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Eaton ELockers do exist...


hawairish
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A company called Harrop manufacturers Eaton ELockers for the Australian market. They appear have ELockers that cover nearly all our diffs.

 

https://www.harrop.com.au/shop/4x4-performance/elocker?page=2

http://www.terraintamer.com/en/4wd-products/elocker

 

From those links, I can determine the following:

 

A9635: H233B 33-spline
A9684: H233B 31-spline
A11250: R200A 27-spline
A11257: C200 31-spline

 

There are applications for 2005+ vehicles, but I'm not familiar with those axles. Like ARB's cross-applications, these can also be cross-referenced to various Nissans. The Harrop website even confirms the A9635 fits R50s.

 

So, there it is: Eaton ELockers exist.

 

Harrop's prices are in AUS dollar, so it's closer to $1050-$1200 USD depending on exchange rates and model, before shipping and duties. The only two authorized Harrop dealers in the US, and a LandCruiser outfitter with ties to Terrain Tamer, confirmed they can order these. One dealer quoted about $1140-shipped for the A9635 to me, but it sucks knowing that Eaton ELockers sold in NA are closer to $700-$800. Still, an $1140 Harrop vs. a $940 ARB plus compressor and accessories for an air setup may wash out.

 

I chatted with Steven (Steeevo) at Rugged Rocks and he was aware of them, but they were more expensive when he last checked.

 

Now, for the technical discussion. The installation is pretty similar to the ARB in that you need to drill into the diff housing for the wires, but obviously, the electrical aspect keeps the actuation part pretty simple: a switch, a relay, and some wiring. There are two types of actuation methods, pin and collar, both driven by an electromagnet, of course. I'm not sure which are used for any of the Nissan applications.

 

ELocker_Types.jpg

 

They both work by "ramping" the engagement mechanism into a side gear when the electromagnetic is activated. The difference is that the pin type uses ball bearings in a ramped channel to engage a pin assembly, and the collar type ramps pins into a collar that mates to the side gear.

 

Here are some vids on how they work:

 

Pin:

 

Collar:

 

It's more apparent in the 2nd video, but the carrier must rotate about 30°-45° in any direction before it locks, which is a bit higher than ARB. The problem is that it unlocks whenever the carrier rotation changes (i.e., going from drive to reverse). This means that just letting the vehicle roll backwards will cause it to briefly disengage. If you were to punch it from that "reverse-locked" position, it goes from locked-unlocked-locked very quickly. The installation guide says you can't exceed 3 mph or 5 km/h when engaging it, and specifically says damage caused by exceeding this isn't covered by the warranty (and supposedly evident when it occurs).

 

Now, I'd like to think that anyone with selectable lockers will typically not engage them on-the-fly at high speeds (not that 3mph is high), so this is somewhat a no-brainer. But, air lockers won't unlock under normal conditions, so flogging it over a given obstacle shouldn't be a problem for them. I'm sure can flog it with the ELocker once it's engaged (uh, if you want to), but you'd probably always want to ease into it.

 

I've seen very few failure reports of the Eatons, but the few that I saw indicated issues getting replacements and repairs. And those are from US-based customers for US-based applications. I can't imagine this being better for these with an AUS supplier that doesn't have ties and inventories like ARB.

 

Anyway, sorry for the long read. Just kind of throwing it all out there like I usually do, in case this piques anyone's interest.

Edited by hawairish
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

Couldn't resist digging this old topic up after seeing some Harrop videos that address my original concerns tonight.

 

 

 

Take-away: presuming they're all the 4-pin collar-type, the engagement/disengagement that occurs between forward and reverse would not be an issue.

 

I'm obviously not in the market for lockers now (my how much my truck has changed in two years!), but if I had to do it all over again, this is likely the direction I'd go. Air fittings suck...inconsistent sizes, expensive parts, too many parts. I accidentally snapped a brass fitting on my rear locker...a $30 mistake because I couldn't find a suitable replacement piece and had buy a complete kit. My setup is a mashup of 5mm, 6mm, and 1/4" tubing with 1/8' and 1/4" BSPT and NPT fittings using parts from ARB, TJM, and now Yukon. It works, but what a mess, and much of it unavoidable.

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Couldn't resist digging this old topic up after seeing some Harrop videos that address my original concerns tonight.

 

 

 

Take-away: presuming they're all the 4-pin collar-type, the engagement/disengagement that occurs between forward and reverse would not be an issue.

 

I'm obviously not in the market for lockers now (my how much my truck has changed in two years!), but if I had to do it all over again, this is likely the direction I'd go. Air fittings suck...inconsistent sizes, expensive parts, too many parts. I accidentally snapped a brass fitting on my rear locker...a $30 mistake because I couldn't find a suitable replacement piece and had buy a complete kit. My setup is a mashup of 5mm, 6mm, and 1/4" tubing with 1/8' and 1/4" BSPT and NPT fittings using parts from ARB, TJM, and now Yukon. It works, but what a mess, and much of it unavoidable.

 

Both videos: "An error occurred. Please try again later." Not sure if it's just on my end.

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Both videos: "An error occurred. Please try again later." Not sure if it's just on my end.

 

Odd. The links in my original post seem to work fine for me, but are bad in your quote of my reply.

 

Anyway, try these instead:

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Odd. The links in my original post seem to work fine for me, but are bad in your quote of my reply.

 

Anyway, try these instead:

 

Aaaaaaaand all of a sudden the original videos work, as well as the ones in my reply and the post I'm replying too here. :scratchhead: Don't know what's up with that, but whatever, it works!

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Cool videos! So they're relying on torque bind to keep the locker engaged when you change directions, but if that doesn't work, there's not enough distance between locked and unlocked to really spin it up and break something. Nice to see a company actually show off how something works.

 

 

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I think that's the argument they're trying to make. I'm certain there are still scenarios where disengagement can be problematic, evidenced here (fast-forwarded to 1:07, but the entire video is also very informative):

 

https://youtu.be/1nYZo--7Xh4?t=67

 

After watching the 2nd video again, it looks like the engineer describing the functionality is also counter-rotating each side axle to minimize the disengagement period. Obviously, you wouldn't be in a scenario where the tires are rotating in opposite direction. But like the other guy explained, the side gear should fit into the same dog gear, even if it rolls back, and I think that would be a very likely scenario during wheeling.

 

It's also worth noting that the diffs being shown in the 1st video are the Patrol H233B, which uses the collar-type engagement style shown in the Harrop videos. I think I'd prefer that over the pin-type.

 

All things considered, I'm still a huge fan of the TJM locker...but if it meant avoiding all the pneumatics, I'd still chance Harrop.

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  • 10 months later...

bump up back.

 

 

i found this on terraintamer website. it says that theres a front e locker available for R50 models now. 

 

 

also i dont understand for the rear says that its not suitable for drum brakes?

 

 

heres the link 

 

https://www.terraintamer.com/en/4wd-products/elocker

terraintamer..png

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1 hour ago, deltaR50 said:

i found this on terraintamer website. it says that theres a front e locker available for R50 models now. 

also i dont understand for the rear says that its not suitable for drum brakes?

 

I think they just finally got around to confirming what I already suspected about compatibility in my original post.

 

The notes about it not fitting drum brakes makes no sense.

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The drum brake axles have a spacer in the center of the differential that is REQUIRED to keep the axle bearings properly preloaded. A friend and I made that discovery years ago when we traded center sections in our Pathfinders the night before we left for a week in Moab. Mine had disc brakes and lsd, his was drum and open. We swapped centers and I puzzled over the odd metal block in the center when I was installing the lockright, but just tossed it into the box with the gears I took out. We got half way to Moab (6 hour drive for us) and noticed his right axle seal was leaking. Figured out after replacing the bearing and seal in Moab and having it fail again the next day on the trail. Looked in the manual and found that the disc brake axle has a different bearing setup that doesn't use the spacer that the drum axle has. 

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2 hours ago, Mr_Reverse said:

The drum brake axles have a spacer in the center of the differential that is REQUIRED to keep the axle bearings properly preloaded. A friend and I made that discovery years ago when we traded center sections in our Pathfinders the night before we left for a week in Moab. Mine had disc brakes and lsd, his was drum and open. We swapped centers and I puzzled over the odd metal block in the center when I was installing the lockright, but just tossed it into the box with the gears I took out. We got half way to Moab (6 hour drive for us) and noticed his right axle seal was leaking. Figured out after replacing the bearing and seal in Moab and having it fail again the next day on the trail. Looked in the manual and found that the disc brake axle has a different bearing setup that doesn't use the spacer that the drum axle has. 

 

Drum brake trucks with single-taper bearings used thrust blocks.  Disc brake WD21 and D22 Frontiers, WD22 Xterras, and R50s (all drum brakes) used double-taper bearings, but not thrust blocks.

 

The note about it not fitting drum brakes makes no sense because R50s only had drum brakes.  My R50 is the exception. ?

Edited by hawairish
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Ahh, wasn't aware of that with the R50. Haven't looked inside the rear axle on them. My experience is with the older and the newer. Managed to skip dealing with the axles on the R50s somehow. 

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2 hours ago, deltaR50 said:

so all it needs to work is getting a custom thrust blocks for the drum brakes set up in order for the e lock work?

 

Nope, should need nothing. If Harrop says it won’t fit R50s because it believes the truck uses thrust blocks, then Harrop is wrong. 

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  • 3 years later...

I can't believe this post is 7 years old.  In that time, can't say I've gotten my hands on a Harrop unit, but I can say that since owning my Pathfinder, I've installed a lot of traction devices!

If you're considering an eLocker, check out the TRE thread.

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