Limited slip or locker for winter?

[holyford86]

I've driven with a rear locker for 4 years now. I love it in the snow, there is nothing better IMO. I like having a locker for predictability, With an open diff or L/S you don't know when that one spinning wheel may turn into two and spin you out. With a locker, you know that both wheels are always going to spin and once you know how to correct for it it's not too bad. I very rarely use 4x4 in the snow while on the road, I've never felt the need to use it continuously, and with the new addition of a front L/S as well, it could prove to be interesting...

 

[The purple one]

My old plow truck had a 3.73 open rear in it. I use to plow sometimes in 2wd. Would drive home in 3 inches of falling snow with a 600 lb plow in the front and a snow shovel in the back in 2wd. Only needed to put it in 4 wd to get up my hill to get home. ( I live off off a road named mountain rd) If you know how to drive 2wd will work fine. 4X4's are good for hilly spots and for starting off.

 

[06RangerXLT]

Alright, well i guess ill grab some all season off road tires and go with it!

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Will]

Lockers don't get you into trouble--you get yourself into trouble.

I agree that most vehicles I see ditched in the snow are 4x4s. It isn't magic. But when I was a kid in Iowa where it was icy all winter, nobody was in the ditch. There were no 4x4s because they were expensive and rare and I was in a poor town. Indiana is worse than Iowa, or Alaska, because it can be 50 and pleasant one day and then 0 and black ice the next. You can be enjoying a 50-degree sunny day in February with a dry road, zoom around a corner and in some shade find a secret patch of black ice and be on your roof. The locals know that will be an ice patch, but an Alaskan thinking he's driving in Bermuda will be upside-down in a creek drowned.

A locker is better, but it will more readily send you sideways and you have to know what its tendencies are. It had less lateral traction than a LS or open axle. It's very good and going forward and backward.

 

[06RangerXLT]

Lockers don't get you into trouble--you get yourself into trouble.

I agree that most vehicles I see ditched in the snow are 4x4s. It isn't magic. But when I was a kid in Iowa where it was icy all winter, nobody was in the ditch. There were no 4x4s because they were expensive and rare and I was in a poor town. Indiana is worse than Iowa, or Alaska, because it can be 50 and pleasant one day and then 0 and black ice the next. You can be enjoying a 50-degree sunny day in February with a dry road, zoom around a corner and in some shade find a secret patch of black ice and be on your roof. The locals know that will be an ice patch, but an Alaskan thinking he's driving in Bermuda will be upside-down in a creek drowned.

A locker is better, but it will more readily send you sideways and you have to know what its tendencies are. It had less lateral traction than a LS or open axle. It's very good and going forward and backward.

thats exactly the answer im looking for!