Thread: To lock or Not to lock

You do not have to have CDL engaged everytime you are on dirt, on hard packed dirt roads you can still get windup the same as you can on biteum.

By all means once low range is engaged you can engage, but I personally prefer only to engage when the threat is apparant in front of you. Like a very steep hill, rock steps, mud, very wet clay roads etc.

Depending on your skill level and if new to your car or 4WDring, I would engage CDL once low range was engaged and taken off once out of low range of course. Once you are confident and at one with your car you can drop it in when & where only when needed.

By the manual "it is only to be engaged when there is a chance of losing wheel traction off road".

This will probably stir some debate, good campfire topic along with tyres, winches etc. :wink:

I tend to lock in low range only, though I have heard some people say to lock as soon as you hit dirt as sometimes the LT230 t/f case can break/wear the centre diff. I think it was John Lee from Expedition Exchange in the US, his CDiff came out blued from the heat in the planetary from what I understand.

Once off-road in most situations, I lock it in regardless. Even on sand I find it does benifit a bit, even though on the hard packed stuff you could get away without locking it.

Also since mine has been converted fron a Viscous Coupling t/c to a LT230 I have no diff lock warning light so my philosiphy is simple, I lock it in ansd I don't have to remeber later. I have seen too many club members who lock theres 'when needed' and get caught out.

Must hook up the light one day. Too buisy off-radoing I guess as an ezxcuse!!

Trav

I engage the diff lock whenever we get off the bitumen. I fail to see how you could possibly get wind-up on unsealed roads - the wheels are always skipping about on the gravel, gibbers and/or corrugations! Never had any trouble dis-engaging it, if I remember before getting back onto the bitumen. And with the centre-diff locked, you at least have positve drive to the front axle if the back gets a bit 'tail happy' on loose corners. IMHO it's a sensible safety precaution.

Would not the logic apply. .....As with a "conventional" 4wd that when you select 4wd you are doing it on a "judgement based assessment" of the prevailing conditions and as such the front and rear tail shafts are engaged and rotating at the same rpm soooo . logically when you make the same judgement in a LR with Centre Diff Lock you would engage the CDL bringing it in line with (dare I say it) a conventional 4wd system.
Cheers Joatt

A judgement based on conditions however I err on the locked side.

If you are locked you are kinder on the tracks (tread lightly). Consider those who want or need to follow and those who want to close tracks due to damage caused by 4wd's

Much less vigourous wheel spin, you don't have to use so much momentum/speed and therefore kinder on the car. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

If the tracks are a little firmer and I'm not sure what lies ahead and I'm concerned about wind up I'll look for the loose stuff in the centre of the track and on the edges and induce some wheel spin with the accelerator.

And besides as someone suggested by the time you need the traction its usually too late too engage it. No traction + no momentum = stuck!

This should be coupled with appropriate tyre pressures which is another topic.

LOCK before you need it, for once its needed its to late.


Besides locking the CDL just may (will) it easier to traverse the terrain.

Remember unlocked you are technicaly ONE wheel drive, lift a wheel on a steep decent and you are awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Use common sense and experience. For the inexperienced errr on the cautionary side, LOCK when in doubt.

Michael.

Thanks for all the 'food for thought'. I think I will err on the side of caution for the present.
Cheers.