I need a little better performanice in snow and mud; I actually want to move in it....Whats involved with lockers? How do they operate? Are they good for normal road driving etc? What is Welding Spiders? I've heard about that as well, but I don't know a think about rear end diffs....Thanks Guys....

 

Welding spiders, as well as replacing the diff with a spool, are not options for a street driven vehicle. Those solidly lock both axle shafts together permanently, with no differentiation between left and right wheel speeds. This is not good for turning on a hard surface. Drag racers, mud boggers, and tractor pullers use these because iether they are only going in a straight line, or they are operating on a very slippery surface and dont need a differential to turn.

A 'locker' is a differential that acts like a differential under some conditions and like a spool at other times. Driving in a straight line, the axle shafts are locked together by gear teeth in the differential and equal traction is applied to both tires. During turns, the inside wheel is locked to the driveshaft and the outside tire is allowed to ratchet, spinning faster than the inside axle and the driveshaft (not counting ring and pinion gear multiplication) so that it can cover more ground than the inside wheel and allow the vehicle to turn. The outside wheel cannot spin slower than the inside wheel because of the ratcheting gear mechanism in the differential. These locking differentials can be used on a street driven vehicle. I have one in the rear axle of my F350. They make a little clanking and clicking noise and you can feel them engage and disengage while driving. Some may find it annoying, others dont. I'm ok with it. Good examples of locking differentials are the Trac Tech Detroit Locker www.tractech.com and the Powertrax Lock Right and No Slip www.powertrax.com

An alternative to a locking differential, and one that is offered as an option on most trucks from the factory, is a 'limited slip' or 'posi' differential. In this differential there are friction clutch discs that lightly 'lock' both axle shafts together when driving straight as long as both tires have equal traction. When turning, thier holding power is overcome by the difference in wheelspeed needed to make the turn on a hard surface, and the inside tire is allowed to turn slower than the outside tire and the driveshaft (not counting ring and pinion gear multiplaction). When driving on surfaces where there is a difference in traction between the left and right tires, the wheel with the most traction will tend to overcome the friction of the clutch packs and begin to spin slower than the opposite axle. So the wheel with the least traction will be spinning faster than the one with more traction. This is not ideal, but it is better than a a standard 'open' differential where the wheel with the most traction completely unlocks from the driveline and the other axle and the only wheel that has power is the one with no traction, causing you to get stuck and basically turning your 2wd truck into a 1 wheel drive. Examples of 'limited slip' differentials are the Dana Spicer Trac Lock and Power Lock www.dana.com and the Ford Traction Lok, as well as GM's Positraction differential.

These differentials work good for most offroading and are well behaved on the street as well. Some work better than others and have more holding power to keep the axles together in uneven traction situations. The clutch packs do wear out eventually, just like the clutch in a manual transmission vehicle wears out and needs to be rebuilt after a while.

There are other 'limited slip' differentials that accomplish the same thing as the clutch pack types above but using gears instead of friction clutches. I'm not familiar with all the technical aspects of how they do it, but you can read more about it on the manufacturers' websites. An example of these is the Detroit True Trac www.tractech.com These differentials do not wear out like the clutch type limited slips above.

You can go to www.ring-pinion.com or www.precisiongear.com to find out more about traction adding differentials in addition to the manufacturer websites I referenced above if you're interested in more explanation of how they work.

 

Convert to 4wd

 

SoCalDesertRider gave you a really good description, and said he didn't mind a locker, and my opinion is that they aren't that bad, too. Hopefully some others that have experience will chime in. My experience has been with a Detroit Soflocker. It is not clunky (for the most part) and is unnoticeable, except in the steering a little and on really hard turns. It takes a slight amount more effort to steer it, and you have to oversteer initially. If you are doing a to-lock turn (tight radius) the truck gets twitchy, but normal turns aren't bad, especially if you coast through them. This has been my experience, and I think they are well worth the money. Obviously, if you can afford selectable, that would be best, but even an automatic, like the Detroit, is going to be a big improvement. Ted

 

I have a detroit locked rear and yeah, it's clanky and twitchy. But once you take it off-road you won't look back.

 

One name: ARB Air-Locker! It is AWSOME! Lock it in when you NEED it , unlock it when you dont! Ive seen 2wd trucks out preform stock 4X4's when the 2wd's had air lockers in them.
(At a mud bog.)

 

I would never own a 2wd truck with a open diff, they are simply useless. If your short on cash, I would spend the $220 on a EZ locker for the rearend, they install in minutes, and go like hell offroad. The other budget option is the lincoln locker. I daily drove my BroncoII like this for a few months, and it wasn't all that bad, just had a bit of under steer. In my F-150, I spent the whole $28 and put in a mini spool and never looked back. In the 3 years I had it(2 as a daily driver) I never once regreted it. The only time you know it's there is the chirping of the tires around turns in town.

I say just get a 4x4, or put a EZ locker out back.

 

Good Responses Guys, Thanks....Now I need to tart researching which one to get, Prices and Can I install something like this myself? Buying a 4X4 isn't in my budget and converting would be too much as well......Thanks....Any suggestions on where to buy one and possibly who to have install it?

 

hey guys i'm new to this fourm. I own a 2004 Ford F-150 lariat supercrew 2wd I have no idea what this truck comes stock out of the factory gear wise anyone know? And also wondering what your'e guy's opinion is on getting a air locker. Thanks!