Limited slip diff. Or locker

[dodge man]

Just my opinion here, but I have had several factory limited slips. They are just that, pretty limited. If they are set up to tight, they will drag a tire on dry pavement. If they are set up like they are from the factory, they only help so much. I had one limited slip that I could jack up one tire and grab a hold of it and just with arm strength spin the tire even though I could feel the limited slip dragging some. My current F150 has the factory locker and you just pull out on the 4 wheel drive knob to engage it, I think you have to be going less than 25 mph for it to engage. It works well.

I suspect a lot of the limited slips people mention that are aftermarket are much better than factory setups.

 

[adam728]

As some others have said - #1 is true snow tires. Not all terrains. Not M&S. Not all seasons. But actual winter tires. I've yet to meet someone that has tried them and not been blown away. Currently I have new Yokohama Geolander G015's on my GMC, which have a 3 peak mountain snowflake rating, meaning they are well above average in snow. Wife has true Cooper snow tires ok on the minivan. I can out accelerate (AWD vs minivan FWD) and go through deeper snow than her. That's it. Braking and cornering the minivan on winters wins, no contest. Our 5th vehicle with snow tires.

Anyway, for a daily driver, no hassle plow truck, limited slip. 2nd choice would be a selectable locker. 3rd, auto locker (Lunchbox, full Detroit, etc). The auto lockers do take some driver awareness in snow, had a Lockrite in a Toyota, a Jeep with Lockrites front and rear, and a Jeep with a rear Aussie Locker (same as a Lockrite, basically). According to the internet I should be dead. Good thing I didn't know that back when I started using them.

I will say, for plowing, probably not a huge need for a locker or limited slip on the flats. Open diffs do pretty good. But, drop a tire in the ditch and hang the corner of the plow up, now they help.

But real snow tires first.

 

[herm0016]

yep. snow tires first. we have winter wheels with snows for our truck and our car. i am a big fan of the blizzak dmv-2s, i'm on my third set of them. we have Ipikes on the car, but that does not go to the mountains in the winter.

i have always liked the g80, you just have to understand how it works, much like adam728 said.

 

[bigtiller]

If one wheel has to spin 120 rpm faster than the other wheel for the G80 differential to lock up, how fast is that in mph?

 

[CADplans]

My last two Chevy trucks have had locking rear axles, they are perfect
You do not know the locker is in the truck until one tire spins too much, then it locks

Both of the trucks were sold new as snow plow special trucks.

 

[herm0016]

lets see...

275/65/18 is about the size on my GMC. circumference is 100.7 inches * 120 rpm gives us 12084 inches/min x 1ft/12 in x 1 mile / 5280 ft x 60min/1 hr is ~ 11 mph. but that is difference between the 2 rear wheels and varies with tire size, not your ground speed. 120 rpm is pretty slow. you can pedal a bike at 11 mph pretty easy.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My last two Chevy trucks have had locking rear axles, they are perfect
You do not know the locker is in the truck until one tire spins too much, then it locks

Both of the trucks were sold new as snow plow special trucks.

I have two Chevy trucks with factory locking rear diff's, a "12" and an "18", both work VERY good, no complaints with the lockers at all...

SR

 

[adam728]

The G80, or "Gov-Lock" only gets a bad rep becauae guys put 37's on a half ton and then try to bash through rocks and ruts off road with the throttle to the floor. Its a pretty good system.

 

[buickanddeere]

The primary problem is people who are too cheap to install real winter tires and try to make do with mid&snow, four season or other bad jokes .

 

[Industrial Toys]

Mc Arthur sold me some supposed snow tires for my Sierra that are more like M&S. Hardly worth changing them over. But, they are noisy enough on dry pavement, so what is a guy to do?