OK, I'm trying to decide what sort of traction aid to put in my front end. The truck is used to hunt/fish/do whatever I need it to. It is not a dedicated off-road machine, but it sees it's share. I fully understand locking the front axle limits turning, and that is fine. I don't see myself using it unless I need to push straight though something. I'm currently stationed in Arkansas, so we see all kinds of conditions and weather, but who knows where I'll end up. Here are the pros and cons of what my research has told me, and how I am ranking my options at this point. Also, a true-trac is going in the rear.

3rd place, ARB: Most recommended. Rumor is no warranty with over-sized tires and modified engines. Biggest thing is, I don't want the compressor and all the associated hassles. Too many potentail failure points.

2nd place, E-locker: Works great, when it works. Some people report it can be tempermental if it sees a lot of water/mud, for obvious reasons. Also, reports are that it can take a while to disengage. If it fails, it defaults to the locked postion. Not something I really want to deal with on my DD.

1st place, OX locker: Least amount of moving parts, simplest design. Apparently, these take some getting used to, and frequent manual cable/spring adjustment to operate correctly. From what I read, older models are so proned to trouble, they aren't worth having. But, some articles I have read say the company recently did a lot of R&D to resolve the issues.

Anyone feel free to weigh in with your set-ups. Limited slips and full on Detroits are out.

 

I would flip those choices. ARB is a proven design, air is no different than electic, except it's probably more likely to work and not be tempermental with water/mud. Depending on your tire size you can run the ARB compressor or buy a better one and have onboard air which is a BIG plus if you want to air down your tires or ever run air tools.

I think you'll spend more time tinkering with the manual cable of the OX then you would ever have to worry about losing air with the ARB. How many more failure points does the ARB have over any of the others? Also, you can coil an air line or any other ARB related parts and fix pretty much any of it yourself, on the trail.

 

I need to worry about my rear first... since I don't have LS. First thing I did was tires...so I'm going to see how that goes first. If I do something about the rear, it will be a Truetrac.

Why not consider a limited slip, like the Truetrac for the front? I don't think for general traction issues, I need a full locker in front. I'm concerned about snow mostly, but average off road otherwise. I'm mostly an on road driver.

I'm responding mostly because I'm interested in more expert opinions on this topic as well. In my research and searching on FTE, I've noted that at least a couple of people have done Truetrac in back and front and have been happy with it. I'm considering it for that reason.

I take a looong time to act on these types of things though ;-)

 

I agree with Ace.

 

Yes, cable adjustment is the big ?? with the OX. But, with the ARB you have a compressor, air lines, o rings (most failed part), solenoids. Blown o-rings can lead to oil getting into the system and destroying it.

I have a CO2 tank that I carry for my compressed air needs. Much more reliable, and always consistant. At $20 to refill a 20lb tank, it covers all my compressed air needs.

 

Opinion 1: They're all darned good, and I doubt you'll have any regrets with ANY of them! Ace has good points. Compressor is a very handy thing to have along...

That said, let me muddy the water a bit more for you....
Opinion 2: My personal bias (plan) is towards the E-Locker. Let me undermine two of the "negatives" you listed.
1) There is absolutely NO reason why it should be temperamental in water/mud. Sealing electrical connections is NOT rocket science. There are a few in your truck already and I doubt you've had many problems... If you do a redneck hack job, yeah, there could be problems. But a redneck hack job with an ARB or OX will be every bit (if not more) problematic. Do it right and I guarantee you will not have problems.

2) I had not heard it defaults to locked if it failed. From what I've seen of the design, I would have assumed it would default to open, or just remain in whatever setting it was when power was cut. Regardless, if it was to fail and stayed locked, just unlock one hub. Now it behaves very much like an open diff and steering is freed up.... Not quite exactly, but in a way, better than an open as you know which wheel is getting the power. With a true open, the wheel with less traction gets power.

 

If you don't already have onboard air, I'd do the E-Locker and be done with it. Especially if you have upfitter switches already in place.

Now if you need an air supply or already have one, then there might be a convincing argument for the ARB. I just would not want to go to the hassle of mounting the compressor, and/or tank. Also, air lines to the diff would be just as prone to damage as a wire, and in a pinch I could probably fix a broken wire easier than a torn air line.

 

Limited slip is better than open in most situations. But it is what it is - an automatic limited slip. It is nice to not have to think or act.
But some drivers go places/ do things where they need more.

- In some situations, you will want more than limited slip. Like crossing a ditch/wash/creek at an angle. If one wheel from each axle is up in the air and the sides are steep enough to require heavy power to move, the limited slip will be overcome and you can't move - the two tires in the air spin while the two under great load do nothing. With a locker, you can apply full power to the wheel in contact even if other wheel on that axle is in the air.

- In some situations, you may want NO locking at all. Creeping transversely across a slippery off camber slope is one case. Ice, mud, gravel, whatever. With limited slip or locker on, once the traction threshold is crossed, BOTH wheels on that axle will tend to spin and lose all grip - forward AND lateral, resulting in truck sliding sideways down the slope. With open, usually only one wheel will spin and lose grip, while the other will not spin and maintain its lateral grip so you won't slide down.
With icy roads, even a couple degrees of road crown can be a problem.

 

Yup...those are both well described examples. I'm torn with wanting the "don't have to think about it" option... versus "covering all scenarios" type of option. Then again, I did install the upfitter switches, and I could see putting an elocker in both front and rear and just flipping them on when needed. Or maybe a Truetrac in back, and the full elocker in front switched with the upfitter switch ;-)

Good thing I have other things to spendy money on for now.... ;-)

 

Yup, everybody's needs are different!

Me? I'll probably end up with Truetrac in rear, E-Locker in front.
A nice compromise for my needs. Having true three wheel drive (with E-locker in front) would have gotten me out of most every stuck I've ever gotten into. And I find having a worn out LSD in rear already results in more wheel spin around corners than I'd like, so I don't think I'd like a fully open (unlocked locker) in the rear on a day to day basis.

 

Yeah..I like the way you think ;-)

My biggest fear here in MN is my open fronts and rears getting me stuck in snow bank...with both wheels on one side partially in a snowbank on the side of the road. Imagine a big ol Superduty helplessly spinning wheels... <sigh> Oh, the shame of it......all it takes is one pass of the snow plow to pile you in... ;-)

 

why not consider the selectable locker in the rear and the trutrac up front. I would think a locker + front end weight of the Superduty would potentially cause some serious front axle u-joint problems. My jeep has front and rear lockers and i will confirm it is difficult to control steering and direction with the front locked. I can just imagine how that would be with double the weight. I'm just thinking out loud here, not criticizing.

 

Eaton is working on an eLocker for the Sterling 10.25/10.50 rear axle. I don't know the projected date of release... sorry.

 

For me, I think there will be plenty of times that I want an open front diff. Probably much more often than I need it to lock whether it's a full detroit or LSD that I have no control over. I won't be doing any crazy stuff with the front end locked. My real hope is that a tru-trac in the rear will make my life a lot better, and that I will hardly ever need to lock up the front. I guess in most situations, I would prefer not to "think" about what's going on out back. Kinda like what's mentioned above, but for the rear.

I guess I look at a selectable front like that rental car insurance...you may never need it, but when you do it's worth EVERY dime.

 

Well, I figured I would come back here and update my own thread. After a couple of weeks and having my truck dropped off, I have learned some new things. First off, OX is having issues with gettin the side gears so their production is at a halt. Pretty much no one has an OX for the 35 spline D60 w/4.10s and down So, I was faced with ARB, E-locker, or a LS up front. Still decided to stay away from the LS. It just doesn't provide the true flexability that I feel I need. Plus, everyone I talked to said if money isn't an issue, go selectable. I am staying with the tru-trac out back. I understand that it will be a little twitchy in slick conditions, but given the upgrades I have, I need to be able to put the power down. 98% of the time I'm going to want the extra traction. If it comes with a little pain in the slick stuff, then I'll just consider it unintentional entertainment.

The ARB still didn't appeal to me because I don't have a serious need to have an air system that does anything BUT power the locker. Would it be nice? I don't know, I am very partial to my 20lb CO2 tank, and it is even more mobile than the truck, and very reliable. If I was going to do an ARB, I would want to spend the extra money and have a really nice air system installed that could operate train horns, tools, or air up tires. That is more money on several fronts, and I don't really want to mount all this extra hardware all over the underside of my rig.

So, the Eaton E-locker was pretty much my only option left at this point. Not to be confused with the Detroit Electrac, which a lot of people are tryng to unload for cheap. FWIW, I think some of the issues I was reading about were more related to the electrac than the E-locker. Since the electrac is a "Detroit" and Detroit acquired Eaton, and it's called the E-locker, and both are electric lockers, some points get crossed. The way I understand it, electrac is discontinued (but they're still at retail stores) because the E-locker is on the market. Two points were brought up at various shops that I feel are worth relaying. First off, some of the "tempermental" issues I have been reading about are supposedly more confined to the smaller axles. The D60 units seems to hold up better because they are beefier. Second, the claims that it is a "weak" part is relative to how you use it. Getting it bound up rock-crawling with a lot of gear reduction, then yeah, it's the weakest of the selectable lockers. Don't see my 8500lb rig doing that. I am still a little nervous about it defaulting to the locked position if it fails, but I guess if worse comes to worse, unlock the hubs and stay out of 4WD until I get it looked at. As for the mud and water issue, well, I guess I'm just going to have to trust in the design.

Sorry for the long winded post. You guys have NO IDEA how much time I have spent on this, and what a tough decision it's been. I hope it helps someone else. When it's all said and done, I am by no means an expert, and this is my first rodeo with traction aids in my axles. Hope to put up a review shortly after I get home.