what are your thoughts on the Ected lockers? Would it be ok to run these front and rear with 5.13 gears if we beef up the front axel or should we stick with arb or elockers? The Jeep is mainly used off road and hardly has any mile put on it. He just wants that extra traction when he needs it. I don't have lockers and I'll probably be following him everywhere he goes. The one who usually leads our group has a TJ with arb lockers front and rear.

 

I took the advice I received from the guys at Off Road Evolution. I put an ARB air locker in the rear 44 and left the Dana 30 untouched except for C-Gussets. I'll run that set up until the front breaks or I decide to upgrade to a PR44. I don't take my JK out and try to break it but I do enjoy a challenging trail. It will cost a little over 5K to buy the PR44 and have it installed, hopefully I'll upgrade before I break the 30 on a trail 50 miles from civilization.

 

An Ected isn't a great option for a JK. They are a clutch based LSD in the open position. Clutches wear over time, especially when you lift a tire and allow free spin. Although the Ected has a 4 year warranty, the unit can't be rebuilt if the clutches wear out. This means you will get a new unit, at a pro rated cost, if it fails within 4 years. But what about after 4 years? It's toast. You'll need to buy a new diff.

Aside from the basic issue of longevity, the other problem is how the unit locks. It doesn't lock in the traditional method of a solid gear lock. Instead, the unit locks through the clutches by adding additional pressure that 'locks' the unit. Unfortunately, a high torque situation can cause the clutches to slip, despite the 'lock' condition. I don't consider this unit a locker and feel it is ill suited to moderate to hard core off road use.

 

thanks for the input everybody. I was leaning towards arb or eaton but a friend mentioned ected. It looks like the best thing for him to do would be to lock the rear with either an arb or elocker and just beef up the front axel for now. Should he beef up the rear axel also? How will 5.13s hold up in the d30 or should he stick with 4.88s?

 

you should be fine in the rear for a while. you may eventually do damage to the shaft flanges or even the splines and, when that happens, just upgrade to chromo shafts. the housing itself will hold up just fine. now, 5.13's in a dana 30 will have the pinion get real small and can be a potential weak point but, there are lots of folks running it with 35's and without any problems. if you leave the front open, i think you will be fine here as well.