lockers

I think you will find there are not many head to head tests. Most people say if you can afford it, go the air lockers. It's an interesting subject so I will give you my opinion on it. The airs I on some forums I have heard can cause some slight reliability issues, these are very few and far between so you wouldnt really throw a lot of weight in a buying decision to reliability but still, the problem does exsist. I would say the auto's would be less safe on the road. I have an auto and cant tell it's there but with a short wheel base car and not a diesel (feedback through the transmission is greater with a petrol because of compression) I would say you may feel it. Also the detroits are the worst for feedback. On price my auto locker with self install was 4 times cheaper so that was a large part of the decision for me. In terms of off road advantage you cannot tell the difference between the two. As for mechanical advatages over the air, I can only think of one really good one, that thats the decision to lock or unlock is not up to you, if your wondering when and where to engage off road with the air, you may make the wrong decision, or engage to late or it may not be possible to engage at all in some situations. This sucks, whereas the auto locker is always locked so you dont think about it at all, just drive around and find your car goes better than it used too!

Manual Vrs Auto you chose

Air locker 1000 times over.

Hi,I agree with truckster,had both front and rear ARBs on two vehicles for 17 years and never had a problem.Had mates with auto`s with various problems and removed them.I never had auto`s myself though.

Regards,
Paul Klat.member LCOOL
Melbourne ,Vic,Australia.
Toyota LC. 2004 TD
Too many extras to mention.

Hi Mal,

I reckon an auto locker on the front diff and an air locker on the rear, in a part-time 4WD. A fulltime 4WD cannot have an auto locker.

I prefer an auto locker upfront on the part-time 4WD as you still have good steering ability when you are on say rocky terrain. An air-locker in this case will want to steer straight and you will need to turn it off. An auto locker will cam out as required and you still have steering while having a locked diff.

The air-locker is for the rear so you have a normal open diff for daily driving. An auto locker in this case can be noticable, hence my preference for an air locker here.

All just my opinion and others will surely have different opinions as there is no cut and dried correct answer.

Cheers

Captain

Check out question from PatrolmanPat on 4wdmonthly general fourby discussion page 2 called Lockers (again) and similar on Overlander forum.

Site Link

My results in a Patrol were
1/ any locker type in front first, both very effect in dry conditions and
both becoming less useful when slippery.

2/ No problems with either type from maintennance issues/reliability
but the air system for arb needs to be up to scratch

3/ Low cost auto lockers had significant understeer effect in front of patrol
while ARB had this you could turn it off.
I spent lot more time in 2wd when had auto locker on slippery Vic. tracks
as it was safer than 4wd.

4/ Detroit series 4 auto locker suffers a lot less from these effects

Robin Miller

I've spent the past week trawling various forums and web sites in search for the best locker solution for my Patrol.
I reckon there are as many advocating air lockers as Detroits (I've discounted using cheaper auto lockers) and almost as many saying lock the rear first as those saying lock the front first. Plus a surprising number who have had detroits and gone to air lockers and vice versa.

The best solution is to toss a coin and see which way it falls I reckon.

I'll probably (see the uncertainty is still there) get a front air locker first.

I've run the cheapest auto lokka in the front of my lux for 130000 kms sor far, and can say that it's the first mod I'd do to any 4wd.
Also know of a number of constant 4wd 80's running autos in the fron on road with no ill effects