What limited slip to use for towing and off-road?

[purpony]

I’ve got a Explorer with an 8.8 IRS and an open rear diff.

Looking to swap 4.10s and install a rear posi.

I’ve been looking at the the Ford Trac lock with carbon clutches, the Yukon Dura Grip / Eaton Posi with clutch’s, and the Eaton gear True Trac.

I plan on daily driving , towing, and some light off-roading. I was kind of sold on the True Trac being gear driven with nothing to wear out and have heard good things about them… until a came across a post on the SVT forums of many many mustang guys who had run the true tracs and were not happy with them being noisy and clunky. I originally heard they were silent.

The True-Trac is very similar to the Torsen T2 found in the Ranger OEM rear ended.

After a little more searching, I was reading that with one wheel off the ground (which would could happen more with my IRS) that the Torsen wouldn’t transfer power that well to a planted wheel on the ground.

Due to price, I’m thinking of just going with a Ford Trac-loc at $275. The Yukon Dura Grip is $550. Not sure how much better this clutch design is over the Trac-loc. And the True-Trac is $600+

sorry for the long rant…. Wondering what others are using for a rear posi and how you like it, how does it perform off-road?

 

[DILLARD000]

Been running the OEM 4.10 TracLoc Rear With Open Front Diffs for 20+ years now;
don't do much offroad, but have slipped off of icy roads into the ditch while plowing a few times
& that got me out with little or no snow shovelling required.

 

[scotts90ranger]

The factory setup is pretty good, especially if you arrange the clutches in a logical fashion unlike what they did in the Explorers from the factory... from the factory they had them balanced for drivability I imagine but they had steels to steels and frictions to frictions. If you instead jam as many plates in there as you can or have and arrange them steel to friction all through you get better traction... I did that to my '00 V8 explorer with junkyard clutch parts and with the shift kit in the transmission it works just how I want it to...

 

[rubydist]

Agreed, for what you described its very hard to justify the extra $$ compared to the factory traction lock which works just fine.

fwiw, the Torsen problem of not locking with one wheel in the air is solved by a light application of the brakes - it causes the diff to lock up and then torque is transmitted as you would want.

 

[bobbywalter]

The clutch garbage life cycles 20 to 40 k and is essentially an open diff from there....sometimes even less of you don't use the additive. Totally useless if you lift wheel.

Torsen....Tru trac or selectable. Unless your ok with rebuilding it once a year.

 

[sgtsandman]

I agree with bobby. Get a gear driven LSD. Less maintenance and you don't have to worry about the additive being in the fluid.

 

[09fx4guy]

Go with the gear driven type. Check out Torsen's website, they make specific types for either 28 or 31 spline axles.

I have the Torsen in the rear from the factory, and I love it. It has never given me a problem, and you would be hard pressed to get it to make noise and clunk unless they were beating the heck out of them.

If you had a trac lock from the factory, and just wanted to rebuild it, ok. But if you are going to go through the trouble of a total install, you might as well install something that does not have to be serviced roughly every 50,000 miles.

I love the rear Torsen so much, I brought the Torsen they make specifically for the front diff. I think that it would fit the explorer as well, but please confirm somewhere else, I could be wrong. If you upgraded rear and front, you would be nearly unstoppable.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

I like the OEM unit in my ranger. Besides that, I've had good luck with Auburn Gear L/S...and the price is right on em too.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I can't argue with the posts after mine... I give the explorer just enough maintenance to keep it going... I've put 50k miles on the clutch job I did to the rear axle but I haven't paid too much attention to how it works and I just winged it with junkyard clutches and 2/3 of the oil it's supposed to have (I've meant to top it off or change it but well... I kept forgetting...). I do know with the bald mud terrain tires it has on it now on the 1-2 shift on wet pavement it will drift around a corner still, but it's a heavy pig so if things are sketchy I just use 4x4...

The easy button is just putting in an Aussie locker, the one I put in my Ranger lived through a fair amount of abuse before it gave out, then changed it to a Yukon Grizzly last year. Drivability on the street with the Aussie was good, I barely ever heard it ratchet, the Grizzly is more locked up on the street if you are under any power which is fine for my uses but not ideal on a daily driver...

 

[purpony]

Well i ended up ordering a Eaton gear driven True Trac..... we will see if it like it.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Good choice I say

 

[gw33gp]

The True Trac is basically the same as the Torsen. I have a True Trac on my 69 Cobra and a Torsen on my 2002 Ranger. They both work great. Both tend to screech the inside tire when accelerating around a sharp corner from a stop. I have learned to just take it easy while doing this and wait until going near straight before stepping down more on the accelerator pedal.