Mark Doiron

I admit, I tried it only because I was following behind TORN--who made them all look easy. That's him you see in a couple of the pic's guiding me.

Mark Doiron

To be honest, I was just too ignorant to realize that what I needed was lockers and mud tires to make this little trek--instead I did it with LSD/BLD and street tires!







Oh, in this picture taken at the same place (Lake Stanley Draper) a few days later, JackMac4 (leading) does have lockers on MT tires. But I was still on LSD/BLD and street tires.



I do wish I had lockers. But, I don't feel they've really slowed me down at all. And, everyone should remember what Basic13 said:

0311sgt

I agree and disagree.....we are talking about the JK here not the TJ.. As i Said earlier the BLD ( brake lock differential) that comes STANDARD on all JK models, 2007-present is all he would need. the loose gravel hill climbs are ideal for this technology. I proved that to the ney sayers in Virginia at camp jeep07. The camp ground we stayed at ran trial rides on there land. We went on one in the rain and one hell of a hill climb in the red Virginia clay. Two rubicons ( TJ and inexperianced drivers too)
needed to be winched up, but the JK's BLD did its job flawlessly. While everyone who made it up under their own power. skinny pedaled the hell out of their Jeeps and 1 Landrover, I just BACKED out of the gas and let the JK "find its traction" It is different driving a BLD then a traditional locker. The CPU transfers power through the anti-lock brakes more than 100 times per second to different tires. So yes my TJ may be more of a challenge on the loose gravel hills But i firmly believe the JK and its BLD would be perfect.

2007 JK Unlimited
3 Inch BDS Lift
35x12.5x16 Yokohama Geolander AT/S
16x8 Cragar Soft 8 Black Steel Wheels
Custom front Winch Bumper from RoundStar OffRoad
Mopar Offroad Rear Bumper
Oilpan/Tranny skid Plate by Skid Row
JKS Quicker Disconnects
Skyjacker Brake line extenders
Skyjacker Adj Rear track bar
High Clearance Adj Front Lower Control Arms by RocKrawler
Warrior Products Rear Safari Doors
Plenty of ROCKRASH

pearl-drum-man

Based on your use I think your JK will be plenty capable. If anything sink the money into some good tires (M/T or extreme A/T) and a good winch. If you find over time that your trail riding has gottn more extreme then add a front selectable locker and see how that does for you.

ccwbrd

Its funny that you said that "they've never slowed me down at all", because thats exactly what the BLD does. This system applies the brakes to regain traction, which works on rock and hard surfaces but not in mud and sand. I will take a trac lok anyday over a BLD. But I still prefer a locker!

RCJeeper

If you're not gonna wheel hard then don't bother with lockers. In rock gardens that lift your tires off rocks, lockers are a huge plus. I upgraded my open (BDL) D30 to Mopar D44 with the factory lockers specifically because of getting hung up in large rocks. The problem with DBLs is that it applies the brakes only momentarily to "pop" you through an obstacle. If you need sustained torque to clear an obstacle, it may not be enough, at least it wasn't for me.

Mark Doiron

Agreed--but OP is not doing any "hard core wheeling," so I don't think that lockers should be a terribly high priority for him. Anyway, one can (and I do) have both the LSD and BLD.

BTW: Here's a nice video of the BLD at work:

Jeep Patriot Brake Lock Diff in Action

Joe C

I had an '06 Liberty that I wheeled once out in Phoenix and I have to say the ESP/BLD system on that was very capable. I was extremely impressed climbing sandy/rocky hills when you see one wheel lose traction then stop after about 1 revolution and continue climbing.

Question about this: I thought the Trac lok utilized the BLD system to equalize torque between the wheels ??? What's the difference?

Mark Doiron

Trak-Loc is a mechanical limited slip differential (LSD). BLD is the computer controlling the brakes and throttle to limit wheel spin. Both can be and are often installed on the same vehicles. While they're not a locker, they provide a pretty potent combo to keep a vehicle moving for someone who is doing something shy of hard core wheeling. As I said earlier, I kept up with a couple Rubi's on some pretty tough trails at EJS last April.

porters

BLDs will transfer some torque; something on the order of 50%. Trac-Lok alone will transfer torque something on the order of 50%. Put them together and you get something on the order of 75% torque transfer and that is pretty close to a lockers 100% torque transfer. As long as you control the skinny pedal the LSD & BLD combo should put less stress on your drive train. Another potent combo is Detroit's True Trac + BLD.

All that said, there are times an open diff is best as in off camber situations particularly on snow and ice. A selectable locker can be used as an open diff in situations where it is needed and then be locked for different terrain when needed; selectables give you the best of both worlds.

LSDs are not that versatile, and can't be turned off to help on that off camber climb like a selectable locker.

Do you need the versatility of a selectable locker? Like others have said it depends on what type of off-roading you do.

For me there are times lockers would have made things easier. That said, after a few attempts, I eventually got there without them.

Run without them for now and see how far you can get.