Opinions please on limited slip drive

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I forgot to mention that with a standard rear end you hopefully only have to dig one wheel out. I've been through some slippery stuff that had a bottom and used momentum to slip/slide through.
 
momentum is exactly how you break stuff. another word for momentum is speed. I have more vehicles get trashed this way then any other. highdesertranger
 
Momentum is mass times speed. I've never trashed any vehicle. My experience is obviously in different conditions than yours. In my situations, momentum has kept both drive wheels pushing since I was moving. With a normal street vehicle, once stopped in mud or deep sand, when one drive wheel spins without pushing, the other is useless. With a four wheel Jeep Wagoneer, if one side of the wheels spins freely, the other two are useless.
I drove a school bus up a muddy slope sliding sideways but made it with momentum going about 15 mph.
I hit a telephone pole right square in the middle of my 1950 Ford hood with a telephone pole because I had momentum but no steering on ice. It was a little bent but not trashed because I got a whole new front end for $15. That was in 1967.
On that old road grader I tried going up an ice coated hill. Not enough momentum. Slid back down. Fortunately I stopped before I slid into pickup that was following.

But if one has more speed times mass than can be steered or braked, yes, it will trash vehicles.

How did you trash your vehicles? Perhaps the speed damaged suspension or body parts on rocky roads. None of my situations were on rocky roads although I did have to jump the curb to hit the telephone pole.
 
I once executed a hammerhead stall in a front wheel drive Reliant. A hammerhead stall is usually an aerobatic maneuver. A combination of dense fog with ground temps below freezing in northern Oakland County, MI had created icy roads. The paved road went from one hilltop down into a valley then up to another hilltop. My first attempt got 2/3 up the hill before losing momentum. I didn't panic and let the vehicle nose over to the left until it was facing back down. The weight of the engine and transaxle in the front did the work. built up enough momentum to return to the starting position. I paused and thought about the situation and figured how much momentum would get us to the other hilltop carrying the least amount of speed. Did that and off we went.

Personally. I like driving a front wheel drive vehicle in low traction situations. Better feel for the amount of available traction. Pulling, and steering the vehicle with one set wheels is more controllable than steering the front while the rear pushing. Both ways can work with skill.
 
I’ll take as many wheels pulling as I can get. Driving in an unbaffled tanker truck on icy roads will teach you everything you want to know and more about momentum! Lol!!!
 
bullfrog said:
I’ll take as many wheels pulling as I can get. Driving in an unbaffled tanker truck on icy roads will teach you everything you want to know and more about momentum! Lol!!!

Unbaffled tanker truck - half full.
 
Top