Cost of fitting diff locks

[Sixty's Guy]

Not sure if this should be here or 60/62, but here goes.

Question specifically for Aussies - What is a reasonable cost for the fitment of Powertrax Lock Rights? Front & rear?

I got a quote today from the local diff specialists and thought it was high. Having said this I have no idea how much it should cost. I also got a seperate quote to fit new R&P's at the same time.

I see that ARB charge $370 for the 1st Air locker and $310 for the second. I'll call down tomorrow and ask them for a quote.

 

[Deny]

Dude! I think 300cdn is real good for an air locker, I was told up here(Canada) they cost around 600-1000.
Cheers,
Deny
PS Does anyone know the cheepest dealer for ARBs in North America?

 

[HZJ60 Guy]

Good lord. ARB's are anywhere from 600.00 to 775.00 US!

That cant be right. Even in OZ dollars???



TB

 

[Sixty's Guy]

LOL! Sorry guys thats the fitting price! The lockers here are; $1482AUS and $1195AUS for the 2nd. Plus fitting.

 

[CruisinGA]

I don't know if Kurt is the cheapest or not, definatly competitive, bought my locker a long time ago. He gets my buisness. Cheapest is not always best.

www.cruiseroutfitters.com

 

[tlcruiserman]

I thought it was said that it was lockrite or powertracs those are not air lockers they are auto locking lockers. In US you can get either for about $300 - $375USD.

Just and FYI if you are interested, running a powertracs or lockrite will give you different results than a full time locker like Detroit or air lockers like ARB, not to mention factory cable or E-lockers. I ran a powertracs in my BJ42 for 3 years and I was glad when I removed it. If you are going to run the truck mainly off-road and very little street use than you are probably fine, but if you are doing a 50/50 or greater split with on-road use, I would not recommend any auto locking locker. Most of them are based on load or torque to the axle to activate and on the road that can happen when changing lanes beging in a a large sweeping turn, heavy acceleration a whole host of reasons why it will lock on you and the result is the truck will usually pull in one direction or another when it locks and releases. Nothing that is going to make you wreck the truck but enough that you will get used to what to do to compensate for it.

Now I have a few theories on the performance of the auto locking lockers off-road as well. Keep in mind that my data is based on my Bj42 with FF rear axle and powertrac locker installed. I have found that the truck seems to be less capable or more unpredictable off-road I have found that on different articulation the locker will unlock or will not lock up so I really could not rely on when it would engage or unengaged and a few times it had left me struggling on a steep incline. Now at first I thought defective or I was not used to it, but I swapped it out and the same results again. I am not saying they are junk or do not help at all but I am saying you get what you pay for and if you want lockers than pay the price and get Air lockers or factory cable or E-lockers or something like a Detroit (locked all the time). I realize it is more money but if you are at a point when it time for lockers to keep up with your wheeling don't go cheap you will regret it.

I was talking mostly about rear lockers, in the front if you can work out a little better with the auto locking lockers over a Detroit so you can still steer the truck but ultimately the better lockers (mentioned in previous paragraph) are still a better way to go.

there is always a debate that starts on the subject of lockers between air lockers and cable/E-lockers so before it starts I will mention it. There is very little reliablity difference between air lockers and E-lockers as long as they are equally maintained and for that matter it applies to cable lockers as well. The only difference I can see is how much maintainence each requires. Simple rules apply for this the more parts/moving parts involved the high the amount of maintenance is required (preventative maintenance) so ARB's are the highest because you have a compressor, selonoids, air lines and locker itself involved, E-lockers are second you have electric motor/sensors and ECM to deal with (I left out locker itself because it is very simple, as simple as diffrencial and ARB has clutches and what not), and last you have cable lockers you have a cable and lever to keep adjusted, which is about as much work as keeping you parking brake adjusted.

Sorry for the long thread, just thought I would get it all out in one rather than several.

Cheers,

Michael

 

[beanz2]

There is very little reliablity difference between air lockers and E-lockers as long as they are equally maintained and for that matter it applies to cable lockers as well. The only difference I can see is how much maintainence each requires. Simple rules apply for this the more parts/moving parts involved the high the amount of maintenance is required (preventative maintenance) so ARB's are the highest because you have a compressor, selonoids, air lines and locker itself involved, E-lockers are second you have electric motor/sensors and ECM to deal with (I left out locker itself because it is very simple, as simple as diffrencial and ARB has clutches and what not), and last you have cable lockers you have a cable and lever to keep adjusted, which is about as much work as keeping you parking brake adjusted.

You'll love the cable lockers on the 74, Michael. I've been running cable lockers for 5 years and I've never had to adjust anything. There are really no adjustments in the cable mechanism, it's on or it's off. I guess I could be more anal retentive and lubricate the linkages...

Dave