"Lunch-Box Locker" questions

I've got too much money in mine so I can go and beat the snot out of it. It's all a matter of perspective. BTW, there are a lot of fun trails in Moab that won't cause you to break your jeep.

 

Lynn: Re: your #2. When I first got my Jeep, I backed it out of my driveway for my first drive as MINE! I had never driven a vehical with a Detroit in it before. Wow! BANG! I thought I broke something the first day. That evening I called a friend of mine in CA who I knew had had them before. He laughed and said it was normal. I don't get much clikckng sound though, at least that my poor ears can hear.:?

All in all, I love it. It can be a handfull on rain slicked streets--but this is Havasu--Rain???R)

 

I relate it to restoring a classic muscle car, then taking it to the dragstrip every weekend to try and blow the motor or possibly crash it. Now, if you took an old beater of a muscle car and did that with it, that's a little more acceptable to me.

What can I say, I feel like I'm getting too old for such things, and just want to go tool around in the dirt and make it home in one piece. And, after 18 years of raising other people's kids with no financial help from them, there ain't much money left for me to play with.

 

My first experience with lockers was a 1 ton chevy truck. It had a 11,000lb Dana 70 rear with a detroit locker and a Dana 44 with a Tru Tracker gear driven in the front. This truck was used for a firewood business and i would tip the scales at 15k when i came out of the woods. I only had one thing happen to me two or three times with the locker in the rear. If you made a short right turn then a short left turn both axles of the locker can unlock, they ratchet, then lockup again right away. I just let off the gas and i heard them lock up again. It sounded like i blew the rear on my race car but i knew what it was right away. Its a scary sound but the performance of the lockers are worth it.Other than that the dam truck would go thru anything in the forest. I even cut firewood during the ice storms too. I just put tire chains on the rear axle and that got me in and out of the woods. I mainly cut my own roads thru the woods all winter. I used 6 super swampers too.

If your going to put some serious horsepower to the ground with monster tires I would run a spool instead of a locker. But you will need a quality set of axles too. For off road use.

I found out one other thing with my one ton 4x4 truck I set up a 400TH with the extra low first and second gears and installed it with a 2,500rpm stall torque converter with a 205 transfer case. I used an air conditioner condensor for a trans cooler. Then after a while i changed it to a 465 4spd and a 205 transfer case. Pulling the weight the automatic out perform the 4spd. It had so much more low end grunt.(torque)

 

Sounds to me, Rondog, like an open diff should work just fine. I live in snow country too and I do just fine with open diffs on my F250. If it gets bad enough, I chain it. Pretty rare though. A bone stock CJ is very capable for the kind of wheelin' you're talking about.

 

That's what I was wanting to hear! I don't intend on doing anything more hardcore than what it was originally designed for back in the '50's, if even that. I might do a little snow-wheeling with it, but not up in the high country. That is NOT where you want to get stuck, break down, or slide off the road! A lot of those trails are closed in the winter anyway, costs too much to go out and save people.

 

Is anyone useing the OX locker. I have heard good and bad. So far I have only run Powerlocks but with the rebuild of the jeep this winter I am looking at a locker, electric, cable or air. I am upgrading to a 30 with Disc in front and looking at a full floater for the 44 in the rear

 

A couple of guys in my club run the new Oxes with no problems. I'd definitely do it... not cheap but not much worse than ARBs once you consider the heavy duty diff cover and no need for an air source & solenoids.

 

I've had Lock-Rites in the front and rear of my '56 for about 11 yrs now. I run 31x15.5-15 terra tires on the trail on 10" and 12" rims. I run 31x10.50-15 BFG's on the street. I've never had a problem with my Lock-Rites. I've twisted front axle shafts, bent rear axle shafts and housings and blew a Cutlass hub on the trail but never a problem with the lockers. If you're on the freeway and going around an exit or entrance ramp at speed you don't want to get on and off the gas unless you are really paying attention. Getting on or off the gas gradually is not a problem but it's when you let up on it totally then get on it again. Be very careful on snowy or icy roads because you can do a 180 real quickly if you're not careful. I would buy a Lock-Rite again without hesitation. I had the edges of the teeth on my rear Lock-Rite get worn a little bit so I just swapped them from right to left and that puts the good edges against each other again