I know that welding the front 3rd kills your turning radius, but if you were to run a twin stick or have the front hubs unlocked, would it still have a bad turning radius?

 

With hubs unlocked, would make no difference what was up front, you have two free wheeling wheels in that case. With locked hubs and 2WD, you'll have both front tires locked together but not pulling, so will probably be better turning than in 4WD (since they are not fighting the rear tires), but you would still feel it. Can also use one hub unlocked (3WD) and have a better turning radius.

 

Okay, cool. That solves the on-road issue, then. So, if I were in some mild/moderate mud and had a twin stick, I could disengage the front and have a decent enough turning radius if I really needed to turn

 

just take it from someone with experience... if you drive it as a daily... dont ever weld the front. such a hassle

unless you really dont care and never drive on snowy roads...

just save save save for a front locker man

 

i have a twinstick and I wouldn't rely on it to be able to turn. It frequently gets "locked" in 4WD and requires backing up or otherwise taking the load off the drivetrain to be able to get it into 2WD.

x2 - save for a real locker (lunchbox will only be ~$200 and you can install it yourself)

 

I'm going to say you are going to have some fairly serious steering resistance with a welded from third. With a welded rear the turning radius is fine, it just scrubs that inner rear tire a lot.

I had a Truetrac up front for a long time and with hubs locked I could feel quite a bit of feedback through the wheel just from the torque of speed up and slowing down the drive shaft. When I was on it in 4wd it definitely wanted to go straight real bad.

Frank

 

Thanks, everybody. Yeah, I wanna save and get lockers f/r, but a little voice keeps saying "just weld it"

 

I had a friend with welded front diff. VERY hard on the birfields (cv joints)! Even in loose mud or dirt, steering was very difficult, and outside the truck, you could hear the cvs clicking when turning, working against each other -2wd or 4wd-did't matter. He frequently locked only one hub, and turning was easier, but under power, it pulled like hell to the locked side. He went through 3 axles on each side in 1yr. He put in the strongest cvs he could find (I don't know what brand) and still blew them. TRUETRAC is the route to go. If you can't afford it, others may say lunchbox lockers, but they can bind and again, Birfields are not that strong. If not a truetrac, my advise is to lock the rear, weld or locker, and don't touch your front differential.

 

brooklee1000 - that has to be the mot confusing post EVER.

Is the truck you are referring to IFS or solid axle?
IFS = CV
SFA = Birfield (OK, technically, a type of CV joint, but nobody ever calls them CV's)

I find it EXTREMELY hard to believe he broke 30 spline cromoly Longfield birfields (if solid axle) due to a welded front diff.

If it was IFS, I could believe it - upgraded "stronger" CV axles aren't that much stronger than stock.