gohip2000

I know about extra stress and the steering issues. For my purpose, I'm looking for a front diff lock for use in straight line driving when the terrain gets off camber.

Off camber, open diff 4x4 gets you 0 wheel drive when wheels start to loose contact. Locking rear 2wd actually gives you more traction off camber than open diff 4x4. Locking rear diff in 2wd gives you 1 wheel drive when tires start to loose contact. Locking read diff in 4x4 still only gives you 1 wheel drive when you loose ground contact. A locking front to go with the rear in 4x4 would at least give me 2 wheel drive for those particular situations where certain wheels are starting to leave the ground or have very little traction.

I actually got stuck today and if I had a locking front diff, I would have been able to get out of the rut I was in. It would be for emergency situations and turn off as soon as the obstacle was cleared.

Is a front diff lock on independent suspension going to cause too much stress even if it is used for straight line driving/crawling?

PerryB

I haven't done it but I've though long and hard about it. I'm pretty sure Eaton makes an E-lock for the 8.8 front axle. The other good option would be the Torsen which comes in the Raptors.

Havyek

I honestly would never purposely put an e-locker in an off-road truck again.

I blew the rear end out of my Jeep after 3-4 years of decent wheeling, and the front failed (locker failed, still driveable) after maybe 3 years of use.

Rear was replaced by a Detroit and it works awesome. My front is a little confusing because it's a 30 spline (27 spline is stock) so my options are basically Detroit front or ARB.

Without knowing any info on your truck since you didn't specify year, mods etc. it's hard to say what would/wouldn't be worth it.

Except for some pretty wild rock crawling, I've never been terribly restricted by open front/locked rear.
IMO you'd be much better off locking the rear first before worrying about the front. If you're already locked rear and finding that you need to lock the front, I'd personally go with ARB or Yukon pneumatic lockers, but that could just be because I've had bad experiences of both my e-lockers failing.