0:01 hey everyone it's Ben Hardy here and in
0:02 today's video I'm going to show you guys
0:04 if locking diffs are actually needed to
0:07 do off-roading and then just the
0:08 benefits of locking diffs I'm going to
0:10 be using my inos Grenadier as a test
0:12 vehicle I think it's the best vehicle to
0:13 demonstrate locking diffs because it
0:16 does not have a fancy trash control
0:23 it so quickly if you're not familiar
0:25 with this car this is a 2024 inos
0:27 Grenadier it is a new car on the US
0:30 market now this car comes with a solid
0:32 axle on the front and in the rear it
0:33 does not have any sort of sway bar
0:35 disconnect now what this does come with
0:37 is a full-time four-wheel drive system a
0:39 center locking differential and low
0:41 range and then it does come with a rear
0:43 as well as a front diff lock you notice
0:45 with the icons the rear diff lock has
0:46 the X over the back axle it indicate
0:47 that it's locking that differential
0:49 front there in the front and with Center
0:51 diff locks it'll typically have the X
0:52 over the center with that little
0:54 depiction to indicate that it's locking
0:56 the center this one's a little bit
0:57 different because it has this ball
0:58 shifter that's why it doesn't have that
1:00 icon on this first go I'm going to be Mr
1:02 ego that says I don't need four-wheel
1:04 drive low I don't need lockers and I'll
1:06 show you guys why this is a mistake so
1:14 lockers and would you look at that we're
1:17 not going anywhere and on top of that
1:20 we're just kind of revving the crap out
1:36 and eventually we'll overheat the
1:38 transmission cuz we're really pushing
1:40 the powertrain to limit so this is why
1:41 if you're going to go up steep stuff
1:43 unless you're going super fast because
1:45 you got like a razor or something put it
1:47 in four-wheel drive low it's super easy
1:49 right most well every single car you put
1:50 it in neutral and most cars are pretty
1:52 quick with the
1:55 systems this one boom so now we're going
1:59 to go up and fourwh drive low and you'll
2:02 notice that I've got way more torque now
2:04 going down now I'm still going to get
2:19 distribution right so in four-wheel
2:22 drive low with the center diff unlocked
2:27 what the car is doing is it is just
2:29 sending it it's not going to send it's
2:31 not a perfect 50/50 split front to rear
2:33 that's what the center diff lock does is
2:35 it makes it so that the power goes
2:38 perfectly front to the rear so it just
2:39 kind of sending power basically to the
2:41 wheel that's spinning the most that's
2:43 just how it goes so now we've got the
2:46 center diff locked in four-wheel drive
2:49 low okay now what this does is like I
2:51 said 50% of the power to the front 50%
2:53 to the rear but it doesn't equally
2:55 distribute it
2:57 among the wheels so what you notice is
3:07 now same thing I'm starting to you
3:30 okay now that's happening
3:33 because it's not evenly Distributing the
3:36 power from one wheel to the other in the
3:38 front axle and in the rear axle so what
3:39 will happen is one of them will start
3:41 spinning and digging in and it just
3:42 sends all the power to that [Music]
3:44 [Music]
3:46 wheel this doesn't have a fancy active
3:48 braking system and so that's what
3:50 happens so now what we're going to do is
3:54 we're going to lock the rear
3:57 differential okay this is going to make
4:00 it so that the power again Center Tiff
4:03 is locked so 50/50 front to rear so 50%
4:05 of the power that is going to the rear
4:09 is now split 50/50 right so one wheel in
4:11 the rear is getting 50% and the other re
4:13 wheel is getting 50% that is going to
4:16 the rear so what this does
4:20 now is it gives us this push from the
4:22 rear and you'll notice that we're still
4:26 spinning but we have we got up I would
4:44 but we got up a little bit higher
4:45 compared to
4:48 before so it might seem hopeless at this
4:49 point right when you don't have fancy
4:51 traction control stuff and and you can
4:52 see the you can see the difference with
4:54 the tire marks right as we're going as
4:56 we're going up here hopefully you can
4:58 see that now we're going to lock the
5:01 front differential this is going to send
5:03 now again 50/50 front to rear and now
5:06 we've got 5050 side to side front and
5:08 rear so everything is getting
5:11 25% of the power everything is
5:15 completely locked up and now what you
5:17 will see
5:20 here is it it does make a little bit of
5:22 a fuss out of it but
5:38 it's not sending all the power to the
5:39 wheel that's spinning the other wheel
5:42 that is still getting grip gets power
5:45 we're able to finally muscle through it
5:46 at this point in the video if you're new
5:47 to off-roading I have most likely
5:49 convince you that diff locks are the end
5:50 all be all that you need to go and buy a
5:54 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon with the front and
5:57 the rear lockers but here's the deal you
5:59 can actually get around diff locks let
6:00 me show you
6:02 may I present you with the Toyota Land
6:04 Cruiser now this is the previous
6:05 generation Land Cruiser so it does have
6:08 a two-speed transfer case but you notice
6:10 that it only has a center diff lock it
6:12 does not have a front or rear diff lock
6:14 so let's take it up the same exact Hill
6:15 that the Grenadier needed to be triple
6:18 locked for and see what happens just to
6:19 make this comparison even we're going to
6:23 start off in full bro mode so four-wheel
6:27 drive high no diff locked none of
6:30 that and you'll notice
6:33 and again this has fancy traction control
6:41 systems you'll notice that it gets right
6:43 up what is it
6:46 doing it is taking
7:15 it's it's clamping on the caliper right
7:17 the the the wheel that's if there's any
7:19 sort of spin clamping down there on the
7:21 caliper and taking that torque and
7:23 distributing it to the wheel that does
7:27 happen to have traction and it makes a
7:31 big difference now obviously that is not
7:34 how you want to off-road what you want
7:39 to do is have it in four-wheel drive
7:41 low which super easy in the Land Cruiser
7:43 and then our multi- Trin select we're
7:45 actually going to put to rock and then
7:47 we will lock our Center
7:49 differential just a parking sensor sorry about
7:50 about
7:52 that but that's how you actually want to
7:55 off-road with this but you will note
7:58 that if you have a fancy traction
8:00 control system you can get through stuff
8:02 that an old school vehicle can't get
8:04 through without having all of the diffs
8:06 locked and for those of you saying tires
8:09 and weight this has narrower tires than
8:10 the Grenadier and there is a weight
8:12 difference this weighs just over 6,000
8:14 lb Grenadier weighs about 6,500 lb but
8:17 the Grenadier does have bigger tires so
8:19 like I feel like they're pretty similar
8:21 and this has independent suspension in
8:23 the front so the Grenadier you know
8:25 should have better articulation this
8:28 does have toa's kdss system now you
8:30 notice with this it's even smoother
8:32 right because of for dri I can hear the
8:39 now you can see it's
8:41 really going now you might be wondering
8:45 why was it silent the first time that we
9:17 and what I have noticed is that the
9:19 traction intervention is more aggressive
9:21 in four-wheel drive low than it is in
9:23 four-wheel drive high and I think that
9:24 kind of makes sense right they assume if
9:25 you're in four-wheel drive high you're
9:29 not going to want random Cal braking all
9:30 the time you're going to want a little
9:32 bit of power distribution change but not
9:37 a lot so this now might lead to some of
9:39 you being a little bit confused because
9:41 well I thought diff locks were the end
9:42 all be all so as you can see
9:45 differential locks are extremely useful
9:46 especially with vehicles that do not
9:48 have fancy modern traction control
9:50 systems like the Toyota Land Cruiser or
9:52 like Land Rovers or Jeeps or Fords
9:53 there's so many vehicles that have these
9:56 fancy active braking systems but here is
9:57 the most practical advice that I can
9:59 give all of you as someone who has taken
10:01 a ton of different Vehicles Offroad I
10:02 have literally taken every type of
10:04 vehicle Offroad I took a Cadillac
10:06 Escalade and a Volvo XC90 Offroad a
10:08 couple years ago I've taken Wranglers
10:10 Offroad I had a Ford Bronco Raptor I've
10:12 actually had several Raptors I've taken
10:13 Land Cruisers off-road I've taken Land
10:15 Rovers Offroad I have taken every type
10:17 of vehicle off-road what I have
10:18 discovered is that the fancy traction
10:21 control systems are really useful on
10:24 loose terrain steep climbs that are not
10:25 all that articulated they're actually
10:27 better than differential locks because
10:29 they perfectly distribute the power and
10:31 and so it makes the climb or you know if
10:33 you're just on a flat terrain but it's
10:35 like really deep sand or something like
10:37 that it seems to help out a lot with
10:39 just navigating that uh situation a
10:42 little bit easier however where
10:44 differential locks will always win out
10:46 is in articulated situations if you get
10:48 in a lot of situations off-road where
10:50 your vehicle is going to be really
10:52 articulated these fancy traction control
10:53 systems can only go so far that's where
10:54 I discovered the limits with this Land
10:56 Cruiser is when I'm really articulated
10:58 the system has to sit there and work and
10:59 work and work and some sometimes it
11:00 eventually gets through sometimes it
11:02 just it can't get through and it's like
11:04 B man I wish I had a differential lock
11:05 in the front or the rear to help out
11:08 with that and so you have to be honest
11:09 with yourself with the type of
11:09 off-roading that you're planning on
11:11 doing if you're just going to be going
11:13 down a lot of kind of like well paved
11:15 not paved but well- groomed uh dirt
11:18 roads that just might have traction
11:19 issues right because it's slippery an
11:21 advanced traction control system is
11:22 going to be the best route for you to go
11:24 make sure your vehicle has at least that
11:25 if you're going to be getting into a lot
11:27 of more difficult stuff articulated
11:28 stuff you're probably going to want
11:30 differential can you technically do it
11:32 with a system yes but you have to sit
11:34 there and be patient and work through
11:35 the situations and sometimes you have to
11:36 deal with not being able to get through
11:39 an obstacle because you just lack the
11:40 proper equipment for that so hopefully
11:42 that shows you guys the actual benefits
11:44 of differential locks and hopefully that
11:45 helps you out with determining which
11:47 off-roader you should go based on the
11:51 off-roading you're going to end up doing [Music]
