Cutting Brakes

I read an article in the July 07 Petersons 4Wheel & Off-Road about cutting brakes and thought it would be a nice poor mans alternative to a locker. And since I'm pretty dang cheap, I'm considering doing it until I can get the moolah to put in an ARB.

From searching, I understand that the backing plate is too weak for the dual e-brake setup (how is it strong enough for a regular e-brake setup, then?). Am I right? Any way I could fix this, and is it even worth going this route?

I don't really need to have extra levers, nor do I need my setup to be that "correct", so adding MCs isn't preferred.

So I would probably be doing line locks since people say it works better than the e-brake setup, and my dash could always use more switches.

So has anyone done the line lock tango before? Anything I should be aware of or any advice? Any pics of your setups or parts lists/costs would be great.

THANK YOU

sandman

It's not a poor mans locker.It allows you to lock a tire that is spinning to transfer some tourqe to the tire that is not. You can mash the break pedal while staying on the gas and do about the same thing. The set up in the magazine is really for rock crawlers wanting to turn on a dime. I installed electric line locks on my last rig and used an air shifter electric switch from a big rig mounted on the gear shifter. Electric line locks come in different flavors of pressure so do you homework if you go this rought and remember they will drain you batt if you use it as a parking break. You better have a good parts house with lots of brass fittings and know how to flair break lines the proper way. Jegs and summit sell the line locks. The lever actuated ones in the mag would be way better suited for sombody that all ready has lockers and wants to really be able to finesse in the boulders. The way I had mine set up was fantastic. I had one switch controlling the front and rear line locks. I could stop on a steep hill load the clutch and pop the line lock and you would sware I was driving an automatic. It was nice to lock it up for winching or if you needed to park in a bad place for a while.
It worked so well with the switch right on the shifter that I would use it all day long even on the street at stop lights. If you have no ebrake then you dont want an electric line lock because you will kill your battery.You can get line locks that plumb into your existing brake lines that are manual and use no electric but they are more expensive and not a flip of a switch deal.
Hope this helps.