Ok, Ford has done it to me again. My latest Ford 4x4 is a 93 F350, 460, AT, single rears, standard cab. Why in blue blazes did they build this thing with two open diffs? I understand most factory trucks having open fronts, but an open rear on a 1 ton 4x4? Was Henry smoking something?

This is my work/hunting/towing/off-road truck. Normal use is pulling my tractor on my 18 foot flatbed (roughly 7k lbs), basic pickup truck type hauling, snowdrift busting when the weather is too bad for my Saturn, etc. I live on a dirt road in a hilly rural area. Places I drive range from limited freeway miles to my dirt roads, oil well roads, to steep muddy logging roads in my woods. 4wd is used very frequently; for example, 4x4 is mandatory just for pulling my trailer up my driveway.

This is a $5k truck with 160k miles undergoing a long slow buildup. Long term plans include a rear locker (most likely Detroit) and a limited slip front. Any recommendations or pitfalls here? Any type of selectable locker, air, cable, or electric, is just flat not gonna happen. Even if I had the money, I'm not going to put $2k plus into lockers on a $5k truck.

 

If I were you, I might do the same combo you named.
Detroit locker in the rear and limited slip up front(or leave it open).

A lunch box locker in the rear just wouldn't be an option for me if I was in the same situation as you.
A limited slip rear might burn up with all the abuse.
A spool( or welded diff) in the rear just wouldn't work either.....

 

sounds to me like you've got your mind made up

i dont beat my truck quite as hard as yours (we have very similar trucks) but when i require 4wd i usuakly need it pretty bad. i have a stock LS in the rear which seems to stillbe tight and i welded my front spiders up. it has worked great and has got me through everything i have asked her to do!

-cutts-

 

The rear limited slip in my old 95 F250 was great. The only 4x4 problem I ever had with it was the front auto-locking hubs (a known weak link) ate themselves. After I replaced them with manual locking Superwinch hubs, that thing was just about unstoppable.

If Ford had put a factory limited slip in this truck, I could probably live with it just fine. My line of reasoning is that if I have to pay someone to get into the rear diff, I might as well go to a full locker. The prices on the little lunchbox lockers are attractive, but they seem a little too light for what I do. I should be ok just driving around, but I'd be a little nervous pulling my trailer out of a muddy field road or up my driveway. With that 460 putting out the torque ahead of it and 7000 pounds of trailer behind it, the lunchbox locker seems like a weak link.

The season's first onslaught of the white death is scheduled to hit tonight, and I have some hauling to to tomorrow, so we'll see how she does with both ends open.