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Detroit locker all around weather

The original question of driving with a locker in all kinds of weather has been answered pretty good concerning snow. What hasn't been mentioned is rain or pulling a trailer.

I have a Detroit in my M715 rear axle. When in the power band of the engine, usually 3rd gear accelerating in traffic. I can pretty much change lanes with more throttle to the right or less throttle to the left. Once I got used to it, it is very manageable. Unless it is raining and the road has depressions from years of semi trucks driving on it. Then it gets tricky and I have to slow down.

What I have never been able to get used to and will avoid if possible is driving in the rain with a trailer. It is just scary. I went so far as to make plates for the hubs of the D70. That way if I was ever far from home with a trailer in the rain and had to drive. I could just pull one axle shaft, install the blank and drive with just one rear wheel all the time. Or, pull them both and use front wheel drive.

Just trying to give a view point not mentioned yet.
 
K5 or sub with a good amount of rear weight will make a auto locker behave better in all conditions. Same with a good load in a truck. In general (as stated above) a lifted 4wd goes backward for winter-driving-on-road ability anyway but with good tires and good rear weight the detroit can be OK. No matter what, do not put an auto locker in front for on road snow. The front drive becomes an absolute emergency use only device as opposed to an open front which can be pretty useful at any speed.
I've found mixed ice/asphalt conditions to be the biggest goofy surface for a detroit. When one tire is on dry and the other on ice, the one on dry pushes. When that situation switches, you get a pretty good wiggle. An open diff in that situation doesn't upset the vehicle.
 
I drove two different trucks with rear lockers over 6 years in Northern Michigan winters.

Loved it. Don't drive like a moron and you can handle it easily. Always having traction was great.

I also always ran mud tires. Sipe them. Lots of traction. Goooooood. Roll into the ice with some unsiped Swampers or hell, any tire without sipes and you'll start spinning.

It's all about traction and not driving like an idiot.
 
Barrman said:
The original question of driving with a locker in all kinds of weather has been answered pretty good concerning snow. What hasn't been mentioned is rain or pulling a trailer.


What I have never been able to get used to and will avoid if possible is driving in the rain with a trailer. It is just scary. I went so far as to make plates for the hubs of the D70. That way if I was ever far from home with a trailer in the rain and had to drive. I could just pull one axle shaft, install the blank and drive with just one rear wheel all the time. Or, pull them both and use front wheel drive.

Just trying to give a view point not mentioned yet.
Click to expand...

driving off of one rear tire will make things very interesting.
 
Stephen said:
K5 or sub with a good amount of rear weight will make a auto locker behave better in all conditions. Same with a good load in a truck.
I've found mixed ice/asphalt conditions to be the biggest goofy surface for a detroit. When one tire is on dry and the other on ice, the one on dry pushes. When that situation switches, you get a pretty good wiggle. An open diff in that situation doesn't upset the vehicle.
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This has been what I have seen also. There have been times that I have to drive much slower on the highway (than everybody else), where just slight differences in the road surface (traction wise) give a very uneasy/unstable feeling. Running in 4x4 with open front cures this completely, but my front driveshaft angles aren't good enough to run down the highway.
 
Stephen said:
K5 or sub with a good amount of rear weight will make a auto locker behave better in all conditions. Same with a good load in a truck.
Click to expand...
At what point does the weight become a problem?

I remember @Larry complaining that the weight of his camper made his Detroit much less drivable (hard lockups, etc.).
 
I run a Detroit in the rear and a Power lock in the front in Wisconsin winters. I also have the ability to run off just the front axle with the twin stick 205. Most often I am in rear wheel drive in the snow.
 
I've had a Detroit in my K30 for 25yrs now. It's been fine....you just adjust and drive it differently. It's not dangerous, just different. I find the type of tire you use has a big impact.
With Swampers in winter it is ok, but you have to be aware of road conditions. I prefer not to drive with these for winter road use.
With an all terrain tire, much more forgiving for traction, drives like a different vehicle. Love it.
No issues in rain. Drives ok loaded or unloaded with weight. Like all vehicles, you should be aware weight affects driving characteristics, and when loaded you drive differently.
No regrets that I got the Detroit - no other options at that time (1987).

However, you should still consider the ARB. It will make the vehicle more forgiving to drive (bonus) but it will also save your rear tires from locker wear. If you drive a lot you'll understand. My rear tires wear out much faster than any open rear diff vehicle I've ever owned.
 
A couple comments based off some of the other posts:

Concerns with a 14FF Gov-lock breaking.......yes, 10-bolt versions break all the time but IMO it's more caused by the overall small rear axle than the Gov-Lock itself. Open diff 10-bolts don't hold up much better, they just don't have as much stress going into them because only one tire, and the one with the least amount of traction, is spinning. My 2500HD has over 140k miles on a Gov-lock 14FF with thousands of miles towing and being abused several times. It's been winched or pulled out a few times while pulling a trailer off-road....had to retrieve my severely broke K5 off the trail one time up in the hills of Kentucky. To this day if you pull one rear tire off the side of the road in wet grass and hit the throttle, it will leave black marks from the other rear tire sitting on pavement.

A Detroit locker will not make the rear tires completely lock up....that's not how they work. If there is no power going into the diff from the driveshaft it will not be locked, as in locking the rear tires together, and certainly won't somehow cause the tires to lock up/slide.

I drove my K5 for several years with front and rear limited slips (Truetrac in rear and Eaton posi in the front). Any type of decent posi rear axle will make a vehicle want to step out in the rear when the roads or slick, but they are smoother than a Detroit that can suddenly engage. With the front and rear limited slip the K5 would tackle deep snow on the roads good but I wasn't a fan on ice or packed snow slick roads as it didn't really like to turn in 4wd. Definitely had a bad habit of wanting to go straight when turning the wheel. The Gov-lock in my 2500HD has been one of my favorite diffs for daily driving and snowy roads. You basically get none of the poor handling of either a locker or normal limited slip in the rear axle, but it does lock the rear wheels together when you need it.
 
USSkoval said:
I halfway agree with this. Every open-axle 4x4 I've ever driven in the snow has went through a turn better than any rwd or fwd vehicle I've driven in the snow. It certainly is true the 4x4 does not help with stopping. But, the type of tires often installed on a 4x4 do help.
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I think 4 wd does help with stopping. "Common" logic says no, but I point out that the driveshafts keep all 4 tires stopping at the same rate so you can, if you're a decent driver, stop a 4x4 faster then a 2wd car. How many have seen someone in a rwd or fwd car with the non-driving wheels locked up and the driving wheels pushing them into oblivion? I think the biggest issue about the 4wd no stop issue is 4wd gets moving faster so it will take longer to stop because of velocity... but, all things being equal, a 4wd will stop faster then a 2wd when they're traveling at the same speed and their driver knows what he or she is doing.
 
Ned Kelly said:
I've had a Detroit in my K30 for 25yrs now. It's been fine....you just adjust and drive it differently. It's not dangerous, just different. I find the type of tire you use has a big impact.
With Swampers in winter it is ok, but you have to be aware of road conditions. I prefer not to drive with these for winter road use.
With an all terrain tire, much more forgiving for traction, drives like a different vehicle. Love it.
No issues in rain. Drives ok loaded or unloaded with weight. Like all vehicles, you should be aware weight affects driving characteristics, and when loaded you drive differently.
No regrets that I got the Detroit - no other options at that time (1987).

However, you should still consider the ARB. It will make the vehicle more forgiving to drive (bonus) but it will also save your rear tires from locker wear. If you drive a lot you'll understand. My rear tires wear out much faster than any open rear diff vehicle I've ever owned.
Click to expand...

I have electric lockers in my H3 Hummer (front and rear) - and I also have lock-rites in my FJ40, I cannot imagine a situation driving down the road where a spool is better then a differential that can actually differentiate. The detroit locker locks and unlocks before a driver could ever react - locked axles are awesome in certain situations, but on the street - detroit has some advantages too. Of course, as I said above, there are some other considerations too.

And no matter what - there is a huge amount of personal preference AND geography that dictates what you buy.... there's no 'wrong' answer. With that said, pay attention to what the locals use....
 
I do not agree that being locked into 4wd makes a vehicle brake better......assuming the brakes at all 4 wheels are working correctly. If you are in 2wd and hit the brakes and somehow the fronts lock and the rears keep spinning forward than something is not right. Having all 4 wheels locked together, and thus forcing them to "do the same thing" is not necessarily good. It will help you slow down via engine braking, but shouldn't help via just pushing the brake pedal.
 
6.2Blazer said:
I do not agree that being locked into 4wd makes a vehicle brake better......assuming the brakes at all 4 wheels are working correctly. If you are in 2wd and hit the brakes and somehow the fronts lock and the rears keep spinning forward than something is not right. Having all 4 wheels locked together, and thus forcing them to "do the same thing" is not necessarily good. It will help you slow down via engine braking, but shouldn't help via just pushing the brake pedal.
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Yes.

Unless your brakes are off (like mine). ;)
 
6.2Blazer said:
I do not agree that being locked into 4wd makes a vehicle brake better......assuming the brakes at all 4 wheels are working correctly. If you are in 2wd and hit the brakes and somehow the fronts lock and the rears keep spinning forward than something is not right. Having all 4 wheels locked together, and thus forcing them to "do the same thing" is not necessarily good. It will help you slow down via engine braking, but shouldn't help via just pushing the brake pedal.
Click to expand...

...are working correctly.... seems your condition swallows your assertion. Ask anyone who has owned a square 3/4 ton or 1 ton about how it brakes when there's nothing in the bed... brakes are set up for specific perimeters, deviate from them and you'll enjoy feather braking to keep from doing a 180 at too-quick-to-change-light.

but still, we were talking in general, and you didn't quote my last sentence - which is pretty important - that is, there are factors that make it a personal choice.
 
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