ive been thinking about putting lockers in the rear of my xj and one of my friends told me a cheaper way out is to weld the spider gears. ive drive my jeep at least 2-3 times a week to work and i was wondering if it would hurt it?

 

if you care for your tires you wont do it, if your on a tight budget go with an Aussie in the rear, it will be much better on your tires then the weld and it will work the same.

-Kyle

 

i wheeled with a spool for 6 months in the rear and IMO its hard to beat that off road. As far as using it on road, i wouldnt ever do it again, it killed my rear tires a lot faster than the fronts, its my DD (obviously).

DD: no spool
offroad rig: spool

 

welded spiders is a cheap form of a spool.

i dd my rig with a spool and wish i went with a detroit.

the handling quirks arent too bad, its just the increased tire wear i dont like.

my daily driving also consists of 55-80 miles a day, 5-6 days a week.

if you dont put nearly as many miles on your jeepthough it might be worth the cash savings.

 

so either way its going to mess my tires up?

 

whats "either way"? spooled vs locked?

spooled wear tires quicker all the time

locker will differentiate the rear axle in turns so no increased tire wear takes place

 

oooooo i see.

 

keep in mind that with a spool or a full out locker (like a air or electric) you put an incredible amount of torsional force on your teenie tiny axle shafts of a stock cherokee. If your running 33's or larger you have a good chance of snapping a axle (or your carrier) if you are taking a super tight turn on pavement. my personal opinion is to keep the open rear end if your running huge tires until you can swap in a stronger one.

 

If he's got the 8.25" it should have the 29-spline shafts, in which case it should hold him fine for up to 35's.

 

any locker is supposed to have a certain amount of slippage to prevent tearing things up. the problem with welding the spider and axle gears is that there is no slipping at all. great for traction but bad when you put enough torque on it. when you put an immense amount of torque on that weld, theres absolutely no give to it and that can lead to twisting off axle shafts and whatnot (it happened to me). whereas with an actual locker there is a tiny bit of slippage allowed when huge amounts of torque are put on it. this prevents doing things like twisting off axle shafts.

 

all the slip is in the tires.

im not worried about twisting my 35 spline alloy shafts

 

what locker has slip in it? a locker allows one tire to spin faster than the other but NO tire can spin slower than drive shaft.

 

yeah those shafts will be fine. and jinx, thats what i was taking about. with a traditional locker one tire is allowed to spin faster but with welded gears they are forced to spin at the same speed no matter what.

 

im selling a bike right now to pay for my aussie. hopefully i will have it within the next 2 weeks.

i like my rear tires.