Who drives on welded spider gears?

[GT71Wagoneer]

Hi Bob,

Bob, By the way this is a comment/question/chat and not anything else one of my friends had lockers on both front and rear on his 1978 F150 and he swore by them, I mean I have also seen him go in some places that others cant go and I guess that having front and rear lockers would have helped that. His brother tried to follow him up the same hill with the same model F150 with rear locker only and I can remember us singing "All John wants for Xmas is a front locked diff a front locked diff ohhhh a front locked diff" It was kinda a funny but you had to be there.

I see why having a locked rear diff would increase the amount of traction to the wheels that provide the most drive.

I will need this rig to be a daily driver soon and the option of only purchasing 1 diff lock unit appeals to me big time.

I hope some one can give us an answer re the question you and I have asked, if it could be done and by unlocking the hubbs even while in 4wd but moreover I am talking about being in 2wd, then if that simple action could make the front diff act like an open diff then surly it must be an advantage having a welded diff and having a open type operation when hubbs are NOT locked??? Lock front diff in 4wd by using hubbs locked and then when 4wd is not needed we could remain in 4wd on the tcase and just unlock the front hubbs???? Waddya reckon!

Sorry if I have confussed anyone but I have a habbit of repeating myself over in different ways

Geeze Bob could you actually see me tripping over as I was writting that jibber)))

Regards Geoff

[irbob]

Geoff...No dought there are situations where a front locker would help but I havn't encountered any as of yet. When I do I will probably sing the same song. LOL Hope someone will clear us up on the fron't diff soon b4 I need a strait jacket. See you on the next trip.

[GT71Wagoneer]

Hehehe, no worries Bob, Take care.

GT71

[Sambo]

i wheel with a a guy here who has the front d44 on his blazer welded...he has only tore up an axle ujoint(by being stupid,too much throttle on some air time) but since then he hasnt broke anything...hope this helps ya make some decisions

[tuck]

gt71

I think my post mentioned that I had welded my dana 30 front... if the hubs are unlocked the welded diff is not noticed. when the hubs are locked, it is hard to steer unless I am in the mud. I wouldn't hesitate to weld my dana 30 again. It has drum brakes and 3.31's what is there to lose? BTW, I have wheeled it with 31's, 33's and now 35's... no breakage, but I have been pretty nice.

[rockjeep44]

Yea, it's very strong. Next strongest thing to a Detroit NoSpin or a Spool. MtnNate, dude, weld that thing. If you don't I'm going to hop a plane, slap you silly, weld it for you, and then leave before you know what happened Actually, the only people that really complain about welds is the short wheelbase rigs. LWB rigs like ours are MUCH better behaved with lockers and welded rearends. A guy in our club was all about saving money for lockers, then one night late around 2am before a Tellico ride we were at my friends shop and working on his rig and hassling him about how he was gonna suck at Tellico. Then after a few more beers were in him we ended up welding him up front and rear. He loves it.
-Andrew

[rockjeep44]

You could pour rocks, mud, grit, sand, and beer into your frontend with a welded diff and as long as you unlock the hubs you will think you have an open frontend. irbob, the feelings you had after you welded your rearend about how much better your rig was offroad are equaled by the feelings you'll have when you weld the front. Definitely. If your rig gets better offroad by 100% after the rear is locked it gets better by another 100% after the front is locked. You'll surprise the heck out of people offroad.
-Andrew

[irbob]

I here yea rockjeep44. I am pondering the idea of welding the front but will need to install locking hubs first I guess.

[GT71Wagoneer]

Tuck and Rockjeep,

Thanks for that info fellas. Ok, when you say steering is hard, how much harder would you say? I dont have pwr steer.

Irbob, we got our question answered, sounds like a good option for cheap.

Thanks again people

[scotty]

i had my front welded for awhile and liked it alot. i have a true trac in there now,and its not quite the same. it works very well,and some tappig of the brakes will keep both pulling even when one is off the ground. prolly 95% of the public would be happy with it,but im not so sure. its easy to steer,and prolly alittle easier on parts, but the welded diffy may find his way back in.

my rig does pretty good in 3wd,id just keep the left side unlocked when the trails were real dry. in the mud i could turn the wheels ok. on hardpack dirt,or other high traction sirfaces,tho,turning the wheels from lock to lock was not possible while standing still.

if you guys with the d30s keep both your hubs locked with anything bigger than 31s in anything with more traction than slippery mud,expect to break your 260x u joints fairly often. the welded front diff is a whole lot harder on things when traction is available.

[Rockwagon]

I am welded front and rear. I don't mind it on the street but my truck isn't going to have goo street manners any how. I will never have a off road vehicle with out front and rear lockers of some sort again Oh yah did any body mention that it is cheap??????

[Peter Matusov]

it is actually stronger than a stock diff - the weakest link is the single pin, that is eliminated by welding up the satellite gears to the carrier.

i got fed up with the EZ Locker in a year. no automatic lockers for me, and there are too many tight turns around here to drive with a spool or welded gears. as long as I can't afford to drop in the Ox or something like it, limited slips will be there.

BTW, a TrueTrac is a nice and very tight LSD.

peter

[scotty]

yes the true trac is a very nice limited slip. id highly reccomend it for anyone that doenst really need the benefits of an all out locker. it has definately impressed me several times