Quote:
Originally Posted by shovel
As far as I can tell, you've already talked yourself into whatever it is you're going to do and there's not much point in discussion.
I don't think a spool will cost you MPG's, but I do think a spool on rainy highways - particularly in a vehicle with a very short wheelbase - is a good way to cost yourself a whole lot more.
Spooled (and lincoln locked) 4x4's here in AZ are great on the rocks, and manageable on the road because it's dry 99% of the time so a little scrub on highway corners gives you some "fight" on the steering wheel and reminds you that you're spooled up. In the rain.. not so much. A short wheelbase vehicle differentiates more left to right when turning, and for the same reason will scrub more on turns if locked. Can you get away with it? Sure, the same way you an probably get away with putting 5000 more miles on a bald set of tires. It's just pants-on-head retarded.
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I had a first gen toyota 4x4 pickup with a spool in the back and lock rite in the front. These are just a smidge longer than a samurai. I started off with a lock right in the back but didn't like the unpredictable windup/letoff that happened sometimes while cornering at hwy speeds. Moved it to the front, tried out a friends rig with a spool in the back here in the rain, it was a little slippery but very predictable. I threw one in the rear of my truck and had no problems. The previous owner had put bigger tires on without changing gears, so it was impossible to spin the tires and made it very easy to drive it like a little old lady.
On several suzuki forums guys are running similar setups on there daily drivers and haven't had any traction problems or even noticed any additional tire wear. They guess it is the samurai's gutless engine and light weight helping out again.
I am confident that this could be a safe setup for me, and my driving experience. But I do value your guys opinion greatly on the mechanical efficiency of this differential setup, And am very open to change when I get better info from people smarter about that stuff than I am. I'm solid about putting a lockright in the front, because there are just about no negatives to it, in keeping to the "real" economy aspect of this project I would put that in first and try it out before I even messed with the rear diff, who knows, it might work out just fine with the samurai float on top effect, with an open rear diff. I'll have to experiment first to find out.
Don't worry, I'm going to keep playing with this project, and will get pictures as soon as I have any to post. The only reason I haven't bought my base vehicle yet, is again because I value your guys opinion so much, I wanted to make sure that somebody out there didn't know of some different vehicle that would make a better starting point.
Where would we be if all the great innovators had quit the first time they were called "pants on the head retarded"
