Why shouldn't I?

[Dishtowel]

Why should I not weld the front diff? My B2 is my toy, my offroad toy. Not daily driver. I already have the back welded, and LOVE it offroad. Yes my turning suffers abit due to the back tires being single minded, BUT I consider that a necessary evil to have the grip-tion that keeps me moving in challenging terrain.

There has been/will be times when my rear axle is a lost cause, sunk in a hole or tied up by logs, and if my both my front tires where playing then I would get out. Thus I think it would be advantageous. UNLESS it's just going to equal breakagebreakagebreakage. No-one needs that.

OR

Is a locker worth the $$$?? Remember that this is a toy that only see's roads as a means to getting to trails. If so, which style of locker? I dont understand the differences of all the different brands of lunchbox lockers.

(when giving suggestions please remember that I have V8 power turning tires now....)

PS: I have a Dana35, 3.73, and 32" rubber

 

[Hahnsb2]

There's a few people on here who have welded the D35, Todd comes to mind, I think Evan had his welded at some point before his Lock-Right, if so, I'm sure he can give some insight comparing the two. Turning will be more of an issue on hard surfaces but if you really had to, you could unlock a hub. My Aussie was $250 shipped brand new, I've yet to do any real wheeling with it, just messing around on the property, I think I'd rather have some ability for it to unlock than welded solid. I'm sure both would serve you very well in either case.

 

[Loanranger]

I'm running welded front and rear on samurai axles, and as long as you don't get crazy stupid with the gas pedal, you should be fine as far as breakage goes, the turning radius loss is my biggest problem, but I've just become acustomed to 4-5 point turns on tight switchbacks. It does reduce your turning radius by about half, I would say, but I prefer knowing I can get over anything as opposed to being able to turn sharply. I tried the whole unlock a hub thing, and though it does help, it becomes more annoying than not being able to turn sharply. The thing about unlocking a hub is, with an open diff, you have a 50/50 chance that the tire is going to help you up and over something, welded with a hub unlocked, you KNOW that tire isn't going to help you out.
Personally, I would weld it and not look back. Its cheap, it works, and you can usually get a couple spare shafts cheaper than you can buy a locker.

 

[Todd]

I have been running a welded front for about 6 years now.

Turning radius: With both front and rear welded yes turning is inhibited some. On a short wheel base rig like a BII its not that big of a hindrance. Hell just tonight I was wheelin a four wheeler trail. Yes I had to do a few, few point turn but so did the other short wheel base rigs with open fronts. In fact still out turned them. A must to keep your power steering pump happy is a cooler. Im running an Explorer tranny cooler as a power steering cooler. It has helped a lot on keeping the pump happy and wine free. So to sum up steering its not as bad as people make it out to be.

Wear and tear: With the welded front it does put a considerable amount more force on the shafts. But if you take care of your drive train then major failures can be averted. Take a look at all your front axle shaft joints after ever few wheelin runs to see if caps are cracked or yokes are egged. A must is to run Spicer 760’s with welded caps. Nothing else works with a welded front. Also you will either want to run Jeep hubs or do the 44 knuckle swap as the regular warn or mile marker hubs will blow left and right.

I welded my diff because it was cheap and at the time I didn’t have the money for a locker. Would I weld it again under the same circumstances, hell ya. If I had the money for a locker would I buy one? I still don’t know, I would most likely buy a on board welder kit for the wheeler and still burn the diff.

Weld the bitch up and never look back.

 

[Evan]

With an RBV turning radius is not really an issue when you weld the axle. I did notice an improvement when I went to lockers, but not an extreme improvement. I think in several years of wheelin with welded diffs I had to unlock a hub maybe once. These trucks have such a great turning radius that even if you loose some it's still good.

As far as wear and tear goes, I think a locker is a little easier on the axle in the long run as the tires can spin at different rates, but the majority of the strain will be the same, when you have the driveline under load and are on the skinny pedal, the locker is going to behave just like welded anyway.

As far as power steering goes, it seems like my steering worked just as hard with welded as it does with a locker.

I put a locker in the rear because I drive this truck 2+ hours on the road to get to the trail. As for the front, I got a great deal ($230) on a whole pig with 5.13s installed and a Lockrite. The way I look at it I basically got the Lockrite for free. Otherwise, I'd probably be running welded. There are some actual benefits to welded: no load on the crosspin, more simplicity.

I have even driven my truck with a welded f/r on the highway during snow storms in upper Michigan, and it worked very well. My advice is to weld that thing up, unless it's a street queen (which it's not). IMHO there is very little benefit to a locker over welded on a trail truck. Like Todd said, use 760x joints and tack the caps in.

 

[rangerslim]

Why would it matter if you drive it on the street?? Manual hubs won't allow anything to turn up front anyway....

 

[Evan]

Why would it matter if you drive it on the street?? Manual hubs won't allow anything to turn up front anyway....

Right, but I was thinking for snow and ice. If you used your truck on the street a lot or for a DD you might want to drive around in 4x4 when it's slippery out. And with a welded front you have to go much more slowly in that case than with a locker.

 

[Dishtowel]

Thanks for the input guys, I want to weld it (when I do gears) but my biggest fear remains. Brokenbreakage via the V8 pow-wa. What they heck, I will probably do it when it's time for gears. I have this desire to be at the front of the pack, and I think that will prove to be a good offroad decision.

 

[4x4junkie]

I'm gonna go the other way on this.

Welding it is certainly cheap and easy, but I really do enjoy the super-tight turning radius of my BII, I wouldn't want to lose any of it (I know how much gets lost too just by locking both my ARBs... its quite a bit).

If you play primarily in mud, or you don't have to make frequent real tight turns, then welding it may be the way to go. But if you wheel where there are lots of trees and have to make a lot of turns, you'd be much better off with a locker up front (and out back too).
As cheap as the Aussie Lockers are, I think they're well worth it.


As for breakage, most of what's been said is good advice. Run the Jeep hubs, Spicer 5-760X u-joints, and either tack the caps in or modify the yokes to run full circle retaining clips (anything to keep the u-joint caps from working themselves out of the yoke, as it WILL eventually happen if you just use the stock half-circle clip).

 

[crbnunit]

I love my ARB. The one thing no one mentions is the trail damage you do if you run around locked all the time. One of those tires will be spinning/sliping in tight turns and it can really butcher a trail. Being able to lock and unlock is a great advantage. Keeps trail damage to a minimum and takes a lot of stress off the steering and axles.

 

[CopyKat]

I hate winter driving my truck in 4x4 on the street with an auto locker up front. It's so unpredictable it's scarry to drive. Don't know if you'll end up in the ditch or oncomming traffic.

If you had an ARB up front it would be a different story as you have the selectability of having open 4x4 or locked 4x4. Not everyone has the coin to drop $700 on a locker. I don't even have $300 to drop on a locker, but managed to find a used one for pretty cheap.

When I regear to 4:10's I'll either keep the front open or weld it not sure yet.