so.. If I just stick with the 30/44 what is my best bet. I understand ARB is top of the line but im curious about the Auburn Gear ECTED setup? anyone have experience with that? I like the idea of locked when needed but limited slip the rest of the time. I intend on 5.13 gears with my auto trans.

 

Depends on your view of the strength of that front 30. A lot of people have good results locking it. I personally would not drop a grand into a selectable for it, and don't trust it enough for a detroit. Because of the dirt cheap price, a lunchbox might be an option if I lived somewhere without snow/ice - but I don't. Which leaves the truetrac.


Scroll back up and follow the link, it has some info on the ected.
Arb, detroit and truetrac would be my choices for the rear.

 

have you looked into just selling your front 30 to someone and replacing it with a used rubi44 complete with factory locker? you are already getting into the rear to put in a mighty fine arb locker so that's your chance to match the gear to that rubi front. . maybe get $800 for yours and pay someone $1,600 for their rubi = same you'd pay for just locking your weak 30. just thinking aloud

 

To be honest with you, my friends sport follows my rubicon all over the place. It just takes him more gas and wheel spin. The traction control is impressive.

 

Selectable lockers allow you much more control than Limited Slip or the Traction Control at low speeds. Most of the types that use clutches, centrifical pawls, ratchets, etc need a diferencial tire speed to activate. That means you will have one wheel stuck and the other spinning until the system locks and sends a nice shock though the drivetain. When using a selectable locker, you are locked at even the slowest speeds and there is less of a chance of that big 'ol 35" tire turning the inards of the diff into a mess of shrapnel. Ever follow a guy with a detroit rear? That chirp-chirp-chirp as he goes around a corner is the axle acting like a torsion spring trying to find the weakest link in the torque path until the tire breaks loose. Plus YOU are able to tell the system when to be locked, not some engineer that set the engagement settlings for "the most likely conditions".

Put is simply. When I had a Jeep with a LSD rear locker I wheeled with the tow strap tied to the front so others could pull me along. With a Rubi I can keep the tow strap tied to the back bumper to help others out.

 

I've run open/open, LSD rear/open front, LSD/LSD and now locker/locker.

Each evolution found me using less skinny pedal, less wheel spin, more finesse.

Lockers front and rear is almost cheating.

 

We are sooo experimental with these new jeeps . Also gone through the entire evolution like you. It's only $$$, "can't take it with me"

 

Depending on what sort of winters you get, selectable lockers are absolutely the way to go if you have the money for it. Running full-time lockers on icy streets can be rather frightening if you're not used to it. ARB's, Ox's & Ecteds all have their pros & cons, just check them all out and decide which one has the most pros & least cons for what you plan on tackling.

Having a locked front & rear on the trail means not having to give 'er on every obstacle. More throttle almost always = more breakage

 

So is more torque to a wheel = more breakage



As for needing lockers or not, you'll know for sure once you hit the trails that need them. Since you're asking this question, I doubt you need them yet.

 

BornJeep - If you stick to the street then you don’t need lockers. If you want to crawl on some rocks than some obstacles “almost” require lockers (some absolutely require lockers, but I haven’t done those yet). We were just up in Ouray, CO and came up to an obstacle that was very difficult without lockers. A number of Jeeps were winched, and some without lockers muscled their way up, but I can say, as others have, lockers and the right line was almost like cheating. If you want to get lockers, then selectable lockers are really nice…