building a hunting rig well probably see about 80% off hiway use was thinking of a mini spool from low gear off road anyone have any input

I had a spool in my tube buggy and would do it agin. But for a street driven rig I would go ARB. Thats my plan for the tracker. Driving a fully locked on the street is harsh. Just my two cents!

I'm with TRC.  The mini-spool is pretty much for off-road only rigs, I wouldn't want to put it on anything that sees normal road use.  We put an ARB in BRD HNTR's rig for Moab, a world of difference over the LockRight that was in there previously.

Im curious, what's better about the arb than the lock rite?  Other than on/off...

Chad

On and off is the better thing.  It gives you stock car like manners on the road and acts like a spool when you need it.  It's expensive, but once you get used to driving with one you don't want to go back. 

I was thinking about this some more, and the other benefit is probably that in some tight stuff if you are turning your lockrite can disengage where as the ARB will never disengage unless you flip the switch...

-Chad

I have the lock right in the rear and am replacing the rear axle shafts for the next wheeling event -- primarily sand. Last season, I suspect that either the tube got bent (or a spring gave way), hence lockers failed on a sand trail.

This time I am thinking of going for a spool and doing away with the Lockright. I will be driving some 200 miles to and fro on road for this wheeling. I have no issue of tire wear, noise, large turning radius etc.

I just want predictable behavior over 4 days. I don't care if the axle breaks after 4 days :-). I will come back and replace it.

Questions:

• Will a mini-spool (in the rear) last 3-4 days of aggressive sand driving with 31" tires, 4.16 reduction gear & SPoA setup. The front is open and can't be locked right now.
• Should we put in 80W90 gear oil in the diff or a thicker oil (140) will help in diff -- with a locked one

.

Should hold up to sand driving, but the oil need not be super
heavy, in fact, most people don't know that ATF will work for
diff gears, stop and think about it, there are lots of gears in
an automatic trans too, and many new vehicles use ATF in the
final drive as well as the auto trans in the transaxles

Wild

Heavier weight gear oils (i.e. 75-140) are usually reserved for heavy-duty applications, where lots of weight/load is put on the rear end.  Your big 2500 and 3500 diesel chevy's, dodges, etc use the heavier weights because of its ability to hold up to extreme shear and temperature.  I personally would not use ATF.  In AT's, the fluid has to both act as a lubricant between gears, yet provide a viscosity low enough to serve well as a hydraulic fluid for both the torque converter, bands, and valves.  Gear oil only has the job of providing lubrication for gears.  I agree with Wild that it is used in transaxles too, but for optimum wear protection, I would use what they recommend from the factory, or a synthetic variant for fluid breakdown resistance.  Just my .02

Agreed, I was making a point that heavy oil is not needed
for gear protection, I use a light weight oil in my T-case, a
quart of synthetic Lucas gear oil and a quart of synthetic
Mobil 1 ATF, light and slippery