Help with LSD vs Rear Locker

I’ve been through several Northern Il/Wisconsin snow storms in my 2015 Sport. I don’t wait for LSD to activate most of the time but if it does it works fairly well around town and on country roads. All I’ve needed was 4x4 and Goodyear Duratracs but any decent tire will do. If you get to a point off-roading in a stock truck with the locker it might be too late anyway. ATRAC would be nice to have though.

 

OP do you want a weak 8" housing that can break (OR) and daily drives as a crappy open diff

or a strong 8.4" housing with LSD you enjoy daily on and off road, that can be upgraded later to any type of locker if you want (Harrop, ARB, etc.) while you're in there for a regear which you probably will be when modding

 

I don't know about the computer-simulated stuff, but mechanical LSD sucks in the snow!

I grew up in a place where it snows, drove a lot of shitty cars, and pretty much thought I was the world-expert on winter driving. Flash forward a decade or two, I'm moving back to my home state with my wife, who has never driven in snow. She drives a RWD coupe with mechanical LSD. We buy her a set of winter tires and I assume that will be the better car for snowy roads. Meanwhile I was driving an open-diff pickup and had been joyriding the hell out of it every time it snowed. Eventually I found myself behind the wheel of her car for a quick grocery run in a mild blizzard.

I made it about three blocks before I put it in the ditch.

Got towed out quick, picked up the bag of flour or whatever she needed, then spun out backwards into the thankfully empty oncoming lanes on the way home.

That car was a blast in any other conditions, but it was a nightmare in the snow. Gassing the engine with LSD breaks both tires loose simultaneously. There's almost no grace period before you're hopelessly sideways. True, that car never got stuck, but neither did my pickup... and when the pickup slid around, it was by choice.

Open gears (esp. AWD) are the best for around-town snow driving, except in the rare circumstances where you actually need the added torque distribution to avoid or recover from getting stuck. The problem with mechanical LSD is that you can't turn it off like an e-locker or 4x4. Maybe the computer-simulated LSD avoids this problem, I don't know. But I'd take open gears over mechanical LSD for snowy paved roads, any day.

@TacoTuesday1 is right, the 8.4 is a stronger axle, but unless you're going to mod it (or thrash it), a factory e-locker is probably going to be more versatile -- just because you can control when it's locked and when it's open. An aftermarket locker in the 8.4 would be even better, but a lot of us are making do with the factory 8" axle.

Oh, and please don't tell my wife I put her car in the ditch that winter.

 

OP should drive the trucks and buy the one he likes best.

I’ll say it again, they are both Open Differential. They are BOTH very capable off-road.


This thread is headed south quick. OP is going to be so confused by the time it’s over, he’ll wish he never asked.

 

Sorry, but I'm pretty sure my anecdotal evidence based on having once driven a completely unrelated vehicle is going to be the most critical factor for OP's decision here.


EDIT: Okay here's something more constructive:

@jonnybailey the electronically powered brake booster is reported to be much better than the vacuum booster. I would consider this more important than the LSD/locker issue. I like my truck a lot, but with the vacuum booster, the brakes are a definite weak point compared to other trucks I've driven.

 

The rear locker is nice to have when your in a situation that lifts a tire. It's nice to have and will also will hold

It's not as weak as you say. They don't just break.

 

Where'd your get your Truetrac and who installed it? I think it's my next mod, been meaning to for a bit.

 

East Coast gear supply. Installed it myself due to being in Canada but I had to check gear backlash and swap bearings and stuff. I know they do third member exchanges with the parts installed, which makes the install pretty simple. Not sure the of the fine details though.

 

No problems bringing it in?
I'm in Calgary too, I actually ordered one last year from The Gear Center, and it took a lot of calls to get it ordered and then I never heard back. So looking for other suppliers

 

cheers neighbor Hahaha.

Didn't seem to be an issue and I don't recall how long it took to come in (was last year). The standard 2-3 weeks probably. Also ordered the master install kit with it. Forget how much duty was too lol.