Factory Torsen REAR differential (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter bjowett
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Yes that’s what I am getting at. My wife has a Sequoia that is highly capable in so many conditions in 2hi and 4hi/lo. I have already switched out the mud terrains for all terrains and now it’s a beast in 4x4 in the snow. I am in Colorado. We just had a lot of snow. The main roads are clear from the plows and sun the side streets are snow covered. The Land Cruiser is either a beast or a total lame duck. I can’t even back into my driveway in 2wd. The truck is basically immobilized. An TheSequoia has the in between covered from what I am deducing is the factory rear LSd.
the torsen will be better than nothing for sure. What I was saying in my previous post is that if you get one tire on something really slick and the other tire has traction, the tire on the slick surface will spin. The Torsen needs some amount of torque at one tire to multiply torque to the other tire and anything mulitplied by zero is still zero. So if you have zero traction/torque at one tire you will have zero at the other.
This is where you can use the brakes. You can mimick torque with the brake and that will cause it to multiply across the axle. Basically, if you are stuck in 2wd, just two foot drive with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake until you get moving. Or better yet, use the parking/emergency brake so that its only applying the brake to the rear axle.
This video really shows how they work. Even fully lifting tires he can force them to lock up and pull through with the brakes:
I really liked having the Truetracs in my Jeep, but then again my Jeep had a full-time 4wd transfer case. So if it was snowy I would put it in full-time mode and then I was driving around with 2 axles with Truetracs constantly working. It was pretty incredible in the snow daily driving. If I nailed the throttle it would spin all 4 tires in full-time mode and just pull really hard and do these perfectly controlled drifts.
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r2m
Richard
You're absolutely right and I miss-spoke call it 4Hi when in reality as you corrected me, it is AWD.
I often will cross AWD with 4Hi, even though I know the differences, very well.
Thanks for the correction!
How steep is your driveway? What is your tire pressure? Are you certain you have open diffs? A locked diff, or having the potential to lock (LSD/trutrac) only makes matters worse in snow and ice, in my experience. I've had tru-tracs, detroit lockers, LSDs, and selectable lockers in an array of 4x4 vehicles over the years.
Frankly, no vehicle I have ever owned would make it up a super steep driveway that's covered in ice unless it has tank treads or studded tires.
Tru-trac in the front is asking for trouble on icy pavement, be careful recommending these to people where it snows.
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r2m
Richard
I can't remember the brand, but I had put "lunch-box" lockers on both front and rear, basically what the Eatons are, in our old 1989 Toy pickup 4x4. They did work pretty good but they would click around every corner all the time, street, trail, where ever, unless they locked.
But personal preference after having/using both, I'd prefer proper lockers every time assuming funds are available. I have front and rear on my GX. My old 100 series LC had TJM locker on the front, the rear had the factory E-locker. Before that our F350 crewcab had ARB front and rear lockers.
Weird, because the WRX STI, Ford Raptor and F150 Tremor come with front Torsens from the factory and all have AWD that you can run full time in the snow. The Raptor has the Borg Warner Hi-Loc t-case with active 4Auto mode. Ford Performance even sells the Torsen as an aftermarket part for the F150 and Expedition.
F-150 8.8" FRONT AXLE LIMITED SLIP TORSEN DIFFERENTIAL
F-150 8.8" FRONT AXLE LIMITED SLIP TORSEN DIFFERENTIAL |Ford Performance Parts
performanceparts.ford.com
I also ran my Jeep with the Truetrac front in the snow for several winters in the mountains of UT and it was not an issue. i think you would have to drive extremely poorly to get yourself into a situation where the Truetrac/Torsen caused a loss of front traction. IE, flooring it while trying to turn on ice. And even then it would be no worse than any FWD car with an LSD.
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Weird, because the WRX STI, Ford Raptor and F150 Tremor come with front Torsens from the factory and all have AWD that you can run full time in the snow. The Raptor has the Borg Warner Hi-Loc t-case with active 4Auto mode. Ford Performance even sells the Torsen as an aftermarket part for the F150 and Expedition.
F-150 8.8" FRONT AXLE LIMITED SLIP TORSEN DIFFERENTIAL
F-150 8.8" FRONT AXLE LIMITED SLIP TORSEN DIFFERENTIAL |Ford Performance Parts
I also ran my Jeep with the Truetrac front in the snow for several winters in the mountains of UT and it was not an issue. i think you would have to drive extremely poorly to get yourself into a situation where the Truetrac/Torsen caused a loss of front traction. IE, flooring it while trying to turn on ice. And even then it would be no worse than any FWD car with an LSD.
The STI is an out of the box, flat pavement track car. And the Raptor is built for hucking 70 MPH off sand dunes. Neither is more competent in the snow/ice than a stock WRX or F150.
The STi is objectively worse in the snow than a WRX. I have owned both. Great cars, but one is very purpose built track car, and one is a sporty grocery getter.
Not saying anyone is going to immediately die with a front LSD on ice, but compared to open diff, it feels pretty sketchy.
My point was that oems sell cars with front helical lsd’s that get driven on snow, its not a big deal. People buy STI’s and never track them, and drive on snow. People buy Raptors and never huck them off sand dunes but drive them on snow.
People do a lot of dumb s***. My point remains.
I have a very interesting experience with true trac and lunch box lockers. This is in 87 Toyota Hilux. I put Tru trac in the rear because I want it to be Street able. I add lunch box locker up front. Mind you this truck stil have manual locking hubs so it's not a problem at all.
What I experienced off road are actually opposite of what people told me it would behave. The front locker really help traction on limited travel front suspension off road. The rear true trac stil allow differential action and help the front locker disengage on tight turn. People keep saying it would make my truck undriveable with full time locker up front and I never really experience that.
Somebody In GXOR put true trac in front of his GX and he said it really makes parking lot manuever a challenge. The full time AWD create a bit of binding and cause the true trac to lock up.
What I experienced off road are actually opposite of what people told me it would behave. The front locker really help traction on limited travel front suspension off road. The rear true trac stil allow differential action and help the front locker disengage on tight turn. People keep saying it would make my truck undriveable with full time locker up front and I never really experience that.
Somebody In GXOR put true trac in front of his GX and he said it really makes parking lot manuever a challenge. The full time AWD create a bit of binding and cause the true trac to lock up.
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I put a TrueTrac in my past 2021 Tacoma SR and it did quite a good job but if I were to add something to the GX460 it would be an Eaton electric locker in the rear.
r2m
Richard
Agree with fulling locking lockers for either/both ends on a GX. It's a premium vehicle, so we should treat it like one.
I did the lunchbox lockers on the Toy pickup because it was old, a base model, cheap and a good first vehicle for my daughter back when she first got her license.
