You just unlock the center diff on flats and use the lockers before needed, minimizing bind and shock loading. My series has no center diff,as long as you have some tire slip every so often bind is not an issue I have been running arb's for 17 years. Completely reliable, original air compressor too. Granted I only use the compressor for the locker and not for airing up tires. I have re-geared and resealed once.
Interesting. From our time running in Arabia, we never ran with everything locked up on hard surfaces. People used lockers in sand, but that was the only place.
In ten years of running in Arabia with other Land Rovers, I have seen one stripped wheel hub, one broken front half shaft, and a broken arb locker rear differential. A few years ago I was on a Hummer forum that reported on the Moab adventures of a large group of H1 Hummers. They put all of their broken gear on a drop cloth at the end of the meet so that everyone could inspect the carnage. There was at least one transfer case and some half shafts that did not survive.
I am not used to off camber driving with things locked up. It goes against everything I learned in Arabia. I guess I should get an older truck that I can fix, and then try some of the off camber diff locked rock climbing. Maybe I might learn something new about how tough the trucks really are.
In Arabia, if someone broke a major piece of gear, it could have been a show stopper on a week long trip. Although we ran heavily loaded vehicles, we ran them conservatively because we did not want to ruin the trip for ourselves or anyone else. When you are doing expeditionary travel, you have a phobia about breaking stuff. If you are rock crawling with help readily available, you may not worry so much about breaking stuff when you make a mistake (if you don't mind fixing it or paying someone else to fix it.).
I don't need another Rover right now
