What are lockers??

[t0mills]

Im in central OK just outside of Oklahoma City. Where is this going down?

It's in Disney, OK. I live in Arkansas, just about 10miles from the OK state line, and it's about 45 min from my house.

Here's a map from OKC:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/Oklahoma+City+OK/Disney+OK/?


Here's the thread on Pirate:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=646392


It's completely free, and a lot of fun to wheel and watch.

Tim

 

[robert j. yates]

I agree... there's no better way to become an exceptionally good off-highway driver than to run "the hardcore trails" with a low horsepower, open differential, small tire, independent suspension rig.

While that works to hone driving skill...it is not necessarily the best way to tread lightly IMO.

While out in Anza Borrego this weekend, the trail we were running was quite a bit more deteriorated than when we last ran it 6 weeks ago. My take on why is due to the number of relatively stock trucks and SUVs that we encountered this time around trying to tackle the harder sections. Most of those folks were content to spin their tires and use the trottle to overcome an obstacle whereas myself with lockers never spun a tire once all weekend.

While I might have been going slower over the obstacles due to my 4:1 transfer case kit, I probably had a faster average time through a section due to a slow and steady pace as opposed to gassing it, stopping and gassing it again.

 

[robert j. yates]

Nobody was talking 44" tires....I'm talking stock pick-ups and SUVs with what appears to be a bunch of tourists behind the wheel. Most people in my observations this weekend had no problem hitting the gas and lurching over an obstacle or through the water crossings with spinning tires. Don't even get me started on rock stacking. If you can't make it up the trail without building a road, then you shouldn't even be there IMO.

Lockers are not bad and frankly, IMO take a certain element of skill to use in difficult terrain. My point is that they are simply another tool available to offroad traveler, same as a winch for example. Either a winch or lockers can result in huge amounts of damage when used incorrectly but when used correctly they result in less damage to the trail than a stock truck in the hands of an inexperience driver.

Eitherway...I'm done here. All I tried to do was point out what I believe to be a misconception in telling people to wheel a stock truck in order to learn how to wheel. Who pays the price there....in most cases, probably the trail does. Frankly...the advice that someone else mentioned that this guy go spend a day out on the trail before he gets his own rig is far batter. Newbies with no experience and a stock vehicle = trail dammage IMO. Out.

 

[michaelgroves]

I agree with Robert to some extent, it's not necessary to learn how to "wheel " without lockers. But I will suggest that having lockers does make it more difficult to learn to drive with finesse, because with open diffs there's a much finer line between success and failure. And while I agree that there is a skill involved in driving with lockers, it is a skill that is easy to acquire if you are competent with open diffs, whereas a driver who has never wheeled with open diffs will find it very hard to get used to their subtleties.

Regarding trail damage, newbies or idjuts can wreck a trail with or without lockers - they'll just get further in with lockers. The same goes for aggressive tyres - with experienced and measured use, aggressive tyres should do less damage to a trail than a tyre that is more likely to spin. But in hooligan or novice hands, they have the potential to do far more damage.

Incidentally, while moving rocks etc. might be considered unsporting, unless it's a contest of some sort, it's a very valid off-roading technique, IMO. As long as it's reasonably in keeping with the nature of the trail, and isn't destructive, then repairing bridges, shoring up embankments, moving fallen trees etc. help to improve the trail!

 

[goodtimes]

Incidentally, while moving rocks etc. might be considered unsporting, unless it's a contest of some sort, it's a very valid off-roading technique, IMO. As long as it's reasonably in keeping with the nature of the trail, and isn't destructive, then repairing bridges, shoring up embankments, moving fallen trees etc. help to improve the trail!

It is a valid way to get over an obstacle...usually done when the vehicle can't make it on it's own. There are a number of reasons to stack rocks...but if one isn't doing it to shore up the trail (wash out), etc., then the rocks should be removed once the vehicle has cleared the obstacle. Leave the trail as you found it...it is considered impolite to "build a road" then leave it after you move one.

 

[madizell]

While that works to hone driving skill...it is not necessarily the best way to tread lightly IMO.

Others have commented on this as well so I will try to keep it short. Treading lightly is a state of mind and a considered use of the equipment you have, not a build state. The problems you noticed with stock vehicles and spinning tires were not the fault of the vehicles, but the drivers.

I believe the original comment, that driving skills are better learned with basic vehicle equipment, accepted an implied premise, that no vehicle should be driven beyond its limits, and that if you stay within the vehicle's limits and learn to do so with smaller tires and open differentials, you will in the end be a better driver when you do get behind the wheel of a well prepped car.

Even Indy drivers start in go karts, not in 500hp high tech racers. There is a reason for that which has to do with learning basic motoring skills. That, I believe, was the original intended message, and I know it to be true.

 

[wentz912]

Others have commented on this as well so I will try to keep it short. Treading lightly is a state of mind and a considered use of the equipment you have, not a build state. The problems you noticed with stock vehicles and spinning tires were not the fault of the vehicles, but the drivers.

I believe the original comment, that driving skills are better learned with basic vehicle equipment, accepted an implied premise, that no vehicle should be driven beyond its limits, and that if you stay within the vehicle's limits and learn to do so with smaller tires and open differentials, you will in the end be a better driver when you do get behind the wheel of a well prepped car.

Even Indy drivers start in go karts, not in 500hp high tech racers. There is a reason for that which has to do with learning basic motoring skills. That, I believe, was the original intended message, and I know it to be true.

This is precisely why I don't particularly mind using my almost entirely stock vehicle off road. I've seen many, many, many drivers in their "built" rigs that have ridiculously smaller amounts of finesse than I myself have. There have in fact been places that I have been able to reach that a lot of these drivers wouldn't even think they'd be able to reach, short of enduring massive harm to their rigs and/or themselves.

 

[michaelgroves]

Yes, there is something particularly satisfying about watching a truck with lockers and huge tyres, and all manner of suspension tricks, roaring up some obstacle with wheels spinning and dirt flying everywhere.. and then quietly crawling over the same obstacle with no fuss in an entirely unmodified vehicle!