7kings

I don't think I understand what you mean. The entire premise of BLD is that the computer is constantly monitoring speed variance between the axles with the ABS system. When it discovers one wheel spinning at a different speed than the other, it uses the brake on the appropriate wheel to correct the situation. It doesn't just forget about it and let it go at that point.

In my experiences with BLD (which are admittedly only a few times on the trail), it definitely seemed to engage and stay engaged until I had both wheels back on the ground again. It did take a brief moment (maybe a half-second) for the computer to realize the imbalance and engage the BLD, but once engaged it was engaged.

Tooadvanced

In the last year I put on over 1000 miles thru med to difficult trails and while it is an impressive system it takes time to engage and when I had tires off the ground it would engage move forward and release. As well as surging on rocks to get moving. Again this is real world experience and not a book or marketing tool. But it hasnt let me down and has always got me thru things

ronjenx

Maybe that's because when in 4wd, a wheel on an axle can spin only when a wheel on the other axle is spinning.

Say a front and a rear wheel are spinning, and the front one gets traction, the rear one will stop spinning, too, causing the BLD to let go.

Tooadvanced

Nope not from that but under constant throttle and tire spinning. Read fourwheeler mag about Cherokee. They had same prob. Would get over rock with bld then bld would quit and jeep would lose traction and slide back down.

Mark Doiron

I mentioned heat above not to say that overheating brakes is a problem, but to explain where the energy was going (conservation of energy, a basic principal of physics). I run without lockers most of the time. However, I have been on obstacle on rare occasions where I wasn't able to get up it. The Jeep would slip and slide and just not go up. Turning on the lockers allowed it to go up. Notice I said up. Torque be damned, it is on steep climbs that the BLD will sometimes not quite make it. If you watched the video I just posted from Buckhorn on my YouTube channel (DigitalByDoiron), you'll see near the end me pulling a Toyota to jump start him. I swapped positions with an open JK Sport because he was barely able to negotiate the hill and felt he could never do it pulling another vehicle. I did it with ease.

stevedolce

Ron, you said all jeeps come with BLD , but LSD(limited slip diff) is optional, right?

Mark Doiron

In some JKs, LSD is optional. Rubis wouldn't have it.

7kings

Yeah, LSD is an option on non-Rubi Wranglers called Trac-Loc, but BLD is standard and part of the traction-control program in all JKs.

7kings

Okay, so steep, constant climbs are an area where BLD may not provide the same capabilities as a true locker. That's kind of what I was looking for. I'm thinking that in most cases that I'm likely to run into in Florida, lockers may not be a significant upgrade to my off-road performance, considering that I already have BLD and Trac-Loc. With 3.21 gears, a re-gearing to 4.88 is on my horizon (when I upgrade from 33s to 35s, probably), but I was trying to figure out if it made sense to spend the extra $$ at that time and install lockers.

Thanks, guys!

Mark Doiron

I've never used lockers in that kind of terrain. Have played in mud some, and have run a couple rivers around here, including one that has lots of quicksand (check out the Canadian River videos), and never felt the need to lock up. Others who regularly run those may feel differently.

As for building your Jeep for where you live, I encourage people to build for where they hope to go. If Colorado or Moab are in your future, I'd say you're better off with lockers. But I ran both without for a long time until I could afford the mod.