Thread: When To Engage Diff Lock

There was much debate in this recent thread.....

When to lock CDL

Please please not another one!
Regards Philip A

yeah follow it up with another tyre thread, then which oil to use.

................. I have been told that the the diff lock on the LT95 should be engaged when ever you exit the tarmac or you may cause damage to the centre diff. ...........

No, absolutely not !The diff lock should NOT be engaged when driving ON the tarmac or you may cause damage to the centre diff. is probably what was meant.


................ I have been driving the last week on gravel roads with speeds between 60-80 kms per hour. Should the diff lock be engaged for this sort of driving? .............

Again no or at best not necessarily. The centre diff is there to allow for the difference in distance travelled between the front and rear wheels in normal hard surface be it bitumen or dirt road driving. It automatically compensates for this difference. When the centre diff is locked this is no longer the case. Running with the centre diff locked on a hard surface causes excessive strain in the drive train called 'transmission wind up' which at best can cause the transfer case to lock up. ie. can't de select lock or select hi/low range. It can make gear selection difficult.

When the centre diff lock is used correctly (on a loose surface) ie. sand, mud loose soil the wheels can 'slip' to relieve the strain so as not to cause 'transmission lock up'. When this does occur sometimes the best way to relieve the tension is to temporarily jack up one wheel to allow it to turn to release the tension.

Deano

Get your owners manual out it's all in there lol just taking the mickey but really it's all in there!

Ill just grab some cartoon-popcorn-vector-514705.jpg
Oh lets throw in a ATB are the best versus crappy air locker debate as wellinsanity.jpeg

Bottom line is you won’t hurt anything by not engaging it when on dirt roads. As you can see there are a lot of differing opinions on this but that’s fine - you can use the centre diff lock on dirt roads without issue too - some here engage it as soon as they leave the tarmac, others only when the going gets a bit tougher. Do or don’t, you won’t hurt anything - just remember to disengage it when your back on the hard stuff or you will hurt something.

Yep I on the engage side of the fence....I’d rather not wait for wheel slip as it’s nearly impossible to predict.

Driving my back to the motel tonight in my work hi-lux with my two tradies.....had to detour on dirt roads (very bad accident just north of Miles) they were surprised I engaged 4WD.......