For me it depends on the intended use. I've never wanted for anything else but the Detroits I run in the front and back of my truck. For trail-only use it is nice not to have to worry about air lines, seals, compressors, or wiring. On something that sees a lot of road miles though I can see the value in selectable lockers.
I think other factors with auto lockers include the weight, power, wheelbase, and transmission of the vehicle.
I HATE auto lockers. In the rear, they push and in the front they bind and stress everything much more than neccessary.
Give me selectables any day of the week. Besides, you would be amazed at how little you actually need lockers for most obstacles. If the rig is balanced with good travel, most of the time, you can walk through without the need for a locker.
I have seen auto lockers break more parts than any selectable.
For a street driven rig they absolutely suck, for mostly trail use I could probably tolerate a rear auto. Although I've watched Shawn slide on side hills a number of times when his rear diff locked up.
As far as lines seal etc. go, most of the problems I've seen were related to crappy installation or lack of maintenance. If you do a decent job making electrical connections, routing wires and air lines then give them a once over a couple of times a year you probably won't have any problems. I've had the ARB's on my FJ40 for around 15 years now and can count the number of times they have had failures on one hand, mostly because of stupid things I did rather than any issues with the design.
Agree had both selectable lockers are way better . A Detroit in a fj40 is an adventure on wet pavement. They are ok in a 1 ton truck but in a 40 I would go arb, Toyota cable or electo lockers.. The 80 series electro dropouts go for about 500 used and can be converted to cable activation or wired up.. There is a write up in the 40 section on doing it... Good luck
I have Detroits front and rear in my pickup, ARBs front and rear in my 4Runner, and had factory electric lockers front and rear in my 80 Series. The only issue I had with the 80 was slow engagement times. On the 4Runner, I have broken CVs a couple of times with the front locked and had an issue with the compressor leaking (easy fix once I got a new o-ring). I've never had a single issue with the Detroits in my truck or ever wished for anything else. It isn't my daily driver but I've driven it to the Rubicon up Ice House without any sort of issues.
I like ARB's because the ride is better, and less stressful as mentioned. I hate hate hate how they never work when you need them to. Water freezes in the lines or some brush will pull them out or invariably there's a leak or the compressor is hosed (no pun there).
I've had Detroit autolockers in front and back and they suck for all the reasons mentioned.
Swap in some e-locked axles is just too painful to the wallet.
I have an Auburn in front of my '68 and it's OK. But it wasn't much help when it was on the rear going through Fordyce so I'm not sure how much help it is on the front. But steering isn't impacted like the Detroits.
So, I've settled on the EZ Locker, now in the rears of both my 63 and 68. They run a little more cash than Detroits and have much better road manners. No more clicking and thumping into parking spots. No problems locking them up. They are a little more difficult to put in than the Detroits, but not as hard as ARBs or Auburn LSD.
I'm running 31 and 33 inch tires. Nothing huge. If you've got big tires in the future you may want to stick with the selectables.
