I always go front but people I wheel with say rear. i would do front. But everyone has their opinion

 

Definitely the front. I have my front locked and its great. One of my buddies I wheel with has his rear locked and front open, and he has to give it a LOT more gas to get up rocks or hills my front locked only jeep goes up effortlessly.

 

I don't park on other peoples tires but going up hill the most weight is on the rear and mine in 2wd climbs fine. But when it comes to up hill rough rocky ground with larger rocks I do need both "LOCKED" to make it up. I tend to take it easy on the shinny peddle and pick my line.


Another poster suggested to wait a little longer and install lunch box lockers in both at same time. I will tell you that gears and lockers were the 2 most important upgrades that I have done to my XJ of all the thousands spent. Those 2 have made the most difference of all for off road use with larger tires.

 

Here is a cool vid of two Jeeps,, the first one is open front, locked rear. The second Jeep is locked/ locked..
This vid made me think hmm I want both.. So I went selectable front and rear.

On what end to do first. I think I depends on what kind of terrain you wheel the most.. Mud, sand, trail I go rear, crawling up onto stuff the front.
But once your front is up, all the weight jumps to the back and the fronts kinda just spin and jump around trying to pull you up as the one wheel wonder spins on the back..

you can see that the Jeep with the rear locker open front did fine going up with a little bump and gas.

most of the time its my rear that I have locked and the front open until I have something to go over or up then I lock the front. Once over psssssst! the front is unlocked.

So if I was going with one locker,,a money friendly locker. I would go Aussie locker in the rear.. cause it seems at times Im unstoppable with the rear locked only.

I dont know the first Jeep, the second Jeep is a buddy of ours here

 

Thanks for the replies fellas.
Dumajones, you bring up a good question that I don't have an answer to, yet. Concerning the type of terrain. Since I haven't done any off-roading yet (besides hitting a construction site when it was stock) i don't know what I will need most. There is a variety of land around and I plan on hitting them all. Since this is basically a toy I'll probably end up locking both ends, but I think I'll do the front first and once I get stuck somewhere I'll know it's time to lock the rear as well.

 

then definitely lock the rear till you gain a bit of experience.

a locked front has a mind of it's own.

 

This^^^^^, because of this>>>>(Since I haven't done any off-roading yet (besides hitting a construction site when it was stock) I don't know what I will need most.)

You will benefit from a rear locker more then having a front one in your case..
When you start to get into more serious wheeling get one for the front.

But hell its all up to you,, a locker up front, locker in the back is better then open diffs.

Oh and remember to get a winch. lockers get you in trouble, winch gets you out..

Here is a good vid to watch

 

front autolockers are not for pu*sies, the are awesome offroad. If your gonna be crybaby about having trouble steering/turning etc don't do it, they are not for everyone. Rear locker is a easy no brainer, you will be able to drive more easily without all the one wheel peeling and bouncing from before.

 

Maybe because mine is just chopped or because my rear sits a little higher I still have more weight in steel welded to the rear of mine then a factory jeep. even with a welded rear driving around In 2wd it still gets stuck easily. Just having one wheel pulling up front is like night and day. You can show me the scale numbers and I won't believe you. Even my stock 2 door acts the same way. The motor is up front. That's where the traction is.

 

Do you know this to be true or is this just what you have heard?

Even with lockers, the transfer case differential is still in place.

 

when u shift into full time and the axles are locked, it still will act like it's in part time.

So basically u lose the full time option if u put automatic lockers in the diffs

 

You need all three open or limited slip to run four wheel on hard surfaces.

 

The general reason you shouldn't use part time on the street is that differences in rolling diameter between the front and rear cause stresses to build up in the drive train. The transfer case differential fixes this. I don't see why this changes just because you lock the axles.

I haven't tried this either short or long term though.

 

There is also a difference between the left and right side in same way there is between the front and rear. When you lock the front and rear on highway you get that stress moved to the differential rather than the transfer case. It's why Detroit lockers poo on the street occasionally. The difference is significantly more and the front from left to right.

 

The 242, auto-locker, 4Full-Time issue has to do with steering behavior, and one front wheel breaking traction to stay even with the other.
While accelerating, front will be locked and will resist turning, or wheel will break loose and 'bark', no good for wet or snowy roads.