Marlin is selling Zip Lockers

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inkpot said:
His website shos that he has an 8" unit for the front of an 80 series, but NO 9.5 for the rears.
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So, this is the mini-section, not the 80's. We don't run the 9.5" rings.
 
I remember ARB did a review of them, which is suspect to me from the ground up, but I digress.

They rigged a Zip and an ARB up to some kind of test bed, and applied an undisclosed amount of pressure to it until the Zip cracked, then muttered a few glowing words of the ARB.

As mentioned, they did not quantify how much torque was applied to the unit, but I doubt a 22R/3VZE will produce that much, and I don't know how much product-pimping slight-of-hand took place, but it's hard to find opinions and reviews on such a new product.

If Marlin likes 'em enough to sell 'em, they may be pretty good.
 
We sell a TON of Zips. I wish I could give an opinion on how they hold up but as has been stated Yukon currently has no offering for the 9.5" diffs and that's what my vehicle has.

When asked on the phone how they are, the best I can say is "I sell a bunch of them and have yet to get a call back regarding one after the sale." I tend to find that if I get a call about a product after the sale, it tends to not not be a good one. :lol: As far as I can tell, these things are holding up great.
 
i watched a video on youtube of the destruction.
ARB Air Locker vs Yukon Zip Locker - YouTube
(don't know if its the same one reffered to above, i just found it)
the only significant difference between the two that i see is the failure mode.
Yes, the arb held out for a few hundred more ft-lbs, but when you are in the 6000 ft-lb range, a few hundred ft-lbs equates to about a 5% difference in failure. so that may or may not be statistically significant. a larger sample size would hash that out.

However, the failure mode is what interested me. on that point i agree completely with arb. the axle should fail first. it leaves you with the most options to get home and the least spendy repair bill in my opinion. So based on just what i saw there, the arb seems like a better engineered part.

However, on the other hand, how often does your ring and pinion see 6000 ft-lbs? how often does it see half of that?

I could see maybe in an impulse momentum type of situation where the wheel is spinning quite fast under a load and is suddenly drawn to a stop in a very short amount of time, then maybe you could get a spike of several thousand ft-lbs of torque in the differential (over a very short amount of time). but i dont know what the probability of that is, especially in our relatively low hp rigs. that is where i think the test arb did is...not flawed per say, but lacking.
dont get me wrong their methodology seems legit, but i just dont know how practical it is.

maybe you could do that in a high horsepower supercharged rock racing buggy making 800-1000 hp to being with, but i would be hard pressed to believe we could do it with our junk.
just my .02
 
bryan89 said:
However, on the other hand, how often does your ring and pinion see 6000 ft-lbs? how often does it see half of that?
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I'm not an engineer. But, the reality is 6000 lb-ft is very possible with the gear reduction commonly found behind a 22re. Factory torque is 142 lb-ft. Even with a modest 98:1 gear reduction (3.9x2.27x2.27x4.88=98) the torque multiplication takes you over 13900 lb-ft at the rear axle. That is why people with dual transfer cases are more likely to bust something than those without.
 
pappy said:
I'm not an engineer. But, the reality is 6000 lb-ft is very possible with the gear reduction commonly found behind a 22re. Factory torque is 142 lb-ft. Even with a modest 98:1 gear reduction (3.9x2.27x2.27x4.88=98) the torque multiplication takes you over 13900 lb-ft at the rear axle. That is why people with dual transfer cases are more likely to bust something than those without.
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excellent point. i did not think about dual setups. especially with gears.
 
pappy said:
I'm not an engineer. But, the reality is 6000 lb-ft is very possible with the gear reduction commonly found behind a 22re. Factory torque is 142 lb-ft. Even with a modest 98:1 gear reduction (3.9x2.27x2.27x4.88=98) the torque multiplication takes you over 13900 lb-ft at the rear axle. That is why people with dual transfer cases are more likely to bust something than those without.
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pappy,

Remember that the torque rating of 142 ft-lbs is the engine's peak torque output, which is designed to occur at a peak RPM at wide open throttle, amongst other proper operating conditions.

As for me, whenever I am in a bind such that my tires are fully loaded and cannot slip, I never goose it and certainly never use full throttle. I feather it at no more than 1,200 RPM at maybe, what, 20% or less throttle? So I'm betting the engine is only putting down 20-30 lb-ft of torque, which is only gonna transmit 3,000 lb-ft torque at 100:1 to the locker.

Also remember these are ideal figures not considering any losses, which with our drive trains, must be in excess of 30%!

Other than this, for me, full throttle would only be used for playing in the snow, a condition where traction is greatly limited and any excess torque output is easily lost to free wheel spin.

This is why kids need to be properly taught how to use their daddies truck off road when they get out of high school!! :doh: Oh I just went there :D

Regards,
BigMike
 
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