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those with welded/spooled rear on a DD

big83chevy4x4

big83chevy4x4

3/4 ton status
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any regrets? i can't afford a locker and hate the open yet my truck is still my DD.

my street to offroad ratio is about 60/40. i just don't want to replace the rear tires every 2 months.
 
I like a welded/spooled rear over a locker on the street. More prdictable. I ran a welded rear on my 4100# Bronco as a DD for about 2 years. I rotated the tires often, and in 2 years I only had to replace them once (did all 4).
 
I ran welded for 2.5 years. Grew to hate it, and didn't realize how much I hated it until the Detroit went in...

Rene
 
I ran a welded rear on an '84 F-150 4x4 that was my DD at the time. It had an 8.8" rear with well-worn 36" TSL's. After 6 months, the weld let go. That truck was a 4 speed, and I had zero complaints of on-road handling......rear tires do wear out significantly faster. I'd say that on a longbed truck, there are significantly less handling quirks than on a short rig.......but I've never owned a short rig with a welded rear.

Roy
 
I ran a 1979 FJ-40 Land Cruiser for years with a welded rear diff as a DD . I thought I did not mind all the quirks until I replaced the welded chunk with an open chunk and realized how much difference there was.
It is very do-able in a DD but the wear and tear on the truck is magnified several times over a locker of some sort. Axles splines will wear out faster , more stress on u-joints , rear spring bushings , rear spring center pins are more likely to break, and YES the tire wear is a killer !
Tom
 
It's not really a DD, but I've ran a welded rear in my K5 for several years now and have made several 250+ mile roundtrips with it. The previous rear axle was a limited slip, and I really didn't notice any major on-road handling issues with the welded rear. Only during really sharp low-speed turns, like in parking lots, was it noticable. As several have mentioned, the rear tire wear was greatly increased.

Overall if it was my daily driver I probably would NOT run it with a welded rear.
 
Driving around parking lots with a spool pisses people off. Do it!

P.s. Having had both, I perfer a locker around town, on the open road it doesn't matter.
 
this isn't what i wanted to hear. sounds like it would be worth the hassle and critisism of putting my gov loc back in, yet i hate to do that in fear that it will blow up on me.
decisions...decisions...
 
I have heard of people using the welder to make a locking rear, but have never actually tried it or seen it done. I have a work horse jeep that I have been considering testing the method on. Anyone have pictures or a good how to web site.

Thanks
 
Having a Detroit I sometimes look back and think I should have just welded it. Think about when you go around corners, how often are you actually off the gas?? Not much. Yes there are some instances where you are not on the gas and its unlocked but I dont think the $350+ pays for it. You will wear out a set of tires faster then wheelin in the rocks then you will chirping around a corner. My .02 :xmas:
 
I'm going to be installing an mini spool next week in my 14ff. I was going to buy an detriot but I started thinking along the line as 85mudblazin and said screw it. the sub doesn't get driven much any ways maybe 50 miles a week. btw I picked it up from www.polyperformance.com great guys to deal with.
 
Geargrinder said:
I like a welded/spooled rear over a locker on the street. More prdictable. I ran a welded rear on my 4100# Bronco as a DD for about 2 years. I rotated the tires often, and in 2 years I only had to replace them once (did all 4).
Click to expand...

I never ran a welded rear, but I can vouch for the predictability of a detroit. I ran one in my last rig for about 2 years and put about 18000mi. on it. Once you get the hang of it you know exactly how hard you can push it before it locks. There are times when you need to push hard to get into traffic and such that you will bark the hell outta your tires but other than that I got used to going into sharp turns a little hotter than normal, coasting through them longer than normal and getting back into the gas later than normal. This method proved successful for me :D
 
Weld it up, you have the wheelbase to help make it less of a hastle and/or annoyance. If you hate it, 14bFF's are a dime a dozen, you could always go back to an open if you wanted to. The last one i bought cost me a whopping $32.50, complete drum to drum.
 
i have been running a welded 14ff for almost a year now and when i did it i had 75% on my ssr's now i have 50%. its not that bad unless your tunring sharp. i just got a detroit cause i have gotten tired of it but i havent had any time latley to install it. but you will love it offroad the street just gets anoying after awhile especially when trying to get somewhere in a decent amount of time.
 
I have both , a 51 willys with welded rear ,and a 78 sub with loc-rite. I like both ,maybe the welded about 20% more . If you haul anything heavy go with the locker, if not I would weld it up. We welded my friends wagoneer and its good until you put wieght in it "bags of cement" then its un-bearable
 
i got a welded rearend in my 92 2wd s10 pickup. its fun as hell in the rain or burnouts but they suck in the parking lots (boss keeps yelling at me :D )

oh and i only welded it cuz i broke a few teeth off the spider gears

and no i dont regret it
 
4trolls said:
If you haul anything heavy go with the locker, if not I would weld it up. We welded my friends wagoneer and its good until you put wieght in it "bags of cement" then its un-bearable
Click to expand...

how unbearable was it? i still use my truck as a truck, i haul stuff all the time. sometimes heavy, sometimes not. like next weekend, we are hauling 2 vehicles to the scrap yard. then later in the summer we are getting everything to put a roof on the house with my truck.

right now im almost tempted to weld it, my buddy has a 4.10 open sf for $100 if i don't like it, or i can always put my gov loc back in. :crazy:
 
I had my DD welded for some time. It was kinda fun at first. Then it got old and annoying and in the end when it was time to sell it I swapped out carriers, set up the gears and took it for a drive. Wow, what a relief. Seemed like it moved so much easier.
 
I am planning on welding my 14ff up, it has a Gov lock in it which does not work. I would say weld it up and if you don't like it, buy that 12 bolt for a hundred bucks.

You can get a lunch box locker for the 12 bolt for around $200 or so on e bay :)
 
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