Thread: Detroit Locker Report - Its fitted

As mentioned on a couple of previous threads, my Detroit Soft Locker arrived from the USA yesterday. It cost $700 AUD all up including postage and currency fees and took about 7 days to arrive. (They retail in Australia for about $1150 ) I got it through Keith from Rovertracks. Myself and a mate spent this morning fitting it to the rear of my 110 (Salisbury diff) and I've done about 30km on the road and about 2km off-road.

Fitting was relatively easy as the crown and pinion settings arent disturbed when installing in a Salisbury. Removal and installation of of the center from the case took a bit of prying and tapping with a soft hammer but was not a big deal. As this was our first time, it took about 3 hours. Next time would be about an hour and a half.

Now for the drive report:
Off-road - huge improvement, just like a maxi or ARB except it cant be turned off - probably the only disadvantage - see the on-road report below

On-road - a pleasant surprise! No banging, handling issues etc. The diff backlash has actually reduced! Essentially its completely transparent apart from (you have to listen hard) some slight clicking every now and then. I could even be imagining it as the 110 is not what you call a quiet vehicle anyway. I drove though roundabouts, traffic lights, did U-turns, carparks and highway driving and it was essentially no different to how it felt or sounded yesterday before the install. I put about 20% Moreys Oil Stabiliser in with the new diff oil so this may have made a difference in terms of reducing the on-road issues that have been associated with these diffs in the past and caused me to feel some apprehension when I drove out the driveway for the first time. The Soft Lockers are supposed to be much more transparent than the older Detroits. I also suspect that constant 4WD makes them more transparent when fitted to the rear. It doesnt even tear up the grass when I do a tight turn on the lawn which to me means it takes very little effort to unlock the outside wheel on turns. My old GQ Patrol used to tear up grass with the LSD and chirp on tight bitumen corners! At this point, I would go so far as to say its more transparent on the road than the LSD in the GQ!

$700 is less half the price of a maxidrive or ARB and it is MUCH easer to fit than either of these as there is no welding, cutting, drilling air/vacuum/electrical lines or compressors to install. Overall, defintitely value for money. I'm not bagging either of the above and if money was no object would have considered these but it would have cost about 2k for the other options as I probably wouldnt fit a maxi or ARB myself.

don't think you'd put an auto locker in the front but an lsd is a common choice.

Thanks for the reports Marks... give another please after some more testing offroad conditions as have been looking at this direction myself for my 110