Locker, Spool, what's the diff?

[RC-man]

Want to lock my front end. Prefer to buy something to swap in vs. silly puddy or JB Weld. That way if I don't like it I can swap back. See a lot of people with 500K diff fluid option mentioned, but how well does that work? If I am on rocks and one wheel is in the air, will it still pretty much freely spin? I know if I lock it then it won't spin freely in the air. Before I spend money on 500K diff fluid I don't have, think locking it is the best option. What options and prices are out there other than Axial's locker for Yeti? About to order Axial's version, but want to know if there are better options. Thanks!

[sic1to]

Axial's locker is great! It is all you need to lock the front
Go ahead & get hd r&p gears also.

[kstowe]

Originally Posted by sic1to

Axial's locker is great! It is all you need to lock the front
Go ahead & get hd r&p gears also.

+1 Locked up front is great. It does effect high speed stability a bit, but worth it in my experience.

[badhoopty]

if you do any kind of serious crawling you will wish you had a spool up front. 500k or silly putty in the diff just adds a little bit more resistance but will still unload and not crawl worth a damn.

spools and lockers are the same thing. its a peeve of mine that the word locker gets used so much but i find myself calling them lockers well.

[sic1to]

A spool is 1 peice that holds the ring gear with fixed outputs or machined to accept axle shafts. Locker is differant in many ways with it having multiple peices that make it work.
In the rc world "lunchbox" lockers are common but has & creates alot of slop after use. A spool or set screw "locker" is best imo?

[DenisLM]

If you don't have plans to jump or bash, only crawl, lock it. the axial is very easy to install and plug and play.

I locked my front diff with the axial one, locked so good that I bent the dogbones...
I'm thinking in go back to open diff with 500k oil, maybe 2.5mil later.

[RC-man]

Still plan to do some high speed and jumps (not like Bigsquid video jumps, but a foot or two in the air). I understand how locked differential affects high speed handling and turning, but how does a locked differential impact jumping? The rear is always locked already, so wouldn't it be the same jumping, but just way better for crawling.

[DenisLM]

I think the locked front diff was the reason I bent the dogbones.
I do some U4 racing and few small jumps (3-4ft tops) and some light bashing.
Everything was fine until I locked the front diff and 4 runs after, the dogbones are gone.
That's why I'll be back to open diff and try to find the best halfway.