Gears and Lockers-one step or two?

OK, I definately need lower gears now that I'm running 32's (planning on 4:56). Question I have:
"Is it economical to add lockers later?"

I can probably afford to have gears installed now, but if I can only do lockers at the same time, it'll have to wait.

Nevada City Sparky said:

OK, I definately need lower gears now that I'm running 32's (planning on 4:56). Question I have:
"Is it economical to add lockers later?"

I can probably afford to have gears installed now, but if I can only do lockers at the same time, it'll have to wait.

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Lunch box lockers you can toss in anytime as long as your running an open carrier.
A selectable or full detroit would require swapping over the ring gear and resetting some of the gear setup.

Nevada City Sparky said:

OK, I definately need lower gears now that I'm running 32's (planning on 4:56). Question I have:
"Is it economical to add lockers later?"

Click to expand...

Not really, since you'll have to open both axles up twice and have both sets of gears set up twice (remember: lockers replace your existing carrier).

I can probably afford to have gears installed now, but if I can only do lockers at the same time, it'll have to wait.

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I waited to be able to have both done at the same time. Figure that what you're spending to do the same labour twice goes quite some way towards the price of the lockers and it makes sense to hold off.

If you do the work yourself it doesn't matter how many times you take the stuff apart. Do the gears now and the lockers later.

If you are paying to have the work done why pay for the same labor twice? Wait and have it all done at one time.

That depends on what kinda lockers you are looking at. Some require the replacement of the carrier, which then would make the most sence to do it all at once. Others don't require you to replace the carrier only the spider gears, which then you'd be alright doing it later.

Anyother question is, what axles/gears do you have now? You might hit that carrier break and need to replace it anyway.

For example:
A D35 carrier break is 3.55 and numerically lower (Say you've got 3.55s, you'd be fine with 4.10s, 4.56s, or 4.88s) Yet, if you have 3.07s you will need a different carrier. For the front, I believe the HP D30 break is 3.73

RCman said:

I believe the HP D30 break is 3.73

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yep i went from 3.55 to 4.56 and needed a new carrier for my hp30

Looks like I'll wait a bit longer then. Was planning on an OX locker in the rear, open front.

I have D44 in back, going from 3.55 to 4.56

Keepin' the 30 in front.

Nevada City Sparky said:

OK, I definately need lower gears now that I'm running 32's (planning on 4:56). Question I have:
"Is it economical to add lockers later?"

I can probably afford to have gears installed now, but if I can only do lockers at the same time, it'll have to wait.

Click to expand...

Installing a full carrier locker isnt nearly as expensive as installing gear sets. The most time consuming part of setting up gears is getting the pinion depth. You dont need to mess with the pinion depth to install a locker. The only adjustment that needs to be reset is backlash.
You dont mention a time frame but I would say if its just a matter of waiting a couple months, just hold off and do it all at once, if we're talking a couple years, do your gears now and wait on the lockers.