Intro
The reason I decided to get a front locker is simple, to shut up James. James is a guy I often wheel with and everytime I get into a bind on the trail, he says "This would not happen if you had a locker". The first time he said it, I took it as a "Yeah yeah, whatever" moment. The 40th time he said it, I was getting tired of hearing it and now maybe I was ready to do something about it. Ok so that is not the only reason for the locker. Since I drive a Wrangler, I have what some would call "Sick Flex". This flex coupled with my excelent turning radius has allowed me to go some very nasty places but there is always room for improvement. It was now time to move to the next level, a front locker.

Choosing a locker
There are many choices when it comes to lockers but mine was easy. It would be a automatic ratcheting type locker such as a Lock-Right or Aussie locker. This is for several reasons with the most important being money. There is also the fact that with any other locker, the carrier would have to be replaced and that meant the backlash would have to be set. The Lock-Right type locker installs in place of the spider gears and everything else is left as it was. I choose a Lock-Right and their hardened cross shaft. When it was all said and done, the locker intall cost me about $300.

Why the front instead of a rear for the first locker?
I get this question a lot. Here are the many reasons

1. The Lock-Right locker becomes locked when power is applied to the axle. Since the front axle is part-time, that only happens when in 4wd. The rest of the time the axle free-wheels, allowing the locker to ratchet around turns without binding. This not only makes it easier to live with but also saves your tires.
2. There is more weight on the front wheels.
3. When you are rock crawling, it is useful to always have your front tires pulling. Especially when climbing rocks.

The install
I am not going to go into any detail on this because there are lots of good write-ups out there. I will say that it took 3 of us a total of about 45 minutes to install the locker. The most time consuming part being the removal of the axles.

While the axles were out ...
A friend suggested that during my locker install, I replace the stock 5-297x u-joints in the axles with the stronger 5-760x models. This turned out to take longer than the locker install but it is nice knowing that there are not only new u-joints in my front axles but that they are also the stronger model.

Afterthoughts
Notes after 1000 miles of use

• It works as advertised.
• It is not as loud as people say. You can sort of hear it if you have the window down and drive around in a circle in a parking lot. Then maybe you can kind of hear it.
• When I make very tight turns, it sometimes binds a little.
• The install created only one odd side effect. Since the locker is locked in its resting state and there is a tiny bit of slack between the locker and the tires, a small dead zone is created in the steering. It is kind a light area when the wheel is straight.

• It still works as advertised.
• When making long tight turns, it binds bad enough to chip the front tires occasionally. If you make a slightly less sharp of turn, there is no problem.
• After working it hard it sometimes stays locked and it can take a few minutes to get it to loosen up. For example, after stressing it and then returning to 2wd, it will stay locked and make steering difficult. The best way to "unlock" it is to drive in long arcs, first going left and the right until you feel the steering free up.
• I have to say that I really like it, even with it being finicky sometimes. I usually forget I have one until I pick up a few ties and don't roll backwards.