Differential Lockers! ARB vs Yukon vs Detroit vs Spool

[Music] [Music] [Applause] sup guys sender lifestyle to talk all about lockers I've been getting asked to do this video for a long time so here you go this video will be a combination of facts and opinion as of right now the making of this video I'm not sponsored by any locker manufacturers and have no allegiance to anyone I'm putting this video together to teach beginners what lockers are and what my experience has been with various manufacturers in this industry in this video we're gonna cover open differentials spools lockers and everything in between to keep things simple I'm not gonna talk about exactly how they work but I am gonna talk about exactly what they do and what the pros and cons are for each let's start this video with the basics let's talk about open differentials this just has a series of spider gears and the way it's designed it makes it to wear with once with one tire spinning you can spin the other side at a different rate so if the driver's side needs to spin faster because you're turning passenger it allows the passenger to spin slower while the driver side spins faster this is great for on the street but it sucks offroad because the way it's designed one tire can get a ton of traction the other one will have no traction so one tire will just spin and redneck terms we call that one tire fire one tire fire will not allow you to go forward or backwards they'll just be making a whole bunch of wheel spin and that's not good offroad alright can you see me yeah you can see me this is a spool this is the next thing I want to talk about a spool locks both axle shafts together as you can see I can't spin these axle shafts this is a spool from a Ford nine-inch these are Dana 60 axle shafts but it's all 35 splines so it it goes together just fine as you can see if I spin one side the other side spins with it and that's a problem on the street I mean let's you're a drifter if your drifter you love this but if you're somebody who's not a drifter and you just trying to get to work this is an issue as you can see there's spider gears in here there's no spider gears or anything in here this is just like one big machined piece of steel that you bolt everything to the ring gear bolts onto the outside here and it is a great way in a cheap way to get traction off-road but it is a horrible way to build something that is Universal between street and off-road performance the next differential we're gonna talk about is a Lincoln Locker this is not a Lincoln Locker this is an open differential but using a Lincoln welder or whatever welder you got you weld in between the gears and you turn this into that so you turn what you have which is an open carrier into what you want which is a spool if you're just going off-road now for us it would be a Miller Locker but you literally just take your squirt gun and you scored hole into hot steel in between all these gears you get them all to stick together and it's that simple this is a really inexpensive way to get quick traction offroad obviously there's huge downsides I mean it's gonna be horrible on the street we'll Italy still function like a school and I have seen people break Lincoln lockers but I have not seen someone break a school so I would say that if done incorrectly or not welded solid enough that this can still be pretty unreliable whereas a spool is about as reliable as it gets because from the factory there's no moving parts at all the next differential want to talk about is limited slip so this is a limited slip that has a series of clutch packs in it and what this does is it literally limits the slip between the two tires so if one tires and a really slippery surface like ice the other tire is on a surface you have tons of traction like rocks or something like that it makes it to where you don't just get the one tire fire effect we were talking about like you would out of an open carrier so this will limit the amount of slip between the two but also give you the ability to run the two tires at different speeds so on the street you're gonna get performance very similar I mean almost identical to what you're gonna get out of an open carrier but offroad it's gonna act a little bit more like a spool but not quite that good so you you can get one tire up in the air and if your tires are big enough they will overwhelm this no problem so then it will act much more like an open carrier offroad but if you're not in an extreme situation or if you don't have extremely big tires these work pretty damn good there's two main types of limited slip differentials and the first one we just saw on the bench it has a series of clutches in it and it helps to limit the amount of slip from one side to another and it's great to about a 31 in my opinion once you get to like a 33 it's still really good off-road but if you're in rocks if you're in some extreme terrain you will notice that if one tire is pinned down in between two fat rocks and the other one is loose one will spin and the other one will stay locked in just like it's an open differential and the tire size has a lot to do with that because of leverage now if you stay to a thirty one or small he's gonna work awesome there's there's nothing wrong with these as long as you use the right lubrication and you make sure that your clutch packs are healthy the second style limited slip differential is my personal favorite and that is a torsion style or torsion style pretty sure it's tourism and it this works really well Detroit retracts fall into this category and I decided to try it true tracks on my TJ for years they're good up to about a thirty five and then I think that you notice the performance degrade pretty quickly after that now there's some different things to think about when it comes to this my experience was they were awesome off-road out of thirty five and then whenever I would get into rocks you would notice one side would spin way faster than the other side and in some cases some extreme cases it would act like an open differential if you have an automatic you can just tap on the brake and it will help these out a ton but I don't have an automatic I have a manual I decided to just upgrade to full-blown lockers once I got past thirty-five just so I didn't have to worry about tapping on the brakes and doing all this other stuff while I'm trying to go up serious obstacles the next category is automatic lockers like you would find from Detroit or from UConn and these are a really good option for a lot of people in my opinion I really liked my Detroit for the time that I had it the Detroit soft Locker was really strong I've heard really similar results out of the grizzly lockers and this is something that kind of has a mind of its own you don't have the control over when it's locked and unlocked but in a perfect world it's designed to be good on the street so when you're taking a corner and you're not throttling through it should be unlocked and should turn and function very similar to an open differential unfortunately I didn't live in a perfect world when I had mine so most of the time to perform great on the street but there were times where it just had a mind of its own and it would unlock and lock it will because you know it's guessing whether or not you need the traction or not and it's doing it all mechanically there's no computer here so I would say that it worked really good I'm not great if you want like a hundred percent streetable performance but it just depends on what your application is off-road it was really reliable it pretty much stayed it locked in all the time when I was offroad which has its pros and cons it was great if I was in rocks but it sucked if I was on a muddy trail trying to turn and I wanted to have the performance of an open differential because you're gonna build so much easier whether you're on or off road the next category blocker fits directly into the automatic Locker category and that has lunchbox lockers lunchbox lockers take up the space that was once your spider gears you basically pull your spider gears out of there you put this locker in there and it ratchets around corners there's there's so many pros and cons to this I am NOT a fan of lunchbox lockers that being said I've got a budget build that I will definitely be using lunchbox lockers in at least that's the plan right now because they're very cost effective you've got to be able to withstand the idea of it constantly banging in and out of being locked and unlocked it ratchets around corners are really noisy they can be strong if you wheel correctly but I have seen a number of them fail on the trails so it's you just gotta weigh the pros and cons they're so inexpensive that they're really enticing for a lot of people I'd say they're great if you just want to get some quick traction now and then you can save up for some like 1 tons in the future and then you're gonna put real lockers in the 1 tons so I think it's perfect for that but if you plan on wheel in this rig for 2030 years on these axles I would recommend saving up and getting a real locker instead of a lunch box style Locker but again it's all depending on whatever your costs and whatever your uses of the vehicle so don't light me up too bad in the comments I know there's a lot of guys out there that are just like lunchbox or die but I am NOT one of those guys and so this is my take on lunchbox lockers the last category we're gonna cover today is selectable lockers I personally really like air lockers I've had pretty good left with them over the years but there's a whole bunch of different reasons that air lockers are good and the air lockers are bad on the good side you can select when you have traction and when you don't so it makes it to where you can turn the Locker off turn very easily on the street or off-road and then whenever you need it you can flip the Locker on and it acts just like a spool on the downside you need a 12-volt power source anji to air my air lockers are being fed by a co2 tank it's very reliable basically when it's empty it's empty when it's full it's full there's no electrical or anything that has to go on with the air source but it has to travel through a nylon line that goes under the cab and then it goes to two solenoids right here so the two solenoids are being fed by one airline then one of those Silla notes will actuate the front Locker and one will actuate the rear Locker via an electric switch so it travels from the solenoid it's gonna be hard to see but it goes down into this airline right here and then it converts from a nylon airline into a copper airline that then feeds the locker and tells it to turn on or off in order to get it to turn on or off these solenoids are powered by two switches I've got one right here that is a front Locker and one right here that's a rear Locker this is how most systems are ran with the exception of the co2 tank it seems like most people use a 12-volt tank or 12-volt compressor instead of a co2 tank I prefer co2 tank but it's it all just depends on whatever your preference is now what I can say about our lockers is I've never had an issue with a blown line I've never had an issue with an electric solenoid not working or anything like that but I did have to replace the rear seal housing once and at the front Locker I blew up last year after about four years of hard use so take that for what it is that's just the reliability so on the whole I haven't had an issue with the system the all the stuff that you would think you'd have problems with Airlines 12-volt I haven't had an issue with any of that I've only had an issue with the lockers themselves a leaky O ring and the seal housing in the rear and then I blew up the front Locker what's the next selectable Locker we can talk about is an electric Locker I really like the concept of electric lockers I like the simplicity of electric Locker and basically it's it's it works with just the same switch that I would have on the - in my TJ you just turn it on it sends an electric currents to an electromagnet it locks the Locker together you're not worried about running out of air you're not worried about a busted airline none of that stuff you're only worried about the electrical portion so I'm really attracted to that idea I'm not so attracted to the idea of if you have really dirty fluid and you have a lot of metal shavings in there which believe it or not that happens in all differentials I don't want all that to stick to this electromagnet I'm not sure if this is a common problem or not but this is something that I've just always thought about whenever I'm researching what kind of lockers to do it with what I'm definitely going to use an electric Locker in the future I'm not sure what project yet but I've always been curious about these I've always wanted to see what the reliability is like so you will more than likely see me use these on this channel I might even use them in my Land Rover one-ton build I'm not sure yet I haven't chosen lockers for that but these are just things you got to think about whenever you're selecting what locker works best for you and I think that these could be a very viable option for the right build the last Locker we're gonna talk about today is a selectable cable actuated Locker I'm so enticed by this concept I think that there is so much potential for this to be by far the most reliable system because it doesn't require power or air the only issue is that out of all the years of me wheel in the last 16 years I have only seen bad things with these lockers but I really honestly think that it is always an installation issue because it's kinked cables it's poorly adjusted cables so they think that it's locked in but they're it's not I mean they're on there on rocks or something one tire spinning faster than the other it's clearly not locked in and that's an adjustment issue so I think that there is a ton of room for this to be the best Locker out there I definitely want to try these out in the future hopefully I get my hands on a set one day but it just needs to be installed correctly nice long sweeps with that cable so you don't kink it and everything moves freely and I think that these could be awesome another thing that aux offers that I don't see out of anything else is the fact that you can undo the cable and you can put this like slug thing in there and it locks the Locker in place it's pretty sweet you don't get that out of electric or out of an air actuated Locker so I like the idea that if your cable breaks or your cable kinks or isn't adjusted right whatever but you need a locker right now you can put this slug thing in there it locks up your wheels you can get off the trail and then if you need to drive it home pull that bad boy out put your cable back in and you're back to having an open differential so I think there's a lot of room for this to be an awesome Locker I just haven't had good experience with it yet but stand by in the future I would like to get my hands on a set and install them and try them out for myself before in this video the last thing I want to talk about is strength the strength between all ocker ziz going to be extremely similar in my opinion again there's tons of my opinion in here so don't take anything as fact but consider this all Dana 44 carriers are giving about the same size all Dana 60 carriers argue about the same size all Dana 30 carriers are giving about the same size the carrier is the locker they're all going to be using really high tensile strength chromoly steel components and they're gonna be using really high grade probably grade eight or higher bolts to bolt everything together the differences in strength are gonna be so small that it's not going to be something that is worth considering in my opinion the only exceptions would be the strength of a really small like lunchbox Locker versus the strength of a yukon grizzly but other than that if you're trying to do like a are be compared to a zip Locker compared to an ox I think that they're all can be extremely strong when you're considering what locker to get I would look at reliability what have you seen your friends use and have good luck with are your buddies using an electric Locker and they love it and they've been on trails for years trouble-free I would go with that if you are if you've seen your buddies use air B air lockers they've been running for six years they go all over the country they have no issues go with that I think that we get way too hung up on which ones we think are better because whatever I have is the best right that is such a common car guy thing and I know that where I'm gonna be lit up by car guys in these comments I'm where people are so married to whatever brand they have everything else is junk or garbage that's usually the verbage that they use but those of you that are less experienced I would say don't let these guys get into your head over what is garbage and everything else just think about what is gonna work best for your build do you have onboard air if you do it's not that hard to put in an air locker are you willing to work with an electric locker or mess with the cable actuated Locker just think about what works best for you and your installation abilities and your troubleshooting abilities before you choose what lockers and work best for your build if you enjoyed the video make sure you give it a thumbs up subscribe to the channel if you haven't already I've got a whole bunch of how-to content on here and I'm always adding more if you and help support the channel you go to the under lifestyle comm we have t-shirts hats swag I even have a link to our patreon account if you want help support us in that way too if you want to follow me on social media I'm after lifestyle Nate we'll see you next time [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Dirt Lifestyle

Views: 149,653

Rating: 4.974659 out of 5

Keywords: differential locker, differential lockers explained, differential locker comparison, differential locker install, differential locker types, differential lockers for chevy, differential lockers for ford f150, differential lockers for jeep wrangler, differential lockers for toyota tundra, locker, differential, 4x4, offroad, locking differential, arb, jeep, eaton, traction, limited slip, toyota, 4wd, e locker, lockers, air locker, mud, nissan, wrangler, detroit, detroit locker, cherokee, xj

Id: qZoxBULMylg

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 17 2020