Land Rover diff suggestions

[Tinbasherdan]

Currently got a modified 4 pin centre from a puma 110 rear in the front of my 110, but considering something to aid with traction. The choice is between a full locker (which I shy away from up front due to associated steering issues when locked) or an Ashcroft ATB.

Anyone any other suggestions? It’s mostly just to try to stop me deleting halfshafts on slippery surfaces more than a need for extreme off road

 

[Rannsachair]

Currently got a modified 4 pin centre from a puma 110 rear in the front of my 110, but considering something to aid with traction. The choice is between a full locker (which I shy away from up front due to associated steering issues when locked) or an Ashcroft ATB.

Anyone any other suggestions? It’s mostly just to try to stop me deleting halfshafts on slippery surfaces more than a need for extreme off road

I have Ashcroft ATB's and traction control, can get through most slippery stuff.

 

[sako243]

I've got Ashlockers in the front and rear of my 110 built by Nige from Xcess 4x4. In fact I've got the first pegged Ashlocker in a short nose housing ever done.

Personally I'm a fan of full lockers rather than ATBs because ATBs are reactive rather than preemative. By their very definition you've lost traction as ATBs engage, admittedly it's very quick and definitely better than nothing. I prefer the lockers because, if I'm being blunt, I'm pretty competent driving offroad and can judge the conditions so would rather preemtively lock the diff before I lose traction than wait for it to kick in.

Everyone seems to recommend a front locker first but interestingly those that do (at least amongst my circle of acquaintances) all drive 90s. I've definitely found the rear locker to be far more advantageous in a 110" wheelbase. 90s always seem to (in my opinion when I've watched them) pulling themselves up climbs whereas due to the extra wheelbase and weight a 110 gets far more assistance from being pushed from the rear axle. A 90 on paper is only 200kg lighter than a 110 in Td5 form and most of that extra weight sits over the rear axle. Having said that you've just added 1/4 of a tonne to the front so perhaps the front will make more of a difference.

Sympathetic driving will get you far less breakages than an LSD or locker though.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I've got Ashlockers in the front and rear of my 110 built by Nige from Xcess 4x4. In fact I've got the first pegged Ashlocker in a short nose housing ever done.

Personally I'm a fan of full lockers rather than ATBs because ATBs are reactive rather than preemative. By their very definition you've lost traction as ATBs engage, admittedly it's very quick and definitely better than nothing. I prefer the lockers because, if I'm being blunt, I'm pretty competent driving offroad and can judge the conditions so would rather preemtively lock the diff before I lose traction than wait for it to kick in.

Everyone seems to recommend a front locker first but interestingly those that do (at least amongst my circle of acquaintances) all drive 90s. I've definitely found the rear locker to be far more advantageous in a 110" wheelbase. 90s always seem to (in my opinion when I've watched them) pulling themselves up climbs whereas due to the extra wheelbase and weight a 110 gets far more assistance from being pushed from the rear axle. A 90 on paper is only 200kg lighter than a 110 in Td5 form and most of that extra weight sits over the rear axle. Having said that you've just added 1/4 of a tonne to the front so perhaps the front will make more of a difference.

Sympathetic driving will get you far less breakages than an LSD or locker though.

I’m loathe to touch the rear as it’s Salisbury and a rigmarole to take out. And with the Cummins up front even under sympathetic driving it can have issues!

I don’t think it’ll be seeing the sort of terrain where a full locker will be advantageous to be honest, it’s mostly for snow and ice in the winter when it might briefly lose traction

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I have Ashcroft ATB's and traction control, can get through most slippery stuff.
View attachment 486520

No fancy traction control in this old girl, you’re lucky it has door locks! But a dab of left foot braking can do the same job

 

[sako243]

I’m loathe to touch the rear as it’s Salisbury and a rigmarole to take out. And with the Cummins up front even under sympathetic driving it can have issues!

I had a Salisbury and after a long chat with Nige ditched it for the short nose. Admittedly it was going locker so it was the either an ARB or Ashlocker and the ARB had quite a few weak points compared to the ARB. Arguably with Nige's mods it's now stronger than a Salisbury but mainly when it's locked.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I had a Salisbury and after a long chat with Nige ditched it for the short nose. Admittedly it was going locker so it was the either an ARB or Ashlocker and the ARB had quite a few weak points compared to the ARB. Arguably with Nige's mods it's now stronger than a Salisbury but mainly when it's locked.

The Salisbury is staying, I can’t afford to go shortnose for no gain other than ease of spending more money on it! It’s a green Laning motor rather than anything extravagant so I don’t think I can justify locking both axles

 

[indy4x]

Not used the Ashcroft ATB but have had a couple of vehicles with 'automatic' type lockers as well as manual

Frontera 2.8TDi, I fitted front and rear Trooper axles with 'ratchet' lockers. They were great in mud, snow, ice etc and just got on with it. The way they work, as soon as 1 wheel loses traction they kick in and lock, probably in less than 1/4 turn of the slipping wheel. Initially I only had the locker in the front axle, this was only because I needed a rear Trooper axle with an open diff to do the conversion. Troopers with open diffs are like rocking horse poop in the UK and took me 18 months and many miles to find one.

With just the front locker fitted, I took it to a Frontera Owners Group meet at Bala off road, I was driving sections that no one else got through unless they used a winch

Downside, they are noisy, more so on the SWB Frontera, you can hear the mechanism ratcheting when you go round tight corners. Occasionally they lockup on v tight turns and while they unlock quite quickly its usually noisy. The ones I had fitted in the Trooper axles were the Aussie Locker brand.

Land Rover Disco1, this was fitted with similar lockers to the Ashcroft ATB but without the added benefit of the preload springs that Ashcroft employ. Again, worked really well and just got on with it in the slippy stuff. If you were cross axled then you might have to dab the brakes to get the locker to kick in but from the description on the Ashcroft site it looks like they have that covered

Mercedes G Wagon 300GD, this had factory fit manual lockers as you would expect, in practice, they worked equally as well as the auto lockers I had in the Frontera and Disco

@Tinbasherdan I'd go with the Ashcroft ATB, simple fit and forget, don't have to worry about onboard air and associated plumbing. Most auto lockers kick in pretty quickly, usually less than 1 revolution of the wheel losing traction so no worries there

Just a final point, my current off road toy is a Jeep ZJ, currently has open diff at the front and LSD at the rear. The LSD has had its clutch pack rebuilt but its no where near as good as a locker. I do have an ARB air locker for the front (Dana 30) and a lunchbox/ratchet locker for the rear Dana 44. Went for the ARB as it was cheap (less than £300), no way was I paying £1k for a new one and given my past experience with lunchbox lockers I'm happy with one in the rear

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Not used the Ashcroft ATB but have had a couple of vehicles with 'automatic' type lockers as well as manual

Frontera 2.8TDi, I fitted front and rear Trooper axles with 'ratchet' lockers. They were great in mud, snow, ice etc and just got on with it. The way they work, as soon as 1 wheel loses traction they kick in and lock, probably in less than 1/4 turn of the slipping wheel. Initially I only had the locker in the front axle, this was only because I needed a rear Trooper axle with an open diff to do the conversion. Troopers with open diffs are like rocking horse poop in the UK and took me 18 months and many miles to find one.

With just the front locker fitted, I took it to a Frontera Owners Group meet at Bala off road, I was driving sections that no one else got through unless they used a winch

Downside, they are noisy, more so on the SWB Frontera, you can hear the mechanism ratcheting when you go round tight corners. Occasionally they lockup on v tight turns and while they unlock quite quickly its usually noisy. The ones I had fitted in the Trooper axles were the Aussie Locker brand.

Land Rover Disco1, this was fitted with similar lockers to the Ashcroft ATB but without the added benefit of the preload springs that Ashcroft employ. Again, worked really well and just got on with it in the slippy stuff. If you were cross axled then you might have to dab the brakes to get the locker to kick in but from the description on the Ashcroft site it looks like they have that covered

Mercedes G Wagon 300GD, this had factory fit manual lockers as you would expect, in practice, they worked equally as well as the auto lockers I had in the Frontera and Disco

@Tinbasherdan I'd go with the Ashcroft ATB, simple fit and forget, don't have to worry about onboard air and associated plumbing. Most auto lockers kick in pretty quickly, usually less than 1 revolution of the wheel losing traction so no worries there

Just a final point, my current off road toy is a Jeep ZJ, currently has open diff at the front and LSD at the rear. The LSD has had its clutch pack rebuilt but its no where near as good as a locker. I do have an ARB air locker for the front (Dana 30) and a lunchbox/ratchet locker for the rear Dana 44. Went for the ARB as it was cheap (less than £300), no way was I paying £1k for a new one and given my past experience with lunchbox lockers I'm happy with one in the rear

Cheers, I’m leaning more to the atb for sure now. Air wasn’t an issue as I already have an engine mounted compressor on the Cummins! But routing yet another airline is definitely something I could do without

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Just an update, I’ve bought a barely used Ashcroft atb built into a pegged casing for less than half the price of a new one