Well IFS has its limits. I fried gears with an open front It all depends on how hard you are on the rig. Baby it and dont force it and your IFS should be fine...ish.

 

BS.

Since you don't have a front locker, how would you know?

 

Friends with lockers

You know how a locker works. In a situation where one tire is bound up on a rock, say wedged in, and the other isnt with an open diff the non wedged tire would most likely spin due to less resistance. With the locker both spin and you increase the chance of breaking a shaft becase the bound tire is trying to move. Happens with any rig. Im not saying it happens IFS only, it happens with all front ends.

And with less weight theres less strain on the front end decreasing parts breakage. smaller tire=less carnage.

 

That is ONE scenario, and a TOTALLY avoidable one at that, where, yes, lockers MAY increase the chance of damage.

Lockers PREVENT front end damage in many more scenarios, unavoidable scenarios, by limiting the shock load on the drivetrain.

With an open diff, when a wheel comes off the ground, it spins at 2x the speed of the ring gear. When it comes back down, it suddenly slows down to the speed of the ring gear, transmitting HUGE shock loads to the CV's, and worse yet, the diff. There is no way to control this - you have to be on the gas for the truck to move!

With a locker, the wheels never spin under power in excess of the ring gear, therefore, there is no shock load and the front end is preserved.

I can tell you that my front locker has not increased the damage to the CV's and diff, despite a heavy rig with dual cases.

 

Lockers prevent CV damage hands down.

I've been in the above "one tire bound, the other free" scenario countless times with zero breakage.

Its simply in how you drive. Breaks occur when mistakes are made.

 

Or when you push it to its limits

TC i actually fried a ring gear in a similar situation. I put the front tire up in the air quite ways, i began to slide down so i hit my brakes but the damage was already done. It destroyed my spider gears spinning at a high speed.

 

I think the point about the lockers is that with 2, plus gearing, you can hit the limits without breaking stuff.

At the end of the day, if you're driving the trails that you want to be without breaking, its serving its purpose.

 

I think the limits would be with lockers, gearing, etc. and then breaking. Im sure you guys could easily push your rigs farther than you do, but due to risk of breakage you dont. And like you said its serving its purpose for you guys.

 

We could go around and around with this, as we have in other threads. Your neck of the woods (PNW, I believe) is FAR different than out here.

For you, you have to spin and gas it to get up stuff. You break parts, and that holds you back.

For us, 2 lockers and gearing gets us up whatever we want. You are correct that we hold back from breaking things, but those things are not axles and diffs, those things are doors, glass, 1/4 panels etc...

I stop on a trail when I feel Body damage is inevitable. Breaking mechanical parts does not bother me in the least. I can change them in short order, and I go out pretty well prepared.

Anyway, there are trails that require a SAS. Your low traction stuff falls in that category for the strength issue alone. Out here, there are only a VERY few trails that require a SAS, and most of those require body damage.

 

Agreed its all a matter of terrain.

You guys have some crazy traction down there. We have very little terrain like yours, i wish we had more. We do have a place called the funny/moonrocks but its under like 6ft of snow right now

 

Toyota's Don't Have Limits !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That's why you need to tell her the truck is your one and only and she is the side fling

My truck definitely has a few limits, most of which I can blame on my wallet and my job lol.

 

mine doesn't float but did drive out of a swamp filled w/silt (worse than mud) and bald tires (crazy tough).

the only better 4wd i ever owned was a 61 scout. (and its top speed was 50mph, but could do a "donut" on top of competition hill)(sand rails couldn't even do that).

my 86 has been totaled and rebuilt (the only original part is the floorboard and firewall. ) drives over 75 on any freeway (4cylinder).

its a great truck

the 88 (3.0) lost its headgasket, *pending new engine or rebuild HG*