Thread: Lifting Wheels Problem?

Does your Defender have traction control?

my thoughts exactly.
Regards Philip A

looking at roller's previous posts.....his rig appears to be a 300tdi

It could have traction control, or it could if its an older 300tdi have been fitted by a previous owner with a limited slip diff or you could have had a bit more travel than the patrol and just had one of the lifted wheels just touching the ground.
If its older than 03 get a detroit locker for the rear sals diff(about 550-650) from the u.s(lucky8) and some hy-tuff axles or ashcroft.

I've seen similar behaviour ("the whole truck kicked and bucked like something was trying to grab but not achiving any forwed movement") when drivers that have TC use too much right foot. They need to ease off and allow the TC to work as it's meant to.

Spinning wheels in any 4WD situation means lack of forward motion and usually nds up in a less desirable result - either sliding to where you didn't want to be or digging yourself deeper into sand or other soft stuff.

As I often say "back off and go further faster"

I think I know what you are talking about. The drive train makes crashy noises, and the vehicle bucks a little bit. Usually this happens if (usually diagonal) wheels have lost traction due to cross axling but not quite left the ground. So you are in effect trying to drive the wheel into the air. So the wheel drives forward loses traction releases torque wind up (crash) the vehicle slips back a tiny bit, then wheel bites (crash) and trys to drive forward again. And so on it goes unless you stop. Can't imagine it is terribly good for the drive train. Note: this is on a standard 110.
I have a locker in the back of mine and if I engage that, none of the above happens because in the cross axle situation I still have one wheel with lots of traction. Wheels climb into the air turning smoothly, sometimes to a quite worrying hieght.

Where the patrol comes in is, they have a very good (usually) limited slip diff in the rear. This gives the same result as a rear locker far as smooth driving in the cross axle situation.

On a side note without a locker I find a 110 very rarely gets wheels in the air, due to loss of traction. Of course that could be just the way I drive. Momentum would probably cause it to happen more (or big holes ).

Hope all that makes sense.
Dan.

Thanks everyone

“wovenrovings” Your explanation sounds possible. ill need to have a look from outside the truck next time it happens.

Just to clear things up. I dont have Traction Control, but the previous owner has installed the heavy duty Axles. but im 90% positive there is no LSD or locker, haven’t had it apart to check for myself. i was wondering if the bucking could have been some kind of auto locker or something im unfamiliar with trying to help?

The situation was one very deep rut being crossed on an angle so "cross axling" the truck. The track was rock hard so no slipping but the rut as i mentioned was big and there was no way to cross strait on.

and on a side note the Nissans LSD no matter how good didn’t help when 2 wheels were hanging in the air... and the defenders wheel travel eventualy got me through to pull the patrol along behind.

i had an ARB air locker in my last truck and loved it. but i see a lot of people highly regard the Detroit auto locker? if i drive conservatively on road is there any down side to the auto locker?

And if i cross axel the truck with an auto locker can i crawl through slow and controlled like i could with the air locker? or is there a little lag time while it locks up and unlocks? And do i need to be applying a set amount of throttle?

With a Detroit you can crawl as it will only unlock when both wheels have high amount of traction/grip like when going around a corner on tar. The only time I've noticed my Detroit on the road was doing a sharp turn in a carpark the inside tyre was chirping leaving skid marks but that was because some scumbag had put a nail under my tyre and it was almost flat. So the Detroit actually saved me from a potential crash.