Posted by Dan Shockley on Thursday, March 15, 2007 at 12:02:12 :
In Reply to: Re: Point still missed posted by Clint Dixon on Thursday, March 15, 2007 at 10:51:48 :
Clint - agreed.
Norm,
I completely agree that anyone adding lockers to the front or rear axles (selectable or non-selctable) will need to adapt their driving style to get the maximum benifit out of the vehicle. I also agree with your recommendations to Tim for how he should approach driving with the ARB installed. Of course, I would tend to make the same recommendation for anyone driving with an automatic locker as overuse of the throttle is not necessary to extract performance out of the diff. That said, the addition of the ARB could exaggerate the side effects of poor driving style with the automatic locker (WHICH I BELIEVE TO BE YOUR MAIN POINT!)
I disagree about the mechanics of why that is the case. The only way for any additional load to be transferred to the front axle is as Clint indicates for both rear tires to loose traction. If the inside (driven) tire looses traction in a freewheeling situation, it will simply cause the locker to lock. And, when the outside tire unlocks, it actually reduces the tire scrub on the rear axle, raises average rear tire speed and unloads the front axle. This can result in a transfer of more load to the inside rear tire, but not the front axle! This transfer to the inside tire is not a concern either because as driveline load is increased, the automatic locker will reengage and distribute the load (except possibly for very high traction conditions!
I am not trying to advocate for either locker. Each one has its place, and as Clint says, the buyer should know what he is getting as to avoid suprises. Neither device is without compromise. Neither device absolves the driver of the need to be sensitive to the vehicle and drive intelligently.
Great discussion!
Dan