Advice needed please.

After failing to get over a small obstacle at the weekend I have been researching the suspension versus lockers debate.
I don't want to start that all over again as it seems to have been done many times. (Ideally I'd like both but I forgot to get a lottery ticket)

My question is if I go for an Ashcroft rear locker to start with, would you recommend that I upgraded to hd halfshafts and drive flanges at the same time?

Just wondering if all are upgraded then what becomes the weakest link.
Or are they so strong that I will never break them?

If you have good tyres and a locking diff, you're half shafts will be the weak link. Tyres would be my first mod personally but I guess you've already done that? If you decide to go for big simex type tyres though you will soon show up weak links in the drivetrain in no time

locker in the rear is a good way to start. Many go the HD half shafts route but many don't on account of making them being the weak link.

As the poster above said, if you have simex type tyres then id opt for standard shafts. The moment you catch a lug with a root or a rock your going to smash something.

Personally, id Go hd everything except drive flanges, there's gonna be a weak link somewhere, and it might as well be somewhere cheap and easy to replace.

So it's a matter of controlling where the weak point is then.
Thanks all

I'd leave the standard shafts in, can pick them up for next to nout

There's two trains of thought on this.

1) keep your shafts standard, that way they're the weakest link and the easiest & cheapest to replace and hopefully saving bigger more expensive components.

2) make everything as strong as possible but run the risk of moving breakages further up the drive train.

I know of 3 people that have been running either ARB's or Ashcroft lockers for around 18 months with standard shafts and haven't broken anything. On the strength of this, I chose the latter, uprating both shafts and flanges. Figuring if the standard shafts are coping, then the bigger components should hold up.

A lot of it depends on how you use (abuse) lockers. Really, they're for the worst of the worst, engage when needed, disengage as soon as they're not. On a recent trip to Wales I used a locker a number of times. Probably the total time it was engaged in the whole day was around 2 minutes at the most. Use a locker willy nilly when traction is good and you'll stress components, use it appropriately and you'll have very little if any excess stress on major components.