Thread: To lock or not

There's a big difference between driving around on dirt and sitting there on ice flat to the floor and not moving. The diffs in the axle housings have small side gears as well and nobody is advocating locking front and rear diffs to drive around on dirt. I just think you need to use a bit of judgement. Windup has the potential to cause damage as well.

2stroke,
define "windup"

As best as I can determine there is no spring and nothing springy in an LT230
just a bunch of dirty great gears that are in constant mesh.
It is a stupidly simple gear box (outside of the centre diff which is a known weakness)

Once the case is locked there is no component in the t-case that will be damaged be torque before that torque is released by some other downstream component most likely tyre wear.
I would argue even 10spline axles and poxy CVs would out torque any tyre on any surface?

S

Originally Posted by roverrescue

I would argue even 10spline axles and poxy CVs would out torque any tyre on any surface?

S

Assuming you can't get 7.50R16 (or equivalent) racing slicks ... no arguement from me Steve.

Originally Posted by AndyG

So your tootling down the Birdsville,
Gravel
Bulldust
Then a stretch of smooth hard clay and CDL is locked & your doing 90 kmph

What's the worst that is going to happen, tyre wear and wind up?

Nothing. Nothing bad anyway. Wind up won't happen on that sort of track if you're proceeding roughly straight ahead.

Tight turns on a high grip surface are another matter. You'll soon feel heavy steering when doing a 3 point turn with the diff in.. But it'll soon unwind as soon ax you hit some dirt. Ot just reverse for a bit if you're worried.

The centre diff isn't much bigger than a tennis ball. It'll overheat & go blue with overuse, that is high speeds on dirt unlocked.

And the car is just faster and more stable on dirt with the diff locked.

Regards
Max P

Originally Posted by roverrescue

2stroke,
define "windup"

As best as I can determine there is no spring and nothing springy in an LT230
just a bunch of dirty great gears that are in constant mesh.
It is a stupidly simple gear box (outside of the centre diff which is a known weakness)
Once the case is locked there is no component in the t-case that will be damaged be torque before that torque is released by some other downstream component most likely tyre wear.
I would argue even 10spline axles and poxy CVs would out torque any tyre on any surface?

S

It's unlikely you'd find your transfer case winds up driving around on dirt, though equally unlikely you'd destroy the centre diff by sitting with the throttle flat out while one front wheel is spinning, surely most people would be intelligent enough to realize they aren't moving and stop and lock it up. By windup I mean when you have the centre diff locked the splines on the front output shaft and the locking dog teeth are forced together by the different wheel speeds to such an extent that it won't disengage and if left locked and loaded for long enough could wear a groove and make engagement and disengagement difficult.
My point is that nobody worries about their front or rear diffs being destroyed by driving on dirt unlocked and rightly noone locks them because it compromises steering, same as locking the CDL.

Originally Posted by Tusker

The centre diff isn't much bigger than a tennis ball. It'll overheat & go blue with overuse, that is high speeds on dirt unlocked.

And the car is just faster and more stable on dirt with the diff locked.

Regards
Max P

I disagree Max, haven't had an issue with the centre diff in twelve years of abuse on high speed dirt, and just prefer the feel of an unlocked centre diff, but as stated previously, I'm in the minority !

Originally Posted by rick130

I disagree Max, haven't had an issue with the centre diff in twelve years of abuse on high speed dirt, and just prefer the feel of an unlocked centre diff, but as stated previously, I'm in the minority !

Fair enuff! These centre diffs aren't fragile, but like anything mechanical, they'll fail if you try hard enough.

Regards
Max P

As stated above, theres a big difference between unlocked high speed dirt and sitting still with one wheel spinning.

Somewhere In between these two extremes will be the line between normal CDL operation and destructive abuse, I imagine.