Locker or Limited Slip or Open on expedition truck?

[kcowyo]

Selectable. Air locker or e-locker....

"Buy the best, bleed once." - DesertDude

 

[7wt]

I agree with the whole buy the best thing, the problem lies with finding out what is best for your own personal needs.

 

[Ruffin' It]

This is true, but the same can be said for pretty much anything. I've had a fairly low powered open-diff car (V6 Camaro...it's ok, you can laugh) go 90 degrees on me getting on to the highway. Hell, after one particularly bad winter storm and had a VW GTI with Blizzaks on it and an open diff drift sideways while coasting with the clutch in (heavily crowned road and black ice). From my expereince living in Michigan and Illinois I'd have to say that, at some point, regardless of what's between the axles, slippery roads are going to be hard to deal with. From my expereince (just speaking for me), my LSD coupled with good judgment was my prefered setup. But, then again, I may have spent more than my fair share of time trying to get the rear to slide.:wings:

I don't qualify as an experienced driver by any stretch of imagination, but I do have a lot of miles driving in snow. Clutch style LSD's IMO are dangerous in "low friction" environments, particularly with a side hill (read: road with a lot of crown on it) which would cause the truck to spin unpredictably with no chance of saving it in deep snow. Well that is not entirely true, in some cases backing of the gas quickly and abruptly, which should exacerbate oversteer, would unload the LSD and you would be okay.

Other "extreme" driving situations that would cause the excessive oversteer (though never resulting in a spin) was turning out of a parking lot onto a street. For reasons I can't explain, though maybe Scott will, warm snow and slight slush was worse than drier snow and left turns were much worse than right turns.

Not sure I ever explained this here, but that is why we named the Pathfinder "Odie" -- it liked to chase its tail in the snow.

 

[erin]

I have the Truetracs front and rear in my 04 Taco, and while they work very well, if you lift a tire, you will need to apply brake input to transfer torque or to the traction side.

 

[Alaska Mike]

I have ARBs front and rear on my Jeep. Why? Because I can turn them off. 95% of the time I don't need them on the trail, and prefer having the directional control that comes with open diffs. I've had automatic lockers, and I'll never go back now that I've had the choice.