Slip or open

[JEFF hILLYARD]

What is the difference between limited slip and open. I one better for pulling trailers?

 

[nascar_intimid]

I'm not psitive but open rear end which has 3.27 gears has only one wheel spin no matter if the other side has lost traction. Limited slip has if one side loses traction the other side will take over. I have open :thumbdwn: and I hate it when I go muddin'... but for pulling a trailer an open rear end is fine and probably better gas mileage. If your pulling a trailer in the mild off road sense then the limited slip is what you will need...hope I helped

 

[MrShorty]

If you'll always be pulling your trailer on pavement, you won't likely notice much of a difference between LS and open differential. LS is a traction aid that tries to ensure that at least some power is going to each wheel all the time, unlike an open which will send all the power to one wheel if one wheel loses traction. On dry pavement, there's enough traction that neither wheel will lose traction completely.

Where you could really see a difference between open and LS would be doing something like pulling a boat up a slick boat ramp.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

The only difference between towing with a LSD or Open Differential is gas mileage. An Limited Slip Diff. will eat up more gas.

The Facts: A limited slip will basically "limit" the slipping of the tires. When the vehicle is in somewhat of a straight line, the LSD will act as a locker (which keeps the rear tires locked together all the time), which in turn takes more engine to turn over the two tires instead of just one. The whole reasoning behind the Open Differential is for gas mileage/fuel economy. The LSD has clutch packs on both sides of the carrier, which inturn allows the tires to turn at different speeds in corners/turning. If you did not have the clutches, or the clutches go bad, you will either get noise or you would have a "wheel hop" type situation. For strict offroad, a locker is better than a limited slip. The limited slip is good, though, cause if you get one wheel off the ground (or on ice,snow,etc. -- anything where one wheel doesn't have 100% traction), the limited slip will keep the other tire that has better traction turning and allow you to get free.

Open Differentials are pretty much worthless, in my opinion. I hope this helps you out some.

-Drew

 

[99SportX]

I hate my open diff. I got stuck in my snow covered driveway and it was putting all the power to the wheel that had no traction. That is so stupid! It took forever to get out just becasue of that. lol

 

[jimbo74]

all everyone needs to know about differentials... http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm

it explains what a diff does... thne there are also options for explaination of open, lsd, and locking

 

[spindlecone]

I got stuck on my front lawn, 3 days later I installed a powertrax

 

[ExplorerDMB]

Haha, spindlecone -- that just sounds funny the way it's said. I'm hoping it rained a lot that day (to give you somewhat of an excuse)

-Drew