- Thread starter
- #61
Well, thats something I can't answer in a box like this one. Every hill is different, and terrain conditions differ. In the hill above, dry or wet when I have driven it, lockers will screw you up, or worse will break something. This is not hypothesis, this is real from many guiding trips to that hill for many different vehicles, recreation drivers, soldiers, its always the same. I will gladly spend some time with you on the "when to use lockers", something that can take hours.
So you want to go up that hill, it is a straight shot, so you lock her up and go. Can you make it? Possibly, but not likely. The hill has, lets call them potholes. Areas where from left to right, the tire travel will be different due to terrain changes. For example to move 15 ft, one tire needs 14% more distance to keep the truck straight. Wheels locked means as one wheel travels one revolution, the other needs to travel 1.14 revolutions but can't, the truck changes direction without steering input, you end up in the wrong spot, panic, more gas, try to counter the turn, which the locker will not let you, more gas, and eventually you give up and realize you are stuck, or boom goes the diff, ujoint, etc. The most expensive one that broke on that hill was a G550, tripled locked of course, until "kaboom", then it was a 2WD. Now I need to set up the winch, etc to pull them all the way out to get on a flatbed.
Open differentials will allow wheels to travel at different speeds to maintain a line, so some hills are better driven open. Or better yet, that particular hill on an 80, you do a second gear start, open diff, 18-15psi on the tires, 5-6mph will make it to the top with some finessed 2-foot driving. Some brake and power at the same time will allow you to regulate the side to side torque, almost like you have "tunable" locker that you can control with the left foot. Takes some practice, but works very well.
Muddy hills at the Expo, most failures happened on the off-camber sections. First, too much skinny pedal and mall terrain tires were the issue. But when traversing these hills into the parking area (and they parked vehicles way too close to the drive area, which was bad), vehicles coming up the off-camber will slide a little downhill, and their reaction was to immediately give it more gas and turn uphill to avoid hitting parked cars. At the entrance, a volunteer was telling them to engage all lockers. So as they are trying to turn uphill, with the downhill tires needing different distance to travel further, but locked they would simply slid down the hill more. No diff = no turn. I helped a few, told them to turn that s*** off, brake and gas and they worked slowly up the hill fine. Tire pressure was a big factor too as many of these drivers where there for a few hours and didnt want to air down. That was another problem.
Anyway, may be book material?
So you want to go up that hill, it is a straight shot, so you lock her up and go. Can you make it? Possibly, but not likely. The hill has, lets call them potholes. Areas where from left to right, the tire travel will be different due to terrain changes. For example to move 15 ft, one tire needs 14% more distance to keep the truck straight. Wheels locked means as one wheel travels one revolution, the other needs to travel 1.14 revolutions but can't, the truck changes direction without steering input, you end up in the wrong spot, panic, more gas, try to counter the turn, which the locker will not let you, more gas, and eventually you give up and realize you are stuck, or boom goes the diff, ujoint, etc. The most expensive one that broke on that hill was a G550, tripled locked of course, until "kaboom", then it was a 2WD. Now I need to set up the winch, etc to pull them all the way out to get on a flatbed.
Open differentials will allow wheels to travel at different speeds to maintain a line, so some hills are better driven open. Or better yet, that particular hill on an 80, you do a second gear start, open diff, 18-15psi on the tires, 5-6mph will make it to the top with some finessed 2-foot driving. Some brake and power at the same time will allow you to regulate the side to side torque, almost like you have "tunable" locker that you can control with the left foot. Takes some practice, but works very well.
Muddy hills at the Expo, most failures happened on the off-camber sections. First, too much skinny pedal and mall terrain tires were the issue. But when traversing these hills into the parking area (and they parked vehicles way too close to the drive area, which was bad), vehicles coming up the off-camber will slide a little downhill, and their reaction was to immediately give it more gas and turn uphill to avoid hitting parked cars. At the entrance, a volunteer was telling them to engage all lockers. So as they are trying to turn uphill, with the downhill tires needing different distance to travel further, but locked they would simply slid down the hill more. No diff = no turn. I helped a few, told them to turn that s*** off, brake and gas and they worked slowly up the hill fine. Tire pressure was a big factor too as many of these drivers where there for a few hours and didnt want to air down. That was another problem.
Anyway, may be book material?
