locked or open in the snow

Post by **Brett** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:11 am

I was curious to hear some thoughts about locked vs. open axles in the snow. I went to mtn lake saturday and ran open/open most of the day and as long as I had some momentum I did pretty well. I was going to help my parents on sunday and got stuck open/open going up their hill (pavement) when I hit the section where there were no tracks. I decided to try locked/locked and crawl up the hill (no throttle) and to my amazement never slipped a tire, but it took like five minutes to make that last 150 yds. Thoughts?

Brett

Post by **Dred** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:54 am

I was playing around with my lockers on saturday when we ran mt lake in 2 feet of snow... To be honest, there wasn't much difference at all for me whether I was running open/open or locked/locked. I think that may have had something to do with my snowmobile tires (anyone who was there knows what I'm talking about). With both diffs locked, I got slightly more forward traction going up hills, but a lot more side to side action. With both diffs unlocked, I wasn't getting quite as much forward traction, but the Jeep didn't slide side to side at all. I was running open/open most of the day with no problems. So I would say only lock your diffs in the snow if you really need the extra traction, otherwise you're going to have trouble keeping your rig pointed straight ahead.

Post by **Jwlman** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 11:39 am

Fast = open / open or limited slip in my case

Slow = locked / locked

Lockers will make you slide around easier and slide downhill if you are off camber but will give you extra traction

Post by **Arya Ebrahimi** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 12:45 pm

With selectables I'd run open/open until I needed to lock in.

With that said, I didn't really have any problem at Potts welded front/rear either.

Post by **BadnewsCJ** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 12:46 pm

Ive damn near rolled my truck using the rear e locker, however multiple times in this past snow storm trying to navigate the backroads in WV I had to use the rear locker to get myself out of a jam

I actually slid off Harding Road (again :lol2:

) trying to move out of the way of a snow plow when I was open in the rear. Pushed the magic yoyo Diff Lock button and I was moving uphill again. Same thing trying to get into Trows driveway, hit it in 4wd open and stopped moving, engaged the locker and up I went.

On the contrary to what James said, I actually prefer to have the rear locked at high speeds due to the predictability of what its going to do.

To me open and locked both have their place, and if I had to choose I would have it locked all the time vs. open all the time.

I have no input on front lockers in snow cause both my toyota and my jeep are open in the front. Maybe the issue some of you are having are due to being locked front and rear. My truck can get squirely but it definately isn't 4 wheel spinning sliding side to side off of mountains (like Trow

) when the rear is locked.

Post by **willhf1011** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:33 pm

I'm of the opinion that there are very few cases in which a front locker isn't beneficial. I guess you could talk about steering but I don't find it that bad.

I've been out plowing all weekend and I wish my truck had some form of locker in the rear. A selectable would definitely be ideal but If I couldn't have an ARB I'd still like it to be lockerd.

FWIW I had no problem on the road to Potts or on the trail with the rear welded. The nice thing about full time locked is it is very predictable.

Post by **Trailduster79** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:28 pm

the first time out in the snow with my welded rear I expected to be all over the place, especially with swampers. to my suprise it wasn't bad.

I think that if you know what you are doing being locked is much better, that being said, it is much easier to keep it pointed straight with open diffs.

Post by **VerticalTRX** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 6:22 pm

Trailduster79 wrote:the first time out in the snow with my welded rear I expected to be all over the place, especially with swampers. to my suprise it wasn't bad.

I think that if you know what you are doing being locked is much better, that being said, it is much easier to keep it pointed straight with open diffs.

I've found exactly the same to be true. Everyone always told my how bad the swampers (and a spool) are in the snow but I've driven the '79 in the snow quite a bit and found that to not to be the case. Driving around the roads here in the snow I almost never need 4wd unless the snow gets over 8-10" or there are steep hills involved.

On that same note, the '79 was pulling work truck duty this past weekend hauling my 18' equipment trailer and Kubota tractor for snow removal. This was the first time I'd ever towed with it, but it did well. I made a couple 20mi round trips and didn't use 4wd much, except to get back up my driveway which had drifted in 2+ feet deep in places. In that case being locked front and rear, plenty of tire and lots of motor were the only option. Even still it took lots of throttle, momentum and multiple trys. About the only thing better would have been tire chains all around...

-Grubb