, thus causing more tyre squeal?

Weights are pretty similar - about 1 ton each, with the Vitara slightly heavier.

I've tried 30psi down to 14 psi on the road and no significant difference in noise level.

[droopypete]

[quote="droopypete]
I have to agree there, every one is diferent.
One thing I have noticed is that tyre pressure plays a huge part in the amount of noise generated, my Sierra is as light as they come, and with open diffs I run about 15 psi on the road and find that ideal, when I had the CIG in the rear, I kept the pressure up around 22 psi in the rear, (to make it slip easier) and it seemed to work ok, tyre wear is a non issue in a car as light as a Sierra.
Also, my welded rear did 2 years of hard service in my Sierra, and it now resides in the rear of my fathers LWB W/T Sierra and is still very quiet (gear & bearing wise).

On a dirt road a solid rear is a delight to drive (welded, spool or air locker) but the reason I wanted airlockers was that sometimes you dont want the two wheels locked together, like when driving across a slipery off camber hill, if you have diff locks the car just slids sideways down the hill, where as if you had open diffs one wheel seems to hold on and the other drives, I have seen this on many occation.

My piont is, dont waste your money by buying an auto locker, instead put that money towards an air locker, you will be much happier in the end.

Peter.

Could it be the extra track of the Vitara and then the rim offset I'm running increases that. This would generate more differentiation, thus causing more tyre squeal?

Weights are pretty similar - about 1 ton each, with the Vitara slightly heavier.

I've tried 30psi down to 14 psi on the road and no significant difference in noise level.[/quote]

I think that the rear axle weight of a hard top Vit would twice that of a soft top Sierra, that combined with your excellent differentiation hypothesis, may be why yours makes a lot more noise, we also havent mentioned tires, at the time I was running 33" BFG muds (now claws) if you are running something with a softer compound this would exacerbate the chirpy issue.
Peter.

[ODD BALL]

I have installed a few ARB's in Jeeps in the past and one has suprised me! The guy ran the thing for less than a year and has some nasty pitting in his nest assy. Pitting is the start of a diff going bad over time and I wonder if ARB will help customers that have this problem if caught in a reasonable time frame? I run a Detriot in the rear of my XJ&CJ, While the XJ is open front the CJ sports a lockrite at this time and has proven to be STRONG! gOOD LUCK GUYS.

[beefie]

A friend has air lockers and has had a problem with air leaks, didn't apear to be coming from the fittings, haven't heard if this is still a problem or not.
My prefrence is air, but can't get past the price tag lots of $$$$$$$$,
thats why I've gone for lokka lockrights but you pay for what you get.


beefie

[beebee]

I had a lokka in the rear that lasted 3 days before it went BANG. I now run a shimmed up lsd (that still releases) or a welded diff depending on what I'm doing. The lsd is fine for the usual day/night runs and change to to the welded for comps. The welded is still in from XRCC and it's lots louder on the wornout old 31 AT road tires than it used to be on fresh 33 BFGs.

My personal experience with the lokka is enough to never want to try one again. Maybe I just break shiat though

[Leithfield]

Have run LOKKAS front and rear in a Supra repowered Surf on 35" ET's for two and a half years over all manner of extreme terrain ... have never missed a beat; however, have heard that LOKKAS manufactured post 2001 have had some quality control issues.

Leithfield.

[ODD BALL]

I think most of the trouble with running the lockrites in the rear is that the rear axle is being worked a lot more than the front. We have guys that hit the trail and think its cool to see how far they can get on just the rear axle "DUMB!" Build your front & rear diffs to hold up to the abuse if you somehow end up limping out on one axle. IMO.