Quote Originally Posted by twr7cx View Post
I'd be very interested to read about this and your reasons. I would have thought the ABS sensors being on each wheel and able to sense and control each wheel separately would mean little difference to it's operation from what diff type is fitted.

I currently have ATB's front, centre and rear and they are fantastic on road, in horrible wet weather, in the snow, on gravel/dirt, especially higher speed, in the paddocks, towing etc - I doubt there is a better combination for traction. But I usually lock my centre diff when off road - therefore mixing? I've been considering removing the rear ATB and fitting an auto locker instead as I have been disappointed a few times now when off roading when I've come to a stand still and felt that if I had a rear locker driving both wheels I would have just pushed through. Given than offloading is only 1% of my vehicles driving, touring, towing, driving through paddocks and horrible weather are more common having something that always provides better traction is a priority for me.
In a nutshell, because it blew up last time... When operating locked diffs have no difference in wheel speed across the axle and so both ends pull. ATB's can have differences in wheel speed across the axle and that will make them pull, the ETC will improve this, but the ETC in a D2 is very slippery still (compare to the D3/4!). But if you have a mix with ATB in the front and locker in the rear then when the front has differing wheel speeds across the axle it means both locked rears have to be spinning which then causes other driving problems. Its about the elegance of the solution.