Solid Axle MT - locked front diff pros & cons?
 

Hi All,

I have a mod clod that I run on 4s with dual Castle 4600 motors. It has a huge amount of power, and even though I've dialed it back to minimize wheelies, the front gets very light under acceleration. As a result, the front end almost always diffs out when I hit the throttle - one wheels goes crazy and balloons while the other does very little work.

So - one thing that might help with this issue is that locking the front diff. What are some pros and cons of doing so? Any thoughts?


Thanks!

i don't run a clod buster but you might know my home made monster truck : i noticed too that the front diff needs heavy oil. i run closed diffs so i could put 100 000 oil in the front diff. i even have a center diff where i put 300 000 oil, that helps to control the power.
i wouldn't go for a locked front diffs ( but maybe you got no choice because clod don't run sealed diff ) ; in my opinion, diffs can help to handle hits and crashes. it probably helps for freestyle too

Of course I know your monster truck — it is absolutely amazing! Your videos are fantastic as well.

As you noted the clod diffs are open so my choices are limited. There is a ball diff for clods from Integy but I don’t buy their stuff.

So my choices are open or closed....

thanks for the nice comment, do you race and freestyle ?

EDIT : dumb question of mine, you can't race on 4s !

so how do you bash ? any videos ?

i would got for locked diff !

Werner, I don't have any videos, but I'll probably take some as the weather improves. But even when I do, they won't be quite as awesome as yours.

when going around corners the left and right wheels need to turn at different speeds. The inside wheel follows a tighter arc travelling less distance so it doesn’t need to spin as fast as the outside. Lock a front or rear diff and the tires will use some of their traction fighting each other as they try to rotate at different speeds. Lock a diff up front and understeer is usually increased. Lock a rear diff and initial turn in almost always suffers, any other characteristics depends on how much traction the inside tire loses.

One thing we do in rc racing is to adjust the wheelbase to balance the car better.
This usually happens in small increments 3 mm at a time. The clod buster probably not a lot of adjustment going on there but maybe a few ounces of lead up front?

In my experiences with my STRC IZilla Wraith framed truck, I would stay away from a locked front diff for racing. I kept my rear locked and got a stock SMT10 front diff with some 100k Losi diff oil.