Suzuki Club UK

Hi all.

I did search and read something similar but not the answer i was after

Q: I have manual free wheeling/locking hubs on the front axle and last time i tried a bit off road my fronts were spinning through an open diff on the slippy stuff. I wanted to buy a Spartan Locker or something similar but then i had a thought.... As i have FWH's on the front.. if i weld up the spider gears on the open diff to make it a locked diff, and use the hubs as to "select" open/locked then this should make it much better off road... I never use locked hubs/4x4 on the road (wind up etc..) so this could be good.

Thoughts?

Secondary Q: is Welding the spider gears the correct way to "weld a diff"?

Cheers,

Courior

My opinion is, no, no, no. Been discussed several times on here and it's just a bad idea.

Even off road it would only help you out a small handful of times, for the other 98% of the time off road you just wouldn't be able to steer, some sort of locker is really the only way to go. I asked this exact question just over a year ago and very glad I didn't go ahead.

Thanks for the comments lads... So i suppose the downside would be that the steering would be compromised, but i dont see how?.. I understand this when talking about on road.. but off road in mud/gravel/slippy stuff.. Or even climbing a rock when 1 wheel is in the air i would of thought that it would be very helpful and more than 2% of the time (loads of youtube off road vids show a car climbing then when the front open diff spins a wheel they get stuck).. I did a small little off road rock/gravel obstacle and having the front locked somehow would of really helped....

How would a welded diff effect steering off road? i would of thought a lock right/spartan locker would still keep things locked as they are stronger than the tyres grip on sloppy mud/gravel?

Remember i would not EVER drive on a road with the hubs locked. so this is purely for use off road.

Not wanting to start a debate/argument... Just want to understand fully why this is not a good idea.

Cheers.

If you weld the diff steering off road in 4wd will become almost impossible

Ok thats short and too the point..... So.......... Whats the cheapest locker?? I think Spartan lockers are good, but i cant see them for a 410, only a 413.

To be honest I'm not sure if you can get 410 front lockers...
You would probably get better off road performance from a powertrax locker (similar to spartan) in the back, rather than a locker in the front.
The front wheels have the weight of the engine over them anyway so get quite a bit of grip, whereas there isn't that much weight over the back wheels so they spin up really easily.
You can get the rears from Jimnybits but they are almost £350...

The other thing is, it might be worth seeing if you can get a chinasoong (chinese) air locker for the 410.
The powertrax is massively expensive and I think the chinese air lockers (comes with a compressor) aren't a huge amount more than that!

Personally I would get some A/T or M/T tyres first as you will get a hell of a lot more grip just from that

Yeah. Currently have chunky road tyres on it. Very good at light rock crawling so far. But its bone dry here. Once it gets wet I think I'm going to struggle. Better tyres it is then !

Im not bringing any tyres over with me in september haha
We will have to find out exactly what your road-tyred gypsy can do

It will be much better with a decent carb on it! And some bushes in the suspension! Its metal on metal now.