Pros?  Cons?  Rear only?  Trail only?

Toy axles (on a Toyota truck!), running 31s now, hopefully 35s or 37s come summer.

What type of experience do you guys have with these?

If your talking about welded spider gears, Id say dont do it....  If you want a totally locked rear go with the minispool.

If your street driven a Lockright or ARB.

Ive seen a bunch of welded spider gears and most of them, when I took them apart, were on the verge of breaking.

Have quite a few trail rides on mine, and done some street driving with it also. Very predictable, no lock/unlock BS. When I swap axles, the rear is getting it again!

I welded mine and havent had any problems yet.  it is the same thing as a spool but about 50 cents compared to $130 for a spool because if an axel shaft breaks with a spool you are just as screwed as if a welded one breaks. 

mine's weled also ..i DD mine ..chirp around corner ..i drive with crappy stock tires on as DD and put on my nicer tires for trail

This is trails/rocks only.
I've seen 2 guys on the intraweb run em front and rear with 38s, but it kinda worries me.
What's the difference with a minispool?  They seem cheap enough to think about.

Yeah, welding will USUALLY hold... but since a mini is so cheap... I vote Mini-spool

That's what I run,  since you have to take the carrier apart to weld the spiders anyway, might as well drop in a mini-spool... I got mine from Randy's R&P  works great... and I don't have to worry about a welded spider coming loose and trashing my 3rd member or worse...

I am going to put it in my 5.62's and sell the 5.12's with the lockrite that the 5.62's came with...

I heard about something with magnetic something or others inside the diff housing.  I guess it was to catch any loose metal?  Would this make a lincoln more desirable?

My grandfather is Jewish, and has given me a fourth of his blood, so I'd like to be stubborn and cheap, but I don't want to be stupid.

I heard about something with magnetic something or others inside the diff housing.  I guess it was to catch any loose metal?  Would this make a lincoln more desirable?

My grandfather is Jewish, and has given me a fourth of his blood, so I'd like to be stubborn and cheap, but I don't want to be stupid.

LOL... then weld the everloving bejesus out of it! Every gear, every hole, every cog... doesn't cost any more then just welding it up a bit.. and it ain't gonna break... LOL...

as long as everything spins true...

We are talking what, 80 horsepower here?  LOL....

If you have $110 or so.... buy a mini spool... if you have have $800 or so, buy an ARB... if you got a few good sticks and a welding hood... make it one piece...

One main reason I bought a mini-spool, was because you have to take the diff apart to get to the spiders anyway... it's not like a GM corporate, or a Dana, where you can pull the cover off the diff and spin and weld....  I have a buddy that can weld up spiders in less than 10 minutes... LOL....

I also just thought a mini-spool would be easiest, as the pinion depth and pinion bearing preload aren't effected by installing it, and all I had to do was reset the carrier bearing preload and backlash.. and that is pretty simple...

80???  This is a Toyota...  maybe 65.

Lol, I might look more into a minispool just cause of the workload.

Quote from: feerocknok on March 11, 2006, 03:24:56 PM

I heard about something with magnetic something or others inside the diff housing.  I guess it was to catch any loose metal?  Would this make a lincoln more desirable?

My grandfather is Jewish, and has given me a fourth of his blood, so I'd like to be stubborn and cheap, but I don't want to be stupid.

LOL... then weld the everloving bejesus out of it! Every gear, every hole, every cog... doesn't cost any more then just welding it up a bit.. and it ain't gonna break... LOL...

as long as everything spins true...

We are talking what, 80 horsepower here?  LOL....

If you have $110 or so.... buy a mini spool... if you have have $800 or so, buy an ARB... if you got a few good sticks and a welding hood... make it one piece...

One main reason I bought a mini-spool, was because you have to take the diff apart to get to the spiders anyway... it's not like a GM corporate, or a Dana, where you can pull the cover off the diff and spin and weld....  I have a buddy that can weld up spiders in less than 10 minutes... LOL....

I also just thought a mini-spool would be easiest, as the pinion depth and pinion bearing preload aren't effected by installing it, and all I had to do was reset the carrier bearing preload and backlash.. and that is pretty simple...

Now this is one area where I think the welds failed.. They didnt take the carrier apart to weld the spiders. All the welding was done thru the holes to the side of the carrier = not much quality weld.

I had VERY good luck running a LL in my sami axles, and I'm running it in my Toy axles as well.

I'll be on 36" swampers as well, and I'm not too worried about it.  I'm running a welded front with P/S and possably hydro assist in the very near future.  BUT, if that dosen't work out, I'll probably go with a locker up front, but I'm keeping the welded rear. 

My rig will be 90% trails, with the occasional drive through town just to see every one gasping and parents hiding there small childern out of fear of parts falling off and hitting them....lol

I had VERY good luck running a LL in my sami axles, and I'm running it in my Toy axles as well.

I'll be on 36" swampers as well, and I'm not too worried about it. I'm running a welded front with P/S and possably hydro assist in the very near future. BUT, if that dosen't work out, I'll probably go with a locker up front, but I'm keeping the welded rear.

My rig will be 90% trails, with the occasional drive through town just to see every one gasping and parents hiding there small childern out of fear of parts falling off and hitting them....lol

Your rig sounds awesome!
How's the front do?
What usually causes these to get their bad reputation