Alpo23, if you get a firm release date on the new locking on-demand tru-trac, please pass it along. Thanks, Chuck

 

try to make a turn on ice. a pro street car with 34 inches of rubber on the rear would not easily turn on dry asphault. the outside wheels must travel much farther in a turn, so they speedup impossible with a spool or welded spider gears. would you really want to hit a mini van full of children because your vehicle would not make an emergency turn. by the way one trip with the car and the spool was pitched in favor of a locker.

 

wow you got 34" of rubber on your truck? i daily drove a datsun 510 with a short wheelbase welded, turned pretty good except for no power steering. a long wheelbase vehicle with power steering like a truck does just fine. the 510 was fun in the snow.

 

read the post, pro street car. my 94 f 250 has 265-80r-16.

 

yeah i can read, think for a minute. most prostreet cars have 3-5" wide front tires and 14-16"wide rear, in your case 17 with less than 3' between them. they are hard pressed to turn with an open diff let alone a spool or locker. not a relevent comparison. i drive a kenworth with lockup axles, it steers easier on ice and snow when locked than in the dry locked. thats still not a relevant comparison

 

your lock up axle is called a power divider, it gives you one wheel on the front tandam and one wheel on the back tandam. never seen one that gave both wheels on both axles.

 

well here in the north full lock up is common. you get 2 switches on the dash 1 for the divider and 1 for the lockers.

 

Chuck P., When I find out, you'll find out. I haven't talked to them yet about it. My main concern about the True-trac is can it handle 35" tires without difficulty (locked or unlocked). I have 33's now but will definetly go to 35's when they wear out. If it can't (if trac-tech says so), then it's the Detroit Locker. BTW all detroits are the 'Softlockers' now.
Eric.

Proud owner of a '73 F-250 4x4 High Boy, 460 V8, NP435, NP205
And a '68 Bronco 289 v8 , NP435 , Dana 20

 

i think mj needs to chill out =)


1985 F-150/351Ho/4wd/6inch with 33's
1979 f-250 429/4spd/

on a quiet night your can hear a chevy (lol,you can watch a dodge) rusting away

 

Amen to that. MJ, you clearly have your opinion, and your entitled to it, but it is in the minority and flys in the face of conventional wisdom. I find it hard to believe you drove a lincoln locked datsun , but hey, whatever works for you. I'm interested in the new on demand electronic lockers too- can't wait to check out the reviews. Hopefully they will be able to handle the big meats otherwise they wont do me any good.

If your knuckles ain't bleeding you did something wrong.

'72 F-250 "Hi-Boy" 4x4, Dana 60/HD44, FE390 @ 400hp(purt near!), 4-speed, custom suspension w 4" lift, mud on black.

 

http://fordmuscle.com/boardpower/dis...discussion=301 there is one about ford cars running a spool on the street.

http://www.truckworld.com/board/Forum1/HTML/002427.html here is one where a guy with a 2wdr ford just took the leap and installed a spool and is descibing his first chance to drive in the snow and ice with it.

 

"conventional wisdom"? or old wives tales told around the campfire by those to scared to try something? i am just sick of the "it cant be done" crap. when i was putting a cleveland into my 72 ford even the parts man at the dealer said 'it cant be done' of course it went in useing all factory parts out of the boneyard, then there is the guys who said 'it cant be done' when i was searching the world for a powerlok for my d60 front axle, they werent making them at the time, every old man said it was illegal to do that and you absolutely will not be able to steer. so far the nay sayers have been way off base but they do sing the loudest. the spool thing is another case of this. there are at least a dozen toyota 4x4s near me running welded difs, there is even a guy who has a reputation so good that they are calling his work by his nick name 'fozzy lockers'. http://www.island4x4.com has told me they are working on a story and interviews with people running this setup.

 

Hmmm, and here I was trying to be nice to you and switch the topic. Thoughtfull of you to include those links, I myself won't bother looking at them because, frankly, I don't care what blockheads think. For every known fact of physics, there are dip*****s out there who contradict them...as with those who think spooled vehicles are spiffy cornering on ice. Just cuz these dip*****s print there absurb theories doesn't make them true. Drive around in the ice with your lincoln locked Datsun all you want...I'll be sure to look for you in the "Darwin Awards". I'm done responding to this thread, mainly because its becoming a waste of my time trying to penetrate that lincoln-locked skull of yours. Toodles, and happy sliding.

If your knuckles ain't bleeding you did something wrong.

'72 F-250 "Hi-Boy" 4x4, Dana 60/HD44, FE390 @ 400hp(purt near!), 4-speed, custom suspension w 4" lift, mud on black.

 

and who has the closed mind mister 'i wont look at anything that i dont already know'. i can help you out if you want electric locker advise, dont, your dif is not a good place to have electrics. rather a harsh envirn you would be happier with the air locker.

 

I had an Audi with AWD and diff locks. THe rear diff lock was stuck for a while when I first bought it. You could disengage it manually, but had to crawl under the car to do so. This resulted in the car being driven with the rear diff locked for a while.

You could definitely tell something was amiss back there. The rear end always dragged around corners. I always felt like something was going to break back there. You could feel the driveline bind. The tires were small (185/70/14) so they just dragged rather than chirped. You could feel a bit of lurch when going around corners slowly. Never drove it in bad weather, so I can't comment on how it handled that. Off-road on dirt roads you kinda had to pivot the back end around to get it to go around a corner, it wanted to plow real bad off-road. It never got stuck off-road, though.

Basically I decided that a spool is not something I would want to have full time, the same reason I don't drive a motorcycle: I don't want to have to maintain 100% concentration on driving 100% of the time. It's nice to be able to drink a beverage or talk to you riding companion, or reach down and switch the radio station without worrying the disaster is just around the corner if you remove one hand from the controls of the vehicle.

fordmando
70 F-100 Ranger XLT 400 C6
78 F-150 4x4 400 4 on floor
86 Nissan 300ZX
92 Scooby Doo (Subaru Legacy Wagon)
George