Thread: detroit decided front?

Originally Posted by Squids130

I'm following intently aswell I had a Detroit locker in the rear of a disco , it gave unbelievable traction and only was noticeable in tight roundabouts , maybe the Ashcroft diffs are even better

If the "Ashcroft diffs" you mention = ATBs: they are not necessarily better than unlockers like the detroits. They are very different and not necessarily suited for the same use cases or same driving styles. It depends on your use case and needs - which is "better".

Unlockers, and locking diffs, do give a full hard locking of left to right axle. ATBs can never fully lock up like that. If your use case requires a fully locked diff (even if only for several minutes on occasional hard core trails - then ATBs don't cut it.

If your use case involves a solid desire for some degree of left/right torque transfer on and off-road: then lockers and unlockers don't cut it.

It's a trade off. I was willing to sacrifice the ability to fully lock up the diff at times, for the torque shifting ATBs do on and off-road.

I read once that a manufacturer had a diff that had ATB type centre and was also fully lockable selectably like an air-locker. That'd be perfect if available for my Defender!

The Ashcroft built ATB replacement for the Defender centre diff retains the centre locking ability. Excellent! If ever mine needs work the Ashcroft centre ATB is going in for sure.

Just adding to the last post - my reasons for choosing ATBs - in case it helps others. As noted above ATBs can never fully lock left to right axle and this was an ok compromise in my mind because:
- have done enough years of hard work, hardcore trails - not a priority any more at this time in my life (old!).
- I have a young son (turns 8 this year). He was only 5yo when I bought the Defender with the sole intention of introducing the lad to camping, the wild, the Malaysian jungles, while they still exist. Hence off-roading for me would need to be more "family friendly" than "hard core".
- (Though we have done trails that were hard core enough to damage all 4 of my folding steps. And hard enough to force the accompanying lifted and locked land cruisers on 35" tyres to break out their winches.)
- I accepted that I'd have to drive better, pick better lines, and hold my breath a bit more with ATBs, as compared to having lockers.
- I accepted that there was a good chance that if I got stuck it'd be a Toyota giving a helpful tug
- I was glad for the ATB inability to put all drive/torque down one axle to one wheel. This meant I didn't have to consider updating ALL driveline components to HD spec.
- and of course the aforementioned desire for something a bit better than open diffs for the other 90% of my driving - on road. This barge is my daily driver, and family holiday highway cruiser.
- and one more reason, perhaps the most contentious: proactively removing the rover diff centres because of what seemed to be strong perceptions in the LR communities of them being a common point of failure.