Traction control vs. Locking differential
I'm soon to be in the market for a new 15-series pickup truck for daily driving and light towing. It will be 2WD, as I can barely justify a pickup truck for a daily driver, let alone a big jacked-u...
Forum Discussion
Do you plan to "off-road" with this truck? In my experience, there is one place that I have ever driven (okay, maybe two) where the locking/limited slip differential allowed me to continue. The place that I am thinking of is down a two track where the road has washed out. Due to this being in a curve on a hill, at some point you have to cross over the wash out. With our 1/2 ton Burb that had locking differential, this was the one place that I knew it worked and kept us going. With my current van, I no longer even think about going that far down that road cause I fear I won't make it. Haven't been back there with anyone else in case I get hung up.
The second place is the Silver Lake Sand Dunes, but I had both my Burb and an Envoy XL on the dunes and the Envoy did fine even with the open diff.
Last year was the first winter we had our van and I was a little concerned about how it was going to do. I considered getting snow tires prior to the winter, but decided to hold off and see how it did. With about 200# of salt in the back and the traction control I didn't have any problems with the van. This was even with the highway type V-Steel Rib Bridgestones on it. Tirerack markets these as summer highway. I actually prefered driving the van in the snow and ice over my front wheel drive Cruze.
My previous experience with an open diff vehicle was my 94 Caprice Wagon. In the five west Michigan winters I drove that car not once did I ever get stuck or have a problem. I even went to work one morning where I was pushing snow with the front bumper. The Wagon actually did better than the 94 Caprice Sedan that I had after it with the locking diff.
Basically, my experience has been an open diff vehicle is fine as long as you have the proper weight for traction. Having good tires is the next most critical thing in my experience.
The second place is the Silver Lake Sand Dunes, but I had both my Burb and an Envoy XL on the dunes and the Envoy did fine even with the open diff.
Last year was the first winter we had our van and I was a little concerned about how it was going to do. I considered getting snow tires prior to the winter, but decided to hold off and see how it did. With about 200# of salt in the back and the traction control I didn't have any problems with the van. This was even with the highway type V-Steel Rib Bridgestones on it. Tirerack markets these as summer highway. I actually prefered driving the van in the snow and ice over my front wheel drive Cruze.
My previous experience with an open diff vehicle was my 94 Caprice Wagon. In the five west Michigan winters I drove that car not once did I ever get stuck or have a problem. I even went to work one morning where I was pushing snow with the front bumper. The Wagon actually did better than the 94 Caprice Sedan that I had after it with the locking diff.
Basically, my experience has been an open diff vehicle is fine as long as you have the proper weight for traction. Having good tires is the next most critical thing in my experience.
