I find it very easy to get caught up in the things you don't have on your jeep and forget about what you actually NEED to go out and have fun in your rig. I just wen't to moab last weekend in my 89 (6", 35 km2, 4.56, Long Arm, open D30 & C8.25) and my friend took his 92 (ZJ coils W/2" spacers up front 3.5" leafs rear, relocated brake lines, shocks, 245x75 r16 mtrs) and he WALKED through Hells Revenge without any problems at all! He took the bypass on tip over challenge but he did everything else, kinda made me feel like i had wasted my money building my rig up to the way it is. Also i had heard a lot about Potato Salad Hill and how crazy hard it was and thought to myself that once i get a locker in the rear i'd try it. Well i decided that i should at least give it a go since i was there in moab and drove past it like ten times already that weekend (we were camped in the sand flats rec park) It was a cake walk! I aired down to about 16 psi and i didn't have a tire slip the whole way up. Now i'm at a loss as to what to do haha. Do i really NEED lockers or just WANT them? How many more wheeling trips could i go on if i didn't dump so much money in my rig?
Who needs lockers to wheel anyhow?
- Thread starter nochance9
- Start date
89eliminator
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Delphi, IN
you dont NEED anything. stock XJ's wheel pretty good for what they are.
however, i feel like locking both axles was one of the best things i've ever done.
however, i feel like locking both axles was one of the best things i've ever done.
sherman08
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Belfair WA
I really dont think theres any reason to put it on if theres never been a time out on a trail that you said, man i wish i had a *various component* So at this point for me on my stock height XJ I NEED body protection, later I may NEED a lift, but at this point i have no reason to put money into one.
Maybe as i try harder trails i'll find a need for a locker.... Idk, i just heard so much about potato salad hill that it seemed like the hardest thing out there, i mean for years i had watched the videos and heard stories about it, it was infamous. If i ver do get a locker i think i'd only do the rear. My 01 xj has ARBs front and rear but we haven't taken it out wheeling yet, so i can't say i've ever had experience with a locker. Also im an unemployed 19 year old colege student still living at home so money is pretty tight and nowhere in the near future do i see myself having an extra $1,000 to drop on a locker. Heck i drove my 89 for about a year in 2wd cause i didn't have the money to re gear my front to match my rear lol. (got the rear off a friend who bought a 44 around the same time i blew my 35 and it had already been geared to 4.56)
tharlanjr
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- EAST COUNTY
I had my first ZJ with a rear Aussie and 410's it was only 4.5" with short arms and it went everywhere I wanted it to. I didn't have any armor so I didn't take it everywhere.
ZJ's just make everything look easy, lol
ZJ's just make everything look easy, lol
old_man
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Loveland, Colorado
I learned to wheel before I had lockers. I still run most trails in 2wd low range until I hit something I can't get over.
- Location
- Thornton, CO
Lockers are for people who A) Want to crawl through trails with small cliffs; or B) Never learned how to wheel that well in the first place. I went all over the place in Moab with 4.5" and 31s open/open, and 7" and 33s open/open in Colorado. Lockers tend to be a luxury, not a necessity.
I did have a bunch of goood teachers around when i started going wheeling at first. Taught me to use more grain than skinny petal lol.
No offence.... But this is naXJa not naZJa
had to say something, just giving you crap.
tharlanjr
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- EAST COUNTY
Its actually NAGCA for us ZJ guys, lol.
I had a ZJ, then an XJ then went to a 5.9ZJ...
I had a ZJ, then an XJ then went to a 5.9ZJ...
It was the V8 huh?
HATER! lol
- Location
- Rainy side of Washington
Yeah, for some reason NAGCA sounds better than NAZJWJWKA. Sorta rolls off the tongue better.
I haven't done anything fun with mine since I put my non-stock tires on
I was waiting till I had a chance to trim and install TJ flares, and then ended up doing a spur of the moment OEM 3 link conversion... I have almost everything lined up to get it back in condition now though :eyes: I don't have any lockers yet, just open/open, hopefully it won't hold me back too much.
Of course, you can take this kind of "don't need offroad hardware" thinking to extremes, and just walk up the trail holding a steering wheel...
I haven't done anything fun with mine since I put my non-stock tires on
I was waiting till I had a chance to trim and install TJ flares, and then ended up doing a spur of the moment OEM 3 link conversion... I have almost everything lined up to get it back in condition now though :eyes: I don't have any lockers yet, just open/open, hopefully it won't hold me back too much.Of course, you can take this kind of "don't need offroad hardware" thinking to extremes, and just walk up the trail holding a steering wheel...
WB9YZU
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Madison, WI
Perhaps If you live some place where the rocks are coated with sandpaper, perhaps it is no big deal. But when traction is at a premium, lockers can come in pretty handy.
The flip side of lockers is that they allow you a longer rope to hang yourself with
Ron
The flip side of lockers is that they allow you a longer rope to hang yourself with
Ron
Ture, i am lucky that way. mostly i stick to Moab because it's so close to home and it's freaking awesome!Perhaps If you live some place where the rocks are coated with sandpaper, perhaps it is no big deal. But when traction is at a premium, lockers can come in pretty handy.
The flip side of lockers is that they allow you a longer rope to hang yourself with
Ron
about a 6 hour drive one way. Going lifted jeep speed on the the freeway. But i'm trying to find more trails closer to home than that but the ones i have found are pretty intense. They're called Rattle snake and Constrictor... I NEED some body armor for these from what i've seen and heard. So i'm designing some rocker rails right now so i have a little more confidence in trying these trails.
I have always been on the fence about lockers. I feel it makes 4x4ing, well, too easy. I would rather have some sort of challenge when I go wheeling. Otherwise we all end up spending all of our money to build these monster trucks that can drive over houses.
I can only speak for myself when I say I get the most fun out of the challenge of wheeling.
I can only speak for myself when I say I get the most fun out of the challenge of wheeling.
Amen! But at the same time you always want to do more and more crazy things... So i guess you have to find a ballance betwen the two.
Well yea of course you want your rig to be more capable than stock, but there becomes a point when you have to drive 10 or more hours to find a trail thats even remotely challenging.
Id say stick within your budget and stop when you can get your rig everywhere your friends rigs go. That way you wont break the bank but you can still have fun.
I have a stock height jeep with just all-terrains, no locker. I have fun because the people I wheel with have similar setups. (Ones a stock height TJ with 31s, the other is yota with 30s). It works out that none of feels like we are being a burden on the group and none of us feel like we are on trails that are too easy.
I hear ya, i've never been the burden of the pack because i inheirited my jeep from my dad with 33s and 4.5 inches of lift and a long arm haha. But now i've got a friend on 35s with a D44 and an e-locker talking about going to a D60! ( which i kinda hope he does cause i would get his D44 for a good price 
) but we have kinda set a high standard too for people that want to go wheeling with us which sucks for them because they feel like 33s are the minimum and they need to lift accordingly. My uncle for example, (he's crazy but fun to be around) one day decided he wanted a jeep so he could go wheeling with us. Two weeks later he had a 99ish tj lol. Two weeks after that he ordered a 3" lift and the day after we installed it ordered tires haha 285x75r16 km2s. That was a week ago that he got them mounted. Now i've got a friend (the one in my moab story) lookin at buying 32x11.50s now that he's got 3.5" of lift. I feel bad because if i hadn't have done so much to my jeep they wouldn't have to stretch thier pennies to offord all those expensive things so they can keep up with us bigger guys. : /
) but we have kinda set a high standard too for people that want to go wheeling with us which sucks for them because they feel like 33s are the minimum and they need to lift accordingly. My uncle for example, (he's crazy but fun to be around) one day decided he wanted a jeep so he could go wheeling with us. Two weeks later he had a 99ish tj lol. Two weeks after that he ordered a 3" lift and the day after we installed it ordered tires haha 285x75r16 km2s. That was a week ago that he got them mounted. Now i've got a friend (the one in my moab story) lookin at buying 32x11.50s now that he's got 3.5" of lift. I feel bad because if i hadn't have done so much to my jeep they wouldn't have to stretch thier pennies to offord all those expensive things so they can keep up with us bigger guys. : /Just about any vehicle with 4 wheel drive can walk through Hells Revenge, it's not difficult if you skip all of the obstacles.
For those that say people have lockers because they have never learned how to properly wheel are idiots. That's a very broad and arrogant statement. I didn't install my Lincoln locker because I don't know how to wheel, I installed it because I wanted that little extra edge on some of the trails I run. I've been up hills now that I have never seen an open/open rig make.
