New Eaton E Locker Models (4 Viewers)

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I know it would be noisy as heck, but has any skipped the Air/Electric setup and put Detroit Lockers in Front and/or Rear?

In the video he mentions heavy trucks, which at 3 tons the LC seems to represent.

Detroit not available for the 200....
 
In the market, for elockers for my 100 series so the cruiser brothers have kindly given me a quote for the Harrop eatons. Since eaton is coming out with the new locker(that they are working with Harrop on), I called Eatons technical support line and unfortunately while the individual was very nice, he was not very forthcoming. New line of elockers will be out sometime this year and they are not releasing the information of how the new locker is different from the one they have supplied to Harrop for a number of years until the release date is set.
 
Eaton has what they call the "Direct Acting" locker which seems like it addresses the lock/unlock issue of their older locker design, but they only seem to make it for the Dana 60 and 70.
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The "lock/unlock issue" is completely overblown, and is more of a conceptual/keyboard jockey battle than anything real. I run both types of lockers (ARB air and Eaton electric) and there isn't any difference in real world use. Also, I've run the Eatons on very challenging trails so they aren't being babied.
 
Eaton is junk for Toyota diffs. The is the second rear I have had fail. Also the unlocking and non-instant locking is terrible on technical obstacles.
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Dang, carnage. I'm trying to understand if this is a load issue or a dynamic engagement issue where it's trying to lock when putting power down.
I don’t know, and really don’t care. It shouldn’t happen. Lockers aren’t intended to be babied IMO.

Also just pulled the front and it’s fubar too. Magnet won’t energize even with power tested all the way to the engagement collar
 
I don’t know, and really don’t care. It shouldn’t happen. Lockers aren’t intended to be babied IMO.

Also just pulled the front and it’s fubar too. Magnet won’t energize even with power tested all the way to the engagement collar
I've been on the fence about e-lockers vs air-lockers. This makes me lean way over to air.
 
I've been on the fence about e-lockers vs air-lockers. This makes me lean way over to air.
ARB is tried and true. And their parts availability and support is phenomenal.
I’ve been running e-lockers for 5 years now and I can tell you that they have been a headache. They worked right about 10% of the time 75% of the time 😬
 
I don’t know, and really don’t care. It shouldn’t happen. Lockers aren’t intended to be babied IMO.

Also just pulled the front and it’s fubar too. Magnet won’t energize even with power tested all the way to the engagement collar
The Eaton manual does say basically don’t engage above like 5mph. (Actually I think it says some specific RPM limit at the diff but on 35s it translated to about 5mph). I don’t disagree that they should be able to handle more or less any load thrown at them though… that limit always concerned me
 
The Eaton manual does say basically don’t engage above like 5mph. (Actually I think it says some specific RPM limit at the diff but on 35s it translated to about 5mph). I don’t disagree that they should be able to handle more or less any load thrown at them though… that limit always concerned me
Yeah. 5mph is still a pretty good clip rolling in to an obstacle. I couldn't imagine many times engaging them at a much faster speed, though im sure I have. I dont think these failures are a cuse of over 5mph engagement though, but who knows.
The first rear I experienced failure with had indentations forming on the cam/ramp collar, which caused the pins to hang and not engage properly. So far, I've encountered three different failures, maybe four, since I don't think the missing cross pin and cracked ramp collar are related.
 
Yeah. 5mph is still a pretty good clip rolling in to an obstacle. I couldn't imagine many times engaging them at a much faster speed, though im sure I have. I dont think these failures are a cuse of over 5mph engagement though, but who knows.
The first rear I experienced failure with had indentations forming on the cam/ramp collar, which caused the pins to hang and not engage properly. So far, I've encountered three different failures, maybe four, since I don't think the missing cross pin and cracked ramp collar are related.
Yeah… air lockers for you for sure.

I avoided air lockers because I’ve read of enough people with leaks and of issues blowing oil out of the diff breathers or even worse the axle seals
 
ARB is tried and true. And their parts availability and support is phenomenal.

Specifically with their diffs or all ARB products? Their BP-51 support frankly sucks compared to some other high end vendors.

Yeah… air lockers for you for sure.

I avoided air lockers because I’ve read of enough people with leaks and of issues blowing oil out of the diff breathers or even worse the axle seals

The gear guru Zuk stopped doing ARBs altogether. Not because of failures but from terrible QC.


But then if it’s that or what @ga12r1 had happen…
 
Specifically with their diffs or all ARB products? Their BP-51 support frankly sucks compared to some other high end vendors.



The gear guru Zuk stopped doing ARBs altogether. Not because of failures but from terrible QC.


But then if it’s that or what @ga12r1 had happen
Yeah. I dunno about BP51, I wouldn't run them anyways. I dont think they are a very good value when compared to other monotubes.

But I do have experience with getting parts for drawers and fridges and they pretty much can get you what ever part you need for replacement or rebuild.

A lot of other companies don't do parts because they just consider their products to be thrown away after a while.

I'm not saying thats the case for the Eatons, but today I've been striking out trying to find parts to maybe rebuild these lockers to sell to someone that wants e-lockers. Places that I would usually get parts from like ECGS do no't have access to parts even though they sell and install the lockers.

Ordering parts for an ARB locker is easy.
 
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Wow! That’s some crazy breakage. I have Harrop/Eaton E-lockers FR/RR on my VDJ200 & VDJ79. Granted I’m only rolling on 285/70R17’s on both of them, but I’ve never had engagement/disengagement issues. Then again, I stop completely to engage and disengage. I hope you come right with parts. I hate having to scrap something due to the supplier not providing spares. I’ve had no end of issues with ARB. Their air chucks are great until the o-rings wear out. Can’t get those anywhere. Not even Australia. A buddy of mine has ARB diff locks in his HZJ79, and the installer pinched the copper air line between the 3rd member and the axle housing. While not ARB’s fault, he wondered why the lockers never worked. After getting that fixed, he now gets oil blowing up from his diffs all the way up to his ARB air compressor, which incidentally is now failing as well.
 
Wow! That’s some crazy breakage. I have Harrop/Eaton E-lockers FR/RR on my VDJ200 & VDJ79. Granted I’m only rolling on 285/70R17’s on both of them, but I’ve never had engagement/disengagement issues. Then again, I stop completely to engage and disengage. I hope you come right with parts. I hate having to scrap something due to the supplier not providing spares. I’ve had no end of issues with ARB. Their air chucks are great until the o-rings wear out. Can’t get those anywhere. Not even Australia. A buddy of mine has ARB diff locks in his HZJ79, and the installer pinched the copper air line between the 3rd member and the axle housing. While not ARB’s fault, he wondered why the lockers never worked. After getting that fixed, he now gets oil blowing up from his diffs all the way up to his ARB air compressor, which incidentally is now failing as well.
Yeah. I don’t think this failure has anything to do with locking while moving. The carrier absolutely has to be moving to lock. The locker CANNOT lock at a standstill. The only thing that will happen if you engage the locker at a standstill will be the magnet energizing. The carrier has to physically rotate to allow the engagement pins to ride up the ramp/cam collar. It absolutely positively cannot lock if not moving.
I try to anticipate and engage my lockers when rolling up to an obstacle. At that point both wheels are turning together at the same speed. I can’t see how that could ever be detrimental to the locker.
I do run a lot of trails where I lock the rear for the entire run. Maybe that’s too much stress for these little lockers? I dunno. If so that’s just more suckage 😬
 
Australia has had the Harrop/Eaton lockers for a much longer time than the US. I'm told, most of the competition trucks there use ARB lockers. The mechanism is stronger and it engages/disengages almost instantly. So, choose ARB for competition/hard use. Choose Eaton/Harrop for Touring/Overlanding use.

The ARB's certainly have issues with air leaks. I have a suspicion the air pressure is just too high. They'll lock fine at 70-90 psi... albeit slower.
 
For those that don’t quite understand how the Eaton e-locker for our trucks works here’s a good video.
It’s always been my thought that if the truck was moving and for some reason the locker wouldn’t couldn’t physically engage due to bind or differing wheel speed the pins would just override the friction/clamping force of the magnet not causing any damage. There is no physical linkage. It’s just magnetic. And once the pins cam all the way for engagement the magnetic friction is overwhelmed anyway allowing the collar to continue to turn with the carrier.
It doesn’t take much to break that bond. Just a small indentation in the cam will cause the pin to hang thus causing the cam to continue to turn and not engage. That was my first e-locker failure. That was replaced under warranty though. Although labor was not obviously.
 

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