I am looking to change the gears in both my front and rear diffs soon. Now the question is do I or should I put a locker in each one or just in the rear?

 

If highway use mainly,I'd do just rear. If offroading alot maybe do both as the extra 300 would be good insurance.

 

I don't know for sure if I'm right or not...opinions vary, but I have always been under the assumption if it's mostly a street truck but you want the awesome off road performance when you need it, then go with a good LS in the rear and a locker in the front.

With a locker in the rear, you'll have a normal open diff when it's not locked (i.e. the classic one wheel spin) and you don't want to lock a locker unless you know what you're going and have some slip. With a locker, if one wheel gets good traction and the other doesn't, somethings going to break. Where as a good LS in the rear will give you near the same performance all the time. (side-note: I'm just relaying what I've read and have tried to pick up on the subject)

But, if you look around at some factory installs, (Toyota FJ, Raptor, FX4, etc) they always have a locker in the rear...so who knows. Talk to a pro shop (Jaws gear and axle comes to mind) and see what they say.

 

Thank you for the replies guys. I think I figured out the rout that I am going with the truck this summer now.

 

with a locker both wheels will be locked but there are many variations of lockers detroit lockers will lock both wheels but when you go around corners it unlocks and slips kinda like a limited slip but detroits have no clutches in them there all mechanical another varaition is the ox lock wich is cable operated when disengaged its an open diff when you engage the cable its a full time locker and wont slip when goin around corners the e locker works off the same principle just uses electricity

with a ls there kinda the same but not really lol most ls diffs have clutches that offer resistance to the free spinning wheel and transfers some power to the wheel that isnt spinning so if one tire is on ice and the other on pavement youll still get moving but not as quick as you would with a locker

i personally would go with a locker in the rear and a ls in the front in my 90 i have a detroit locker in rear and a truetrac in the front works great on and off road