can anyone help me out with a little advise?

I am currently restoring/modifying my 1978 ford bronco. The body and interior has just been completed and now i'm starting on the drive train.

The truck is used for fishing,hunting,camping and moderate off roading. In the future possibly towing a small offroad tent trailer. I want to keep the suspension as stock as possible and was thinking a 32-11.50 or 33-10.50 bfg mud terrain tire. I would like to put a selectable locker in the front and rear diffs. I would prefer a cable actuated locker as I'm old fashioned and just don't trust electric ones!

Can anyone suggest a good reliable locker and maybe what kind of gearing I should use? The truck currently has 3.00's which is way too high. I was thinking 3.83 or 4.10's with the 32 or 33" tires. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated as I would like to build this truck right the first time.

thanx

I also have a 78 horse with a 400, C6, 203 combo.  It really depends on how much of each kind of driving you do. The 203 xfer case has a low enough ratio when combined with the automatic you should have adequate grunt for crawling trails and getting to fishin holes. I run 31's on mine which has stock gears in the 300-340 range. I haven't really checked them. In low range it will get down and crawl pretty good but doesn't over rev on the highway. I found a calculator the other night on one of the vendor web sites to help calculate out what gears equal what tires etc.  For all around vehicle usage, I would try to keep the the hiway rpms at less than 2400-2600 to minimize wear and tear. Then it is all about how slow you want to go when crawling. It's all a juggling act full of compromises. Good Luck. tl  

I forgot about the locker question. Hard to answer, also depends on how you drive and what conditions. Non- selectables on notoriously unpredictable on ice and snow. From a selectable standpoint you are pretty much stuck with electric or Air. Electric is cheaper and several OEM's are starting to use them in production trucks so from a reliability standpoint they are probably about equal. I think they are probably a little easier to install as well. Overall a 390 to 411 out to serve you well. regards tl

In my yard we have a '79 and it has 3.55 gears but it has the 351/4speed borgwarner/np205/44-9.  It has open diffs in both ends.  I would like to put a lockrite or ez locker in the rear.  Here in ga there is not much snow or ice to make a difference and you get use to it.  At stock hieght it clears 33 12.5 bfg all terrians fine.  Where on the truck when got it.  It does need a mud tire though.  With the 3.55 gears it goes good very few of the broncos got 4.11 like most trucks got.  I am happy with the gears in it with 33's.  I do not see my son lifting it any time soon because of money but 4" will clear 35's fine or a bit of finder cutting will do to.  It is my sons.  For me though it is a good truck but i prefer a k5.  I don't have any experience with selectable lockers so do not know what to tell you.  Some other places to look for anyone is www.top4x4sites.com and it will link to alot of sites there are a few for full size broncos but vote for coloradok5 for me.  www.fullsizebronco.com is anok site as good or better than this one if you are into fullsize fords i just go there for my sons bronco questions. I have the k10 so i hang around coloradok5. Go to the top 4x4 site though and lok at the different sites along with www.primedia.com and can get to all there magazine sites.

Thanks for the help guys. I forgot to tell you the truck has  a Ford 400m, c6 tranny, np205 transfer case, ford 9 inch rear and dana 44 front.

I was told by a couple tire shops that a 33-12.50 would not fit on my truck without a 2 inch lift. Ronny do your tires rub at all when off road?

My truck sees an equal amount of time on the hwy and offroad as I usually have to drive a ways to get offroad. However I would sacrifice some hwy gas mileage for better offroad performance.

I live in Canada so I need the selectable locker to keep from killing myself in the winter!

isn't the ox locker selectable by a cable?  and as far as the tires go, 33's should fit fine without a lift.  Just make sure you don't push it too hard w/ the front 44 and the locker engaged, it seems like i'm changing axleshafts every other time i take my truck out because of the detroit I have up front.  

I don't think OX locker makes a locker for the 9", but they do for the D44.   

ox makes a selectable locker for the front, I would just use a detroit in the rear.  

I would go with the 33's but if ya do have to get a lift thats not so bad and it's just 2in    and ya may want to go with a limited slip up front mite save you some $$ on new shafts