Topic: welding Front with 5.29 ??

[85yotapolo]

i want to get lockr or front but to cheap to pay 500, wondering what you guys think the pros and cons welding front,  i got spool rear so, 

[4RunnerChevy]

Pro - climbs oh so well.

Con - harder to steer, without some help.

I run a welded front, and have no problems (4.88's).  I would go electric, but like you, I am always broke.

[85yotapolo [OP]]

true that i feel you on broke part,,  so steering is a  b i t @ H, how about when hubs unlocked still hard or??

[4RunnerChevy]

true that i feel you on broke part,,  so steering is a pregnant dog, how about when hubs unlocked still hard or??

When the hubs are unlocked it drives like a dream.  When they are locked, I don't notice anymore, since I have become accustomed to the Hydro-assist and twins.  Just a different type of driving.

[85yotapolo [OP]]

oohhhh you got hydro assist???  i dont got that i got stock so i guess i got to eat my spinach to get my popeye arms

[zippo]

I always want a locker on the front for driveability. the Spartan is only 250! You could prolly find a used one of a detroit on the cheap.

[85yotapolo [OP]]

true detroit are hard to find cheap,   

[OOPS]

true that i feel you on broke part,,  so steering is a  b i t @ H, how about when hubs unlocked still hard or??

No they steer fine with them unlocked but, what are you going to do when you are climbing a hard spot in loose rocks and there is a 90 degree turn and the only way you are going to make it is with the front end locked in? Would I do it, nope but I saved up my pennies and got an ARB for the front.

Back when the cash for clunkers vehicles started showing up in the P-N-P's I could have picked  up e-lockers for $150.00, at one time there were three in one yard in my area and two in another yard. Keep checking your P-N-P's.

[85yotapolo [OP]]

tru that im start looking at p t p " the the part", hopefully i find something... as far as e locker what kind will i have to find...

[OOPS]

Toyota. The one I saw were in 4Runners, my son-in-law has one in his 2 wd drive Tacoma prerunner PU.

[Humboldt County Crawler]

aussie lockers 240 2 ur door and life time warr. east 2 set up lincoln lockers are hard on parts gotta frequently check hubs and knuckle studs steer box ball joints

[Humboldt County Crawler]

depends on driving style also

[85yotapolo [OP]]

240 to your door  is good..  i know this is noob but who sells aussie lockers???

[Peterbuilt84]

aussie lockers 240 2 ur door and life time warr. east 2 set up lincoln lockers are hard on parts gotta frequently check hubs and knuckle studs steer box ball joints

Last time I checked Aussie Lockers were $280 plus shipping for toyotas.

240 to your door  is good..  i know this is noob but who sells aussie lockers???

http://www.aussielocker.com/

First result from google search.

[904x4yota]

oohhhh you got hydro assist???  i dont got that i got stock so i guess i got to eat my spinach to get my popeye arms

Hydro assist is a little over $100 to do and is easy to install. I did mine last spring and I love it. If you DD your truck I don't think I would do it but for a trail rig most definately.

[OOPS]

If you DD your truck I don't think I would do it but for a trail rig most definately.

Why is that? I ran it on the street for many years without a problem. If you go back in time like the 40's and 50's, ram assist is what the car makers put on for power steering. How do I know, I am that old and worked on them.

[Goldrush]

lockrights work well in the front as well, but spartan is a little stronger. and cheaper..lol

[Sparkplug]

I dont know why a welded front would cause knuckle studs to shear. When it comes to welded there seem to be 2 opinions. Its harder on the dif, or easier on the dif. The nature of a lunchbox is in the backlash, from my understanding, and that equals SLOP. Welded will have less slop in the dif as compared to a lunchbox. I for one have a lot of buds that run a welded front, and they never have any issues, other than it being hard to turn on grippy stuff.

[twistedtoy92]

I dont know why a welded front would cause knuckle studs to shear. When it comes to welded there seem to be 2 opinions. Its harder on the dif, or easier on the dif. The nature of a lunchbox is in the backlash, from my understanding, and that equals SLOP. Welded will have less slop in the dif as compared to a lunchbox. I for one have a lot of buds that run a welded front, and they never have any issues, other than it being hard to turn on grippy stuff.

This is because the lunchbox lockers work the opposite of a DIFF.... spider gears let the power transfer to the wheel with the least amount of traction instead of the wheel with the most traction which is what you want in off camber situations. The ratcheting mechanism lets you turn a hell of a lot easier but more moving parts equals higher chance of failure under extreme abuse. If you weld your spider gears then you are creating a straight up SPOOL which means there should be NO SLOP because you've deleted the DIFFERENTIATING action of the spider gears besides the backlash between the R&P.

I run the lockrite upfront on my 85 on 39.5's.... stock birfs is the only problem here (not for long!) it works for now but I would rather have an ARB or an Elocker for sure. But then again the whole $$$$ issue comes into effect

[Sparkplug]

Ive personally had a aussie, welded, and a full detroit.

The aussie was easy to install, fairly cheap, and worked as advertised. It was loud IMO and would act extremely weird in parking lots. You had to completely change how you used the clutch, float shifting was scary. It ate tires still, but id say about half as bad as welded. It never broke, I beat on it hard, was werid as hell in slippery stuff.

Full detorit is nice, ALOT quieter than the aussie, and now that its in the front, I can trun alot easier in 4x4, you can still tell the front is locked, but it not bad at all. It did not do the weird things the aussie would do in parking lots, but you could still hear it.

Welded is bad ass, at least for the rear. Its 100 percent predictable, and if you weld it right, your carrier will bust before anything, and they a dime a dozen. Totally predictable, it ALWAYS acts the same. When you are on a sidehill it sucks when you break traction the ass wants to slide. But it almost as bad with a detroit or aussie. It EATS tires like a sumbitch, but I also drive a 4runner, which is heavier.


This has just been my experience

[OOPS]

I dont know why a welded front would cause knuckle studs to shear.

The front end wants to go straight and you are putting a lot of pressure on them by forceing it to turn. It is worse if they are not torqued to spec. You will also find that most of the time the studs on the PS side are the ones breaking with hy-steer. The two times I broke them they were on the PS making a hard right turn.

[4x4yota]

I rab welded front and rear with high steer and power steering and loved it you definately got a work out but the added traction was awesome Im plannign to spool my current truck F&R until I can save for Elockers durasolid.com has the best price on spools (bad luck with welded)

[yoshaleng]

I've wheeled with people who welds the rear and spool up front or welded f/r....they do just as well as my full detroits (f/r). One thing for sure is that they will go through 2 sets of tires in 1yr while i'm still on my first (assuming it's your DD). I don't believe in going the cheaper route to begin with, in the long run...you're spending more on tires. That's just my 

[littlebroii]

start with welding it, its free and when u get a locker u got to change the carrier when u up grade any ways for the hard to steer on hard surface's unlock one hub i still run welded front and rear with push pull steering and 35 baja claws the are heavy as my hole truck and with the long side shaft unlocked u turn like u were open