Florida B.S. Thread

every differential is a little different, but what determins weather or not oneor two tires spin are the resistance on each tire. every diff (not locking) has a sertain threshold. that has to be reached to spin both tires. the difference in traction from side to side is what determines one vs two wheel spin. if the difference in resistance (traction) is within the threashold, they both spin. if the difference is greater, one one spins. a limmited slip differential just makes that difference ammount a little larger.

and my only complaint about the jeep (other than it kept having motor issues) was that is had pretty much zero suspension travel. with the other equipment on it though, it wasn't too much on an issue.

 

So once the difference in traction is great enough, the differential is just shifting power to the tire with greater traction rather than using equal power to spin both, therefore creating greater overall traction? Even though only one tire is spinning. And the same concept applies in 2 and 4wd correct?Thanks a lot for explaining that I think it makes a lot more sense now.

Why such lousy suspension travel? Wouldnt the swapped axles improve suspension travel? Or am I not thinking right?

 

the above is correct, except that the when the traction differential is greater than allowable, the power goes to the wheel with the least traction, not most. like in electricity, energy takes the path of least resistance...same goes for power going through open/LS differentials.

i think it may jsut be a jeep thing. all fo the jeeps i've wheeled with (asside from a cherokee with a long arm kit) they've all hade terrible susspension. both in component quality and travel ammount. i think they jsut have a different theorey on wheeling. there's is lift, huge tires, lockers. it does indeed get them through things, but it also explains why they flip so often (in addition to the shotr wheelbase of course). i'd follow this big thing over one of the technical sections, and he'd be three wheeling and tilted over the whole time whereas my tires never left the ground and i was fairly level.

though a short wheelbase greatly helps highcenter clearance, a longer one is will keep the all 4 on the ground longer.

 

Okay that makes sense now. Thanks again for the help.

That's odd, I've always thought of suspension as one of the key components to offroading, but whatever gets the job done I guess. But I do think I'd rather "suffer" with a little longer wheel base than end up upside down.....

 

my theorey is that there are two types of offroaders. classy, and beater. classy puts emphasis on buying high quality parts, having a well rounded vehicle that can excel in most, if nto all areas, maintain comfort for you and your passenger, and look half way decent doing so. the beater is someone who tosses random parts on it with the only goal of getting the job done. probably won't get there comfortably, or even safely sometimes, but it will work.

i've found that the land rover and lexus guys ususally fall into the "classy" categorey, while jeeps almost all of the time go into beater. toyotas are about evenly split between the two.

 

anyone know anything about 7''-9'' off road lightsprefferably bigger than 7'')? i'm looking to get 3 pencil/spot beams. don't really care about the brand, as long as it's not a piece of junk lol. hoping to find them around the $100/light mark, give or take. not HID obviously as those are more along the lines of $300/light :-/

i've looked at just about all i can find, just wondering if yall have ever seen any first hand or better yet used them.

 

have you checked these out?

http://www.sidebysidesports.com/kr7hidoflics.html

the Kragen 7" HID lights

 

yeah, i like those, but they're a little on the small side. it's the price that might cause me to get those lol.

current plan is to have either 6, 6'' lights on the roof, and 3, 7''-9''
lights on the bumper hoop. so one more than what i have now.

 

damn dude that is alot of lights

Are you working on a new roof rack design to hold the six lights?

 

yep, going to start bending tonight hopefully, and if all goes well, finish it this weekend. i've smacked mine on trees and caught the cross bars on stuff too much recently, so i'm going to makethe edges more compact, and make it a lit stronger. last weekend i whitnessed an old land rover defender lean over till the roof rack was on a tree (off camber turn), and he drove along using it essentially as a roof top sider. he'd have a big dent in his roof with a weaker rack or none at all. so i have some 1'' .120 wall awaiting the tube bender

as for the 6 lights up there, that's just the design. once i start building, i may only be able to fit 5. who knows

oh, and it's going to sit a lot lower on the roof, which will be a big pluss for a lot of reasons

 

well, i just looked into it a little more, and i think i'm going to order 3 of the kragens....though it's only a 7'' reflector, the light itsself is pretty big, and should fill the space nicely.

going out to pick up some stuff from home depot and another set of lights from the autoparts store to convert to HID for the roof let the fun begin. and by fun, i mean hell....it's 107 degrees and humid

 

cool, is the light rack going to be like a chase rack or just a new version of what you have already?

 

just an improved version of what i have. i'm going to incorporate a low profile roof basket into it though, so it'll be functional beyond holding lights.

RCfreak is selling a 7'' HID for $80 bucks right now, i'm debating on getting 3 kragens, or just two plus the one he's selling.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacoma-marketplace/169279-wts-hid-offroad-light-cheap.html

 

holy shit, so i was expecting to pay about $350 plus shipping for 3 halogen lights.......just made off like a bandit with 3 built in HID lights for $302 shipped

got two kragens from activepowersports.com. their price was only $110 per light + $15 shipping, and then at checkout they just randomly tacked on a $20 discount, with no code whatsoever

also got the light from RCfreak for $80 shipped. it's never been on his truck, and they usually retail for $140 a piece.

i'm pretty pumped right now

 

good deal, do you have any plans drawn up for the roof rack?

 

i actually don't

just watching the x-games right now, so might as well use the time to get the plans out of my head and onto paper.

 

cool, do you have any other plans for other projects?

 

bed cage for LT rear.......i'm still in the "nervous just thinking about it" stage though

 

are you going to go with a matching LT front set up?

 

my buddy put up some pictures from last weekend. i'll get more from him tomorrow.
he's in the green land rover discovery II













you can see bark missing from the tree even before i hit it








you can see my other dent on the front fender in this one