Limited Slip question
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 6,200
Likes: 39
From: Easton, Pa.
The answer depends on how you look at the situation.
In normal non 4 wheel drive running, one wheel can spin under certain conditions limiting traction. For example rounding a curve on a wet road could cause the inside wheel to loose traction on a hard pull. Loss of traction in mud or snow conditions would be the same.
With traction lock you can get into oppisite conditions.
For example rounding the same curve in the above example could cause the truck to spin around at loss of traction to both rear wheels.
So you can see there are times it works better as an open and times it works better as a traction lock.
I would take the traction lock for use in my area for winter as traction would be much better until 4 wheel has to be used to get to where you are going in severe weather.
Another factor that is little thought of is traction lock has a sleight tendencey to wear the rear tires a little faster due to the resistance the traction lock offers to the tires when not running in a straight line.
When I pull out of my driveway and make a hard left or right turn the inside wheel actually hobbles a bit until the truck gets into a straight path down the road. That is how hard my traction lock works even at nearly 60k miles.
Now for drag racing or jack rabbit starts and max traction then you would want it.
For most all around non performance uses an open rear and 4 wheel drive will be enough.
I also own an older Ranger and Bronco II with touch control 4 wheel drive and open rears and have never been stuck in winter time. The lack of traction lock has never been an issue with these little trucks.
Remember this; the rear wheels share 50% traction in each of two wheels.
During 4 wheel drive each wheel now only has to supply 25% traction.
That is a huge difference under slick conditions. Said another way, tire bite to the road surface is 100% more in 4 wheel drive with the added tire surfaces of the front wheels adding traction. The negitive of all this is the braking does not get much better than in two wheel drive in slick conditions because the same tire surface areas are used in either 2 or 4 wheel drive.
In normal non 4 wheel drive running, one wheel can spin under certain conditions limiting traction. For example rounding a curve on a wet road could cause the inside wheel to loose traction on a hard pull. Loss of traction in mud or snow conditions would be the same.
With traction lock you can get into oppisite conditions.
For example rounding the same curve in the above example could cause the truck to spin around at loss of traction to both rear wheels.
So you can see there are times it works better as an open and times it works better as a traction lock.
I would take the traction lock for use in my area for winter as traction would be much better until 4 wheel has to be used to get to where you are going in severe weather.
Another factor that is little thought of is traction lock has a sleight tendencey to wear the rear tires a little faster due to the resistance the traction lock offers to the tires when not running in a straight line.
When I pull out of my driveway and make a hard left or right turn the inside wheel actually hobbles a bit until the truck gets into a straight path down the road. That is how hard my traction lock works even at nearly 60k miles.
Now for drag racing or jack rabbit starts and max traction then you would want it.
For most all around non performance uses an open rear and 4 wheel drive will be enough.
I also own an older Ranger and Bronco II with touch control 4 wheel drive and open rears and have never been stuck in winter time. The lack of traction lock has never been an issue with these little trucks.
Remember this; the rear wheels share 50% traction in each of two wheels.
During 4 wheel drive each wheel now only has to supply 25% traction.
That is a huge difference under slick conditions. Said another way, tire bite to the road surface is 100% more in 4 wheel drive with the added tire surfaces of the front wheels adding traction. The negitive of all this is the braking does not get much better than in two wheel drive in slick conditions because the same tire surface areas are used in either 2 or 4 wheel drive.