Lockers and Gears

Installed by Slee Off-Road on 5/20/04

The ARB lockers are likely self-explanatory, so I won't spell out their benefits here. I decided to go with the OEM locker switch that is comes on the FZJ-80 (1993-1997) Land Cruisers that have the optional factory front and rear lockers. I love this dial switch, both aesthetically and functionally. Though I cannot engage the front locker by itself like you can with the ARB equipped switches, I cannot think of a situation where that would be beneficial. If you're on terrain that requires a front locker, you'll always be guaranteed to need the rear engaged as well. For the switch that controls the air compressor that actuates the lockers, I decided to go with a Toyota rear defrost button. It is smaller than the ARB switch and fits very clean on my dash.

As for the gearing with the 285s, overall, they are a mixed bag for me. The downhill crawl, or the engine compression braking in first gear, low range is much improved and can now almost be considered a crawl. This has been the single biggest performance gain by a wide margin. There is noticeably more power available in third gear at higher speeds (65+) and it doesn't downshift as much on the slightest of grades in overdrive due to the higher RPMs (it runs roughly 500 RPMs higher at highway speeds), though it still downshifts very frequently with my tires. The BIG downer has been going up mountain passes with 6-7% grades. 60 MPH is all the higher I can get those little hamsters to run. I used to be able to keep up and lead with the best of them going 70, or a little more (in second gear), such as on Loveland and Vail passes along I-70 here in Colorado. There is no difference in power or speed between 3rd and 2nd now when driving those grades. It redlines in 2nd at 60 MPH. I'm not one of those who has to get to the top first, but having a little less power definitely come into play when passing or when I have a vehicle full of gear. I have obviously learned to take it slower, though I don't really have much choice in the matter!

It does not feel any more peppy in city driving compared to the stock 4.10 gearing. The 4.88s have zero effect on gas mileage and they don't correct the speedometer difference with the bigger tires. I did this purely for the off-roading aspect and not for street/highway performance gain, and with that in mind, I'm definitely happy with the gearing in that regard. If you have 33s on your 1996-2002 4Runner and are thinking about re-gearing, and you care more about the street/highway performance, I could not recommend doing this modification to regain any lost power—you won't. That would be a lot of money spent for negligible results. If I knew what I knew then what I know now, this modification has not been worth it and I would not do it again. Re-gearing gets a lot of hype, but as it relates to the third generation 4Runners running a 285 mud-terrain type of tire, I don't subscribe.

My RPMs at the following displayed speeds (not corrected for the tire size):

55: 2000
65: 2500
75: 2850

Again, as I recall, and it has been awhile, but the RPMs at highway speeds are roughly 500 more than with the stock 4.10 gears.

Some pictures of the install follows. Ben, at Slee, was kind enough to take the shop pictures for me.