Huge difference. Like I've explained before, the truck is a lot more surefooted in the slick stuff. A lot less intervention from the TCS limiting slip and when the system does kick in it's to get truck back in line when getting out of control. Whereas before, the TCS would aggressively kick in at the first sign of slip even in H4 unlocked. Combining it's mechanical advantages with the trucks ESP, disadvantages of it quickly disappear. For example, if you have a TT and a wheel is airborne, the ESP program will quickly multiply it's mechanical efficiency several fold by clamping down on the wheel airborne and spinning.
Mike: I'm interested in hearing more about the TT.
My concern about non-selectable lockers is this: I've had two vehicles with LSD's, a 1990 Mitsubishi Montero (which came from the factory with a rear LSD) and a 1999 Ford Ranger 4x2 (which I put an Auburn LSD into to give me a little bit of traction control since I was 2wd.)
On BOTH of these vehicles I had instances where, driving on hard packed snow (so, a rather slippery surface), the rear end of the truck "kicked out" for no reason and sent me spinning. On the Montero this resulted in a low speed accident when I hit another (parked) vehicle, on the Ranger it happened in the middle of the day on the busiest street in Laramie, WY, but by pure chance there were no cars around me when I spun 180 degrees into the oncoming lane, and I was able to recover and drive off.
At first I had no idea what happened and then I started reading up on automatic LSDs and then I assumed that what happened was that the differential was what caused my momentary loss of traction and that, combined with the slick surface and my forward motion, caused the spin.
Ever since then I've been very wary of automatic differentials of any kind. My 99 T4R had the E-locker, but of course I could control that.
I'd love to have something that will give me better traction on/off road, but the $1500+ price tag for an ARB setup (and that was years ago - for all I know it might be $2000 now) put me off.
A TT or something similar might be the way to go, but as I said I'm concerned about it causing a loss of traction as I described above. I know they don't get a lot of snow in MD, but have you ever experienced anything similar?
It's worth noting that in both of the loss-of-traction instances, I was in 2wd (the Montero was a part-time 4wd vehicle and I was driving it in 2wd at the time, and the ranger of course was a RWD only.) Also, this was before the advent of modern skid control/traction control and ABS.
Has anyone else here experienced this kind of "kicking out" or loss of traction in an LSD or auto-locker? I'm curious to know.
Also, what was the cost of your TT? IIRC the auto lockers run $300 - $500 not including installation, does that sound right? That's much more affordable to me.
Thanks in advance!
