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TREMOR Front Diff performance

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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 12:47 PM
  #16  
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Originally Posted by cameronskidoo
well if that’s true, then that is just as stupid as the electronic locking rear diff.

Never is engaged when you need it, and when you do lock it in it cuts over a certain speed.
Terrible system for driving on unplowed roads, hunting and ice fishing where higher speeds are needed.

And to top off there stupid system requires much more often brake pad changes.

As as much as I like Ford, they definitely have some dumb features.
Funny you mention that... on my 2016 F150 I was surprised I needed rear brake pads, especially the passenger rear at 40k miles, until it occurred to me it's the traction control (or in reality my right foot) causing the pads to wear quickly. Front pads were perfectly fine at 40K miles and still great at 71k miles when I traded it in.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 12:49 PM
  #17  
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Originally Posted by cameronskidoo
well if that’s true, then that is just as stupid as the electronic locking rear diff.

Never is engaged when you need it, and when you do lock it in it cuts over a certain speed.
Terrible system for driving on unplowed roads, hunting and ice fishing where higher speeds are needed.

And to top off there stupid system requires much more often brake pad changes.

As as much as I like Ford, they definitely have some dumb features.
Directly from the Ford Media site

Tremor uses a locking rear differential with electronic shift-on-the-fly engagement and a new Dana® limited-slip front differential. In certain modes, the front axle can sense when a tire has lost traction and uses the brakes to send power to the wheel with traction.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 12:52 PM
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Does it have selectable settings? Like snow, rock, mud, etc?

Those set ups arent bad. For me around here where there is no snow a trutrack would be better. I may consider it in the future.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 01:03 PM
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Originally Posted by ford390gashog
The front LS uses the ABS to alter wheel slip up front and supposedly according to Ford if one wheel is off the ground the abs will apply brake pressure to limit wheel spin and transfer torque back.
That's not even a limited slip, that's an open differential with traction control.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 01:04 PM
  #20  
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Interesting. I actually find my 2016 f250 Fx4 performs better on muddy and snow covered forest roads than the other trucks I have owned.The rear locker seems to work better than the junk GM and dodge has. I do wish fords locker would stay locked at a little higher speeds than it does. But if you going over 25 mph you probably really don’t need a locker. The couple of times I have gotten my ford stuck all 4 tires seem to be spinning. When my brothers dodge got stuck only one front and on rear were spinning. Saw the same thing with GM trucks.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 02:34 PM
  #21  
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Hopefully someone will take a video soon and show us how good it works..
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 04:36 PM
  #22  
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I worked in East Texas in the early 80's. I don't know if limited slip was widely available in front axles then but they weren't popular. The folks with both front tires spinning spent more time in the body shop after sliding sideways into gateposts when the fields were muddy. Having trac-lok, limited slip, or whatever on the back helped push you through but it was best to have at least one front wheel not slipping in order to steer.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 07:27 PM
  #23  
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Tremor uses a locking rear differential with electronic shift-on-the-fly engagement and a new Dana® limited-slip front differential. In certain modes, the front axle can sense when a tire has lost traction and uses the brakes to send power to the wheel with traction.

That's not even a limited slip, that's an open differential with traction control.

00t444e
This is exactly what I thought when I read it. I'm wondering if it really has a limited slip at all. I was hoping that it would be like the True-Trac or a Torsen.
Isn't that what the Raptor uses??
I looked on Dana's Website for a new limited slip diff and could not find anything in the light to medium duty systems.
I will contact Ford Parts to see what I can find out.

Years ago Audi came up with an Option on the Quattro Cars called ELD or Electronic Locking Differential. I was considering an Audi All-Road Quattro at the time so I checked with their parts department to find out what type of diff it actually was. What I found was that there was no actual locking mechanism at all. It was purely a traction control system using the brakes. I was glad that I checked and that did it for me. No Audi. I believe that Audi got in trouble over this. I hope Ford isn't trying the same thing.

Jim
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 07:38 PM
  #24  
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I had this in my Tundra. It worked ok. Made a bunch of racket and could slow you down if you needed to make it across a large muddy area. The worst complaint I heard was brake wear on trucks that were off road a lot in like mud.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 07:43 PM
  #25  
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Originally Posted by Gadget185
Tremor uses a locking rear differential with electronic shift-on-the-fly engagement and a new Dana® limited-slip front differential. In certain modes, the front axle can sense when a tire has lost traction and uses the brakes to send power to the wheel with traction.

That's not even a limited slip, that's an open differential with traction control.

00t444e
This is exactly what I thought when I read it. I'm wondering if it really has a limited slip at all. I was hoping that it would be like the True-Trac or a Torsen.
Isn't that what the Raptor uses??
I looked on Dana's Website for a new limited slip diff and could not find anything in the light to medium duty systems.
I will contact Ford Parts to see what I can find out.

Years ago Audi came up with an Option on the Quattro Cars called ELD or Electronic Locking Differential. I was considering an Audi All-Road Quattro at the time so I checked with their parts department to find out what type of diff it actually was. What I found was that there was no actual locking mechanism at all. It was purely a traction control system using the brakes. I was glad that I checked and that did it for me. No Audi. I believe that Audi got in trouble over this. I hope Ford isn't trying the same thing.

Jim
Well, if anyone has a Tremor they can jack the front axle off the ground (with 4x4 and hubs manually engaged) and see if they can rotate a tire. If you can't, you have a clutch LS. If you can, it's either a Torsen type LS or an open differential with ABS controlled torque transfer.

Ford engineers state it may be a clutch type, but we all know how engineers are 100% correct. Ford Parts is worthless as well. They only know of the existing open differential, and no Tremor specific parts are listed.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 07:44 PM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by 00t444e
That's not good, a clutch type limited slip in the front axle can be dangerous for snow driving.
Off topic question. Could My Wife's 18 Expedition that's wheel drive have this type of front diff? Recently We were at our cabin during a heavy snow storm. It seemed as the all wheel drive, wouldn't kick in until the rear tires started spinning. Then when the front wheels engaged, it pulled you to the side of the road. My Wife almost went in the ditch because of this. I chalked it up to her lack of experience until I got in and it did it to me.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 07:56 PM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by Bullitt390
Funny you mention that... on my 2016 F150 I was surprised I needed rear brake pads, especially the passenger rear at 40k miles, until it occurred to me it's the traction control (or in reality my right foot) causing the pads to wear quickly. Front pads were perfectly fine at 40K miles and still great at 71k miles when I traded it in.
My experience was the opposite...my 2015 F350 at 75k when I traded it in, still had 50% rear pads. I didn't off road with it much, but plowed snow every year. The traction control was quite annoying to the point where I would turn it off sometimes when plowing.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 08:46 PM
  #28  
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DSLTRK60
Thanks for the reply.
Exactly. It's been a while but from what I remember of the clutch type limited slips, if you have both wheels off of the ground and spin a wheel, both would spin the same direction, with an open diff, they will spin opposite directions. Not sure about the True-trac or Torsen. But Whatever.
In reading articles about the Tremor, I keep seeing references about the brakes being used to stop a spinning wheel and drive the wheel with traction. This implies an open diff with traction control. I hope that there is more to it than that. If they are using a clutch typed limited slip in the front then I am not interested. I will by an F350 and do the mods myself using a Torsen or True-Trac.
Jim
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 09:05 PM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by Raptor Rob
Off topic question. Could My Wife's 18 Expedition that's wheel drive have this type of front diff? Recently We were at our cabin during a heavy snow storm. It seemed as the all wheel drive, wouldn't kick in until the rear tires started spinning. Then when the front wheels engaged, it pulled you to the side of the road. My Wife almost went in the ditch because of this. I chalked it up to her lack of experience until I got in and it did it to me.
All Expeditions came with open front differentials, however it does have traction control which is probably what's causing it to behave that way. I absolutely hate traction control, it's completely worthless in my opinion.
 
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Old Feb 4, 2020 | 09:24 PM
  #30  
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Applying slight braking (e brake) to a rear limited slip (open diff too), is a technique sometimes used to get it to transfer more power to the wheel with traction. Maybe being on the front (no e brake), they are doing it electronically as needed.
 
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