Front IFS Diff Locker

Mines still sitting in a box in the garage. Waiting on spring,going to 4:10s and maybe a front locker as well.

 

Do it

 

I've not been able to get an answer to this but an ACCURATE answer is important to me. I'm considering locking both the front and the rear. However, given that I've heard bad things about locking the front, I'm hesitant. But the more I think about it, I end up asking this question...Is it even needed? Here's my logic. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

If you have a rear locker, do you have slow, steady, controlled power to 3 wheels at any and all times regardless of whether you have a front wheel up in the air? Is that correct? The front and rear axles are locked together by the transfer case. Key word being locked (this is why the drivetrain binds on hard turns). Thus, as long as you have one rear wheel on the ground it should cause all other wheels to spin at the same rate EXCEPT for one wheel in the front (probably the one on the ground) that may not spin/have power at all. Is that right?

And I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out situations where you don't have a traction wheel that gets the truck to move. With open diffs front and rear, you could have a situation where one front and one rear tire are in the air and you go nowhere. But if you have a locked rear I'd think the only situation that could cause you to have no power to the ground is to literally have 3 wheels in the air....which at that point, you have other VERY serious problems.

Someone please check my logic.

 

With only a rear locker, you can still get into a spot where the rear isn't able to push you through and your one front tire doesn't have traction. If you watch this video from my truck, you'll see I lock the rear first, and it pushes me a bit further up the hill, but the front right tire doesn't have traction, and the rear locker is not enough to get me up, so I then lock the front diff.

https://youtu.be/ZpBtx85-JOE


Now, I bet I could get up the hill without any locker if I had reversed and taken a different line. Or used momentum. But, there's nothing like flipping a switch and just having max traction. I wouldn't be too worried about putting a locker in your front diff, lots of people have front lockers on IFS. The only issue you'll have is the potential to break a CV if you abuse it. To me, a front locker is safer for CVs then trying to use speed and momentum to get over obstacles. With a locker, you can crawl up stuff like I did in the video, vs using speed.

 

Yeah there will still be points where you don't necessarily have traction I suppose but I guess what I'm asking is whether there will be a wheel that's just spinning out of control. And I'm thinking there won't be.

And for the situation you described, I feel like the TruTrac up front (if ECGS can modify it to work) would be awesome. Sends enough power to hopefully get you out of situations like the one in your video but maybe not enough to break the CV up front. I may give them a call and see if they can really do it.

 

Yes, the front diff is still an open diff, and the power will still go to the tire with little or no traction. If you could see the front passenger tire in the video, you'd see it was just spinning till I locked the front diff.

The Truetrac is nice, but it only works when both tires have traction. Once one tire loses traction, it acts like an open diff, and you go nowhere. I had one in the rear end, swapped it for my locker. Nothing beats a locker off-road.

Unless you plan on abusing your truck hard, you really don't have to worry about a front locker harming anything.

 

I was unaware of this....that sounds somewhat useless.

 

First, sub'd for an awesome thread.

I have "seen" one case, and it was in a video. Expedition Overland's Alaska trip, the Land Cruiser they were using was stuck climbing a sandy hill while pulling a heavy trailer with a tight turn at the top. For whatever reason they chose to use 1) MaxTrax 2) Front Locker Engaged & 3) Rear not locked with A-Trac (maybe not A-Trac, but they did say traction control)turned on. Not really sure why they chose this option; maybe the trailer? Or that Land Cruisers are heavy to begin with? Really not sure. But they used it and seemed to work out.

 

I wheeled my Jeep with a Detroit locker rear and elocker front quite a bit.

Rear locker works great. When the front is unlocked it will still not be enough traction in some places to pull you up. So you stop, lock the front and go again. It makes a HUGE difference. Pulling from the front and pushing from the back. Right?

I never had any issues with a front locker. Yes it will be harder to turn, a locker elocker is like a spool. But just flip the switch and turn like no problem. I also had zero breakage, but I had chromoly axle shafts and know better than to load the tires against an obstacle and try and torque the vehicle over it. Often a little bump of momentum makes all the difference.