Competition spooled in the front.....

[BWillard]

Is anyone running a spool in the front for sled pulling with a daily driver? I was thinking about a spool for strength in the front axle, but driving it on the street without lockout hubs could be difficult. If a posi-lock was used in place of the vacuum it would be drivable in the snow/ice and full traction when necessary. One downfall I can think of would be turning the front driveshaft all the time. I have always run spools in my Jeeps but of course they had lockouts. Any thoughts, positive or negative are welcome.

 

[btanner]

not really sure on your truck but anytime I've had a spool in the front of a vehicle they didn't like to turn very much. Also I would think that unless you could unlock the hubs it would really wear tires and uj. I think that a selectable locker would work much better and give you the performance that you want



-ben

 

[McCRam]

It would be a pain in the rear to steer on the street with the spool. But since you have had them in jeeps you are probably familiar with that. However I don't think you would notice the spool if it was in two wheel. Your driveshaft would spin all the time, but I don't think that would hurt anything. An open differential 4x4 with the hubs locked spins the driveshaft all the time too.

I think I read a thread on this about a year ago if you need some more info.

 

[supersonic]

spool in rear, air locker in front.

 

[pwerwagn]

If you use the posi lok and unlock it to drive on snow/ice it will drive weird due tot he fact that only the driver side tire will pull. I've tried it (not in snow/ice, but in mud and sand) I'd go with a spool in the rear and a ox or arb in front.

 

[BWillard]

I've thought about an ARB because I had them in the front and rear of my Jeep TJ before swapping to 2 1/2 ton Rockwells. I've just seen a few of them come apart and they eventually loose that nice seal when you first install them... ... no big deal though! I was just thinking about the HUGE price difference between the two and the unbeatable strength of a spool.

 

[btanner]

you can always rebuild an arb. They aren't hard and not too expensive. If you can setup gears you can rebuild an arb. You also have to make sure they are setup properly that's the hardest part. I've had a setup in my rockcrawler for five years and they are usually used hard every other weekend with no problems.



-ben

 

[BWillard]

btanner, have you ever wheeled up in Winchester at BIG DAWGS? If so you might have seen my gun metal blue TJ.



Back to the ARB thing... ..... No, they aren't that hard to work with and the only real problem you have with air leaks is the big o-ring at the bulk head. I personally have never had a problem with the ARB's I had as far as breakage. Cost on the other hand, ARB=$700 and spool=$200