Your First Locker

Lockers are to off-roading what Gary Coleman is to comedy: Things have only gotten better since they came on the scene and things will never be the same again. The off-road fun factor increases exponentially once you have a locker. You can now tackle tougher trails, bigger rocks, and make your friends look stupid as you leave them in your dust. But which one is right for you? Do you even want a locker? After all, we are here to help you figure out what you need. Well, at least you can read about what we chose and why.

There are a few things that will help you decide which locker is right for you: How much money you can spend and how and where you drive your Jeep. First off, a locker is not for everyone, and you don’t need one to be cool, but it doesn’t hurt. If you mainly drive your rig on the street to and from work, a locker is probably not for you. They can cause your rig to drive strangely and can increase tire wear.

What Did We Choose?

There is no questioning the reliability of a Detroit Locker. The Detroit is mid-ranged in price and popular with hard-core off-roaders. They have been around for years and have proven their worth many times. They are very durable because of their simple construction with a minimum of moving parts. There are also no air lines to get cut, no switches or cables that could fail, and since it’s automatic you can be completely mindless and still operate it.

What Else Are You Gonna Need?

Before you go out and buy a locker you’ve got to think about your equipment. The fact is many axles found under Jeeps are not adequate for running a locker without first being beefed up a bit, especially if you are also turning big tires and use the throttle liberally. Some Dana 44s, like the ones we have, and AMC 20s have two-piece axleshafts. This means that the flange where your wheel mounts is bolted to the axleshaft with a big nut. If this nut gets loose over time or through abusive ’wheeling, the key and flange can wobble around and break off. That’s bad, and as a rule we would say you need to replace your two-piece axleshafts if you are going to run a locker. You can either swap to one-piece axleshafts or a full-floating kit. We opted for the latter, which eliminates the bolt-on flanges and allowed us to upgrade our 19- to 30-spline shafts. If you drive a late-model Jeep with the Dana 35 and you want to run a locker with tires over 31 inches, don’t be surprised if you start breaking axleshafts, as this axle has comparatively small axleshafts and is not designed for abuse.

Automatic Lockers

Automatic is as automatic does. What does that mean? We don’t know, but automatic lockers are just that. They lock when a speed differentiation between the two axleshafts occurs. Ideally they will allow your tires to spin at different rates when on a corner, but if you hit the gas while on a corner your locker will do what it should and lock up. This causes the pops, squeaks, and tire chirping associated with lockers. These lockers have an unfair reputation for bad on-road driving, but once you know what to expect you will probably forget you have ’em.

Drop-In Lockers

Drop-in lockers work in a similar manner to automatic lockers, but in order to drop in the carrier they are smaller and therefore weaker. On the plus side they are relatively cheap and easy to install. Again, expect noises and different handling characteristics on-road after installing one of these lockers.

Manual Lockers

Lockers like the ARB, and now the Ox Locker, are activated by switches or cables. The ARB uses an air compressor to activate the locking mechanism, while the Ox Locker is cable-activated. These lockers offer the best of both worlds, both on- and off-road. They can be fully locked or fully open, but the cost is high, and installation should be left to the pros. With one of these lockers turned off you won’t eat up tires, and your Jeep will handle just like it did from the factory.

The Other Manual Locker

The other manual locker is you. This theoretical manual locker is a suggestion for those of you who are mechanically inclined and are familiar with the internals of differentials. If this statement applies to you, read on. Buy a drop in locker since they are relatively inexpensive and easy to install. Now, it’s as easy as this: Install and remove it each time you go wheelin’. It sounds like a good idea until you have to put it into practice. We bet you may go through this ordeal three times before you get sick of changing out the side gears and the locker and leave the locker in permanently. That’s OK. You can still drive your Jeep, but like we said expect some tire wear. Also know that a drop-in locker is not as tough as one that replaces the carrier.

Front or Rear?

Some people would argue that if you are going to use only one locker you should put it up front. That way you won’t have to deal with the adverse on-road driving characteristics because you can unlock your hubs. We say that’s wrong. First of all, many Jeeps don’t have hubs to unlock up front. Secondly, if you are driving up a steep hill all of the vehicle’s weight is on the rear tires, while the fronts may be just scratching the surface instead of digging and pulling. A locker in the rear will dig and fight until you go up, tip over, and get stuck.

Lockers for dummies

Ever been driving off-road having a grand ol’ time, blasting this way and that way, then—boom—you hit a mudhole that is just a tad too big? All of a sudden your Jeep won’t move and both of the tires with the least traction are spinning like crazy while the two tires on dry ground, which would pull you out, won’t budge. You’ve just found out why you need a locker. Your Jeep with open differentials allows one of your wheels to turn at a different speed than the other. This allows you to go around corners without chirping and spinning the tires, but it is also what has just stopped your fun. A locker does just that—it locks the two axleshafts together forcing both tires to turn no matter what conditions the tires are under. So how does it work on the street? Ideally, a locker like a Detroit will allow the outside wheel to turn faster than the inside wheel and therefore will keep your tires from chirping and slipping around corners. How does the locker do that, you ask? Well, some questions are better left unanswered. Like Cheese Whiz and the Colonel’s Seven Secret Spices, we do not question the locker’s importance, but simply appreciate that we have it.