Thanks to the recent snow storm and lack of governmental funding to clean up some back streets, I had a chance to really try out the 4WD system in our trucks. I did some experimentation with running in 2WD, 4WD High and 4WD Lo with/without the ELD engaged.

I have experience, like most of us running limited slip, but I also have owned vehicles with spoolers and lockers of different designs (ARB, OX, etc -- mostly off road toys). My question is simple, where does the ELD fit into this? I wasn't overly impressed with what it did in 2WD.

I will also admit, it will take me some time to trust in the electrons when it comes to 4WD engagement. Nothing like feeling the gears being engaged with a nice on the floor lever...

 

I to am curious about this , because when the rear end is not locked with the ELD why can i fish tale all the way up the drive way , but when in the parking lot with the truck stopped i engage the ELD little light on the dash comes on when i give it gas only one wheel has traction, but if i hold my foot on the brake both rear wheels will turn.

I have tried with and without the traction control on. Its never consistant

I thought the whole purpose of the ELD was once it was engaged it provided a true locked rear end .

 

The ELD causes the rear axle to "lock" and forces each tire to spin at the same speed regardless of how much traction the tires have. This is really useful in off-road situations where the rear tires intermittently have little traction on one tire but lots of traction on the other. You may have seen photos where trucks have one tire in the air but the vehicle still moves forward. The ELD makes this possible where an open differential (or limited slip) will not help.

The ELD is not as useful when both rear tires have little traction. If both tires are spinning, the laws of gravity become clearly evident and the back end of the truck will simply move in the direction of the slope. This is where ELD alone can actually cause problems. In this situation, 4X4 Hi is the best option.

I like to use the traction control when I'm not paying attention. It covers the rear end sliding around when I don't mean it to. On the other hand, if I want to have full control over the power going to the wheels, I turn off traction control, turn on 4X4 hi (and optionally the ELD) and the automatic systems will not interrupt power to the wheels.

Mind you, none of these systems help you stop.

 

Exactly! I really wonder if it works differently when in 2 versus 4WD and when in 4WD Hi versus 4WD Lo. I was under the impression too that it was a true locked rear end that had a protection built into it (number of degrees that front wheel is turned and a speed limitation -- disengage in 2 and 4WD Hi at 25 mph and re-engage at 19).

It really feels (again I can't see what the wheels are doing) that is acting like a limited slip, at least in 2WD.

 

If you guys are saying you have ELD engaged and light is on the dash and one rear wheel will spin while the other is not, there is a problem.

 

If you watch the videos in the "Ohio Meet" thread, you will see how well the locker works. This meet is a few years old and up until this year no one could pull this hill with a 11500 pound trailer in 2wd. I pulled it with my 2011 3.55 ELD in 2wd ,in the rain, and was very competitive with the 4wd guys. I turned around at the top f the hill and did not switch off the ELD. It immediately let me know my mistake. There is no slip when the locker is "locked"

Regards

 

I don't have the e-locker on mine.

But I did get to ride with Rickatic two weeks ago for his 2wd e-locker run up the hill. It was slick enough none of us wanted to launch in 2WD except him, and it did an impressive job.

At the top of the hill, we made a u-turn to come right back down again. I could feel the rear wheels scrubbing across the pavement in protest. His was completely locked, and this was in 2WD.

I think they are all supposed to do that.

 

Well to be more discriptive on my experience with my truck , this is in 2wd only , I plow so when in a parking lot in 2wd with the ELD engaged the truck is useless only the right wheel spins and that is only with 1 to 3 inches of snow . I put my foot on the brake on a spot of packed snow or ice both rear wheels turn when looking in the rear view mirrors. As soon as step on the gas only one wheel spins.

I have tried this on dry pavement and i know it works because when it is engaged while turning in a circle the rear end hops like a locker .

Everything seems fine , no noises or hopping when driving in a straight line and light does go off when i hit the 20 or 25 mph mark and comes back on when i come to a stop .

Who knows, maybe they forgot to put the locker in the diff from the factory and i just have the cool light and switch

4wd works like a charm , no problem with that engaged at all .

 

Sounds like mine! That is why I was questioning whether the "electronic" algorithm was programmed differently for 2WD as opposed to 4WD. I was expecting both wheels to spin when it was engaged in 2WD. I will be having someone verify that indeed only 1 wheel is spinning in 2WD.

The problem verifying it in 4WD is the fact that front wheels will give you the extra traction so you don't really know if the ELD is doing its job or not.

 

Maybe you can just find a little stretch of dirt road and verify yourself. I've done this in all scenarios and learned a lot about how the ELD, no-ELD, traction control, no-traction control, etc. works. The only risk there is doing a bunch of spinning that might nick up your tires.

 

There is still enough virgin snow covered roads around here that should allow me to do some experimentation.

 

if you read my post lately I have used my truck in snow quite a bit. IMO in snow at least the ELD isn't really helping at all. I can barely even tell I turn it on, I back up my trailer in the driveway hit some ice while backing up, then stop turn on the ELD and it still doesn't really help.

The truth IMO is there is no substitute for having traction on the front wheels, the weight is up there and that is really where you added traction comes from. it too bad they didn't put the ELD in the FRONT, however this would cause all sorts of problems with people not knowing what the heck they are doing. it would have to be used off pavement only.

the other thing is the stock tires on these trucks suck for traction.

 

I think you are on to something. I had a chance to play a bit more at lunch time. I did not have an observor but I found some virgin snow and tried to aggressively pull out with and without the ELD engaged. With it engaged, I could see clear evidence that both wheels were chunking up the snow. Without it engaged, only 1 wheel was. What was weird and why I made my original query is that in both cases the truck's rear end swung out to the right. Sort of what you would see with 1 wheel getting power.

I agree with you Cummins that when 4WD is engaged, all the dynamics change and the vehicle is a beast. The ELD appears to be window dressing at that point.

 

look at it this way, now we have a 3wd truck, instead of just a 2 wd, most people don't realize when they have a 4wd that when the rubber meets the road they only will have 2 wheels spinning if they get stuck.

with the ELD you will have a minimum of 3 spinning.

 

...and if you need more than 3 spinning at once, you probably should not be there...