Thread: ARB v Detroit v ?? Diff Locker

ARB's seem pretty good, dads got them front and rear in the county and has only had a few problems with air leaks etc but all good now, i have one in the rear of my d1 and have had a few problams with sticks ripping the airline out of the diff and the other day the the side housing carrier part snapped off but it is over 10 years old, the good thing is i can get new parts from ARB for under $100

I've heard so many good things about the new detroit lockers i have bought one of them from the rear and i'll put the ARB in the front when it's all fixed, so i'm keen to see how it go's and i'll post up some feedback when i get it fitted.

CHEERS TIM.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

MD lockers are being made by MR Auto now, so they are still available.
.

only sal's at the moment

This is my thinking....when I do it, Im fitting Tru-Trac front and rear to my D2.....I just cant see a downside for anything other than extreme rockhopping, which Im not going to do.

Originally Posted by rick130

Do now apparently, it was only in a thread a few days ago, including the advertising PDF.

Found it http://www.aulro.com/afvb/technical-...24-spline.html
http://www.tjm.com.au/Portals/0/xmod...ockerRover.pdf

BTW, wouldn't a TruTrac and TC be damned near unbeatable ? being almost as good in most cases as a full on locker without the drawbacks ?

Been thinking about a rear locker for a while but it seems whether you get ARB, maxi or other, you also need to spend $s on heavy duty axles etc (except if you go non-locker trutrac) to avoid breaking something. This adds to my problems with the financial controller. Are there any people running a ARB rear locker without anything else upgraded & driving to avoid over stressing the std. gear and has this been of any 4wd benefit. Seems to me if you go for any locker this needs to factored in to your thinking.
Cheers Discolaw

Originally Posted by isuzurover

MD lockers are being made by MR Auto now, so they are still available.

I have twin ARBs in one vehicle, and MD rear in the other. All work well, no issues with either.

TJM/McNamara are also a very good option.

With the 3 of these good quality AU made manual lockers, I cannot see why anyone in AU would bother with the UK/US MANUAL lockers.




I agree - TT+TC would be as good as open+locker - or near enough that only 4x4 comp drivers would notice the difference.

Thanks for the update on who makes the MD's now.
I did a search on MR Auto and came up with all sorts.
Do you happen to know which MR, is it the engineering one in Perth.
Looking at getting one for the front now so may as well keep them the same.

Cheers

I have a Maxi in the rear and an ARB in the front of my D1.

The Maxi has never given me trouble but I have had airline issues with the ARB and the on/off switch has now packed up. When the fuse box that has the compressor fuses in it fried part of itself in the bush I also lost the ARB locker. So to date at three times in the bush for different reasons it has stopped when I might have needed it.

Mind you I think this gear was fitted about 6 or 7 years ago so it is not new but with the ARB there are various things that can stop a still functioning locker from working.

The Maxi is so easy to use and from memory because it works on vacuum there is very little externally to go wrong apart from airleaks.

My D1 also has Maxi axles in the rear but still has standard ones in the front, as I usually only use the rear locker in 90% of cases for me rear axles have proven to be good enough. If and when I break a front axle then I'll replace them with decent axles.
In general I only use the front locker when I'm in trouble and the rear locker isn't enough, to date this way of driving hasn't caused any issues with axles and I have run on occassion 315 section Baja Claws in some knarly places. Though normally I run 33" BFG All Terrains. This might be more good luck then good judgement but nothing has broken in the front yet.

I am looking at gradually up grading my D2a to be more off road useful and I had decided I would go down the path of a Detroit Locker in the rear and a True Track in the front.

Why? They do the job well from what I'm told and they are relatively cheap in comparision to buy and fit compared to the hard core ARB style Lockers and with them there is nothing to go wrong with airlines, switches, compressors etc. While they aren't as trick as full lockers they are more then likely all I will truly need.

As Scouse once said to me (these aren't exactly his words) the tricker you make your Landy off road the fewer and fewer people you can truly go 4 wheel driving with as fewer and fewer will be able to go where you can go or keep up.

I wise man that Scouse bloke me thinks...


cheers,
Terry

Originally Posted by big guy

Thanks for the update on who makes the MD's now.
I did a search on MR Auto and came up with all sorts.
Do you happen to know which MR, is it the engineering one in Perth.
Looking at getting one for the front now so may as well keep them the same.

Cheers

mrautomotive - Home

As mentioned by Weeds - they are only doing Sals lockers at present, though they have apparently also sold off a few NOS rover lockers from Mal. If you contact them I am sure they can tell you when the rover lockers will be available (or if they have any more NOS).

Originally Posted by discolaw

Been thinking about a rear locker for a while but it seems whether you get ARB, maxi or other, you also need to spend $s on heavy duty axles etc (except if you go non-locker trutrac) to avoid breaking something. This adds to my problems with the financial controller. Are there any people running a ARB rear locker without anything else upgraded & driving to avoid over stressing the std. gear and has this been of any 4wd benefit. Seems to me if you go for any locker this needs to factored in to your thinking.
Cheers Discolaw

You can get away with running standard axles and a locker with limited power mods and close to standard tyres.
Aslong as you drive carefully you shouldn't have many issue's at all, the main thing is you will always get into a tricky situation where it requires plenty of momentum and rev's to get out, so you will always have a niggly fealing in the back of your mind
In our county with front and rear lockers and 33's we are still running standard axles and CV'S up front and the only time an axle has let go was before the lockers and bigger tyres. now with lockers you can drive most tracks only crawling where as before you had to hit things harder in order to make it.


CHEERS TIM.