YALT: Yet Another Locker Thread

[stewie110]

Hi All,

I am currently looking at purchasing a new pair of lockers for my MY15 110. My previous defenders had Maxi-drive lockers. Never missed a beat.

Originally I was looking at ARB units. However I was on a trip earlier in the year for two weeks. 8 vehicles of which 4 had ARB lockers, none of them had a flawless experience. Some of the problems could have been installer related (poor electrical install work, crappy connections etc) others seemed to be design failures (leaks or oil in the compressors). While none of the vehicles on the trip were land rovers it did seem to be a generic product problem (Nissan, Toyota and Jeep). That experience has made me look to other brands again.

I originally started looking at the Ashcroft units. I have used ashcroft products in the past and found them to be excellent. I then found McNamara which is an Australian made product and looks amazing. McNamara also recommended TJM. All of these products are air operated. I have been unable to find anyone writing reviews or experience with the TJM products in a Defender. I am interested to know if anyone has had problems with the air supply on any of these other products?

I have also been thinking strongly about eLocker as it has no airlines. In theory electrical circuits are easier to test/diagnose problems with. Finding an air leak can be a nightmare. At least you can measure electricity in and electricity out of a pair of wires.

I am interested to know what other peoples feelings are on the topic. I am particularly interested to know what people feel are the pro's and con's from each approach (air vs electricity) and are the airlines as fragile as they appear from my experience.

[rangieman]

Can-of-Worms-.jpg
And who do you think makes the TJM locker = Mcnamarra

[stewie110]

Can-of-Worms-.jpg
And who do you think makes the TJM locker = Mcnamarra

From what they said on the phone, designed by but mass produced somewhere else. Is that not the case?

[1nando]

From what they said on the phone, designed by but mass produced somewhere else. Is that not the case?

I run an elocker in the rear of my 2013 110. Cant fault it, love it, gkad i got it

Sent from my SM-G925I using AULRO mobile app

[weeds]

Umm, my twin ARB's just worked.....yeah sure the rear o-ring did let a small amount of oil back to the solenoid.

I will be looking at Ashcroft and maybe the e-locker in 12 months time....or default back to ARB

[stewie110]

Umm, my twin ARB's just worked.....yeah sure the rear o-ring did let a small amount of oil back to the solenoid.

I will be looking at Ashcroft and maybe the e-locker in 12 months time....or default back to ARB

Out of interest what sort of length of service have you seen?

[weeds]

I believe they were installed by previous owner around 80k, I purchased at 180k and sold it it's close to 400k.....sooo 300k give or take.

I would engage the rear nearly every camping/4WD trip....I'm a believer if there I the slightest chance of the smallest/fraction of wheel spin I engaged the rear.

The front was rarely engaged.

[4wheeler]

My 2013 Defender is booked in to have the Harrop e locker put in the rear next month. After having a 2012 Mazda BT50 with an electric locker in the rear, it just seemed easy to go down that track. Don't need to worry about leaking seals, airlines or a compressor.

Mulgo has an in-dash switch which looks factory and Harrop have indicated that they will fit the wiring loom to this switch provided they are happy with it. I will have the dash apart for them to make life easy. I am awaiting this switch.

Harrop are just down the road from me so makes life easy. If the rear works well, then might consider a front locker in the future.

Mudstuff UK have carling switch mounts which fit in the cup holder as well as genuine etched carling switches. Not sure if I will fit these or go the genuine switch look. Only took 7 days to get the Mudstuff from the UK. I would put an override switch in though so I need two switches to activate the locker if use the Mudstuff switch housing. Too easy to accidentally bump a switch to on position.

[weeds]

Re: air locker....the sealing issue with ARB isn't as big as it seems, well from the few setups I have knowledge off. It only sucks oil back to the solenoid when you dis-engage the locker, you can fit a piece of hose to direct it (if it happens to leak, remember you only read about the few that have issues there are probably thousands running around without issue).....therefore 99.9999% of the time if no issue at all

Air-line v electrical cable...both are exposed and can be damaged.

Compressor, well nearly every 4WD has one...hard wire/plumbing it in seems a logical thing to do.

Either way it will probably come down to cost for me between ARB, e-locker and Ashcroft as I'm only interested in a selectable locker.

[FV1601]

My understanding is that McNamara designed the diff lock and built them originally before selling the design to TJM. As a happy McNamara customer from 1982, that was good enough for me and I bought front and rear TJM Pro Lockers. Picked it up last Friday and tested them Saturday.
I had heard a few rumours about the ARB air locker quality over the last few years, and have never been overly fond of dealing with ARB.
Stuck with Diff Locks over other systems, because it gives me some measure of control, and I was going to fit a compressor anyway.
Of note, TJM supplied air compressor is no good for pumping tyres etc, I did buy the ARB Comp. as advised by my local TJM guys.... (Edit. This may have changed since I bought the comp. last year, and there was a rumour that TJM had a more suitable one in the pipeline).
I also fitted Mulgo diff lock switch's rather than the generic ones supplied with the lockers.
Land Rover Auxiliary Switches for Defender 2002 onwards | Buy 4x4 Land Rover Toyota Nissan Accessories and Parts Online Store | Expedition Centre Australia by Mulgo


I fitted the air compressor and wiring loom myself last year to save a few dollars, and have everything where I wanted it when I could afford the lockers.


Very happy with them so far....
Rich.