Locked Center Diff Helps With Breaking (3 Viewers)

[eNx]

I mainly posted this because he's using an LXOT for demo.

This is news to me but prob not to many of you. But if i was in this situation in real life, i prob would've locked all 3 before trying it. lol

 

[snowman69]

Any idea why this happens?

 

[kcjaz]

Any idea why this happens?

When you step on the brakes the braking force is biased towards the front. This is what you want on level pavement because when decelerating the vehicle’s momentum shifts the weight to the front which makes the front tires have more traction than the rear.

On a steep loose gravel road, the weight is shifted to the rear and it’s the rear tires that have the most traction but the brake bias is still to the front wheels.

W/o the center diff locked, the the front and rear wheels can rotate independently so the front wheels lock with the brakes but there isn’t enough brake force to hold the rear.

With the center diff locked, the rear wheels are “locked” to the front through the center diff and the front brakes can essentially help hold the rear wheels. The front brakes stop the front wheels from rotating which in turn allows the center diff to hold the rear wheels

 

[kcjaz]

FWIW, here is another video that is pretty good on the topic. The biggest thing IMO that people with AWD and locking center diffs need to understand is what happens with one tire in the air, and specially when you jack the vehicle to change a tire. Unless you are on perfectly level ground and using floor jack you should always loch the center diff. This video shows why at 5:30. Parking down hill is next IMO as I generally take my center diff lock off when going down hill to help with steering. The risk is remembering to hit the CDL when stoping to park.