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I'm curious how a spool in the rear axle handles both on and off road compared to other lockers. Is tire wear a big issue with a spool? The xj is not a daily driver but it does see about 5-7k on the road a year. Thanks for any info.
IMHO, a spool is the way to go...yeah it may chirp the tires more than an auto locker, but the spool is completely predictable. No unloading going down the highway, less costly, more dependable. With an early model D44 in a CJ2A, every time I broke an axle, the torque transfer would shear the teeth off of the opposite side side gears in a detroit locker. Only went through four detroits this way. The spool was my best friend after this.
Spools are wicked fawkin pissa.
I run a spool of miller wire in the rear. Tire wear hasnt been an issue that I could tell in the last 5 months.
The good thing about a spool is that you know exactly how its going to act in the snow rain dry etc. where as lockers can be somewhat un-predictable.
I drive on the street alot and my detroit does some wierd things every now and then. Like if it disengages it might make you cross 2 lanes of traffic, or sometimes going around a corner it might make a real loud noise. On the plus side it does scare little kids and old ladies when it happens.
I'm curious how a spool in the rear axle handles both on and off road compared to other lockers. Is tire wear a big issue with a spool? The xj is not a daily driver but it does see about 5-7k on the road a year. Thanks for any info.
I like mine, but as it's been said, they do accelerate rear tire wear if you do a lot of pavement obstacles. I ran mine in a DD MJ for approx 20k and approx 5k in my XJ. The 33" BFG-MT started into this as new, and now have approx 25% tread. OTOH I wasn't very dilligent about airing back up for little 30 mile jaunts from the trailhead to the house. Running trail pressure on the road - with any diff, but especially a spool - takes life off tires like crazy.
It is very predictable though, and the $$$ difference between a 'real' spool and a 'real' Detroit is approx the cost of a new pair of tires.
You may notice in my sig that I'm running 32" tires with 4.88 gears. That's because MT/Rs are WAY too expensive to be grinding down with a spool. It only took me half the tread from my 35s to realize that.
Overall I've been pretty happy with my spool. I don't live in a snow area but I like to go on snow runs. I figured out what the spool was going to do in the first couple minutes, and that was it. If the spool is going to throw me sideways, it's because I put in in 2wd, cranked the wheel, and mashed the gas. In the dirt, it just goes. I haven't really noticed issues with pushing through turns, on or off road.
I also get lots of dirty looks when I drive around downtown. Gawd, I'm such an attention whore.
I knew you'd get in on this Phil. Yeah, Phil likes attention by screaching his tires. I've hear and seen it 1st hand. :laugh3: A spool is cheap, but U still have to reset up your gears with a full spool and the tire wear is real bad. The $ U save by going with a spool over a detroit will be eaten up very quickly as your tires wear down quickly. It does give predictable handling though. I had a full detroit in my xj 44 with 35" tires and hardly noticed my detroit while driving. U just feel a slight "thud" when U get on the gas and back off the gas, but it is very streetable. I'm going with another detroit in my 35 spline 9" and maybe a detroit up front in my hp44 as well, otherwise I'll keep the lock rite up front. With manual hubs, the locker up front is completely invisible.
Troy
