Look, I know its 50. But anyway, answer this....


On a STEEP SLOPE, around lets say 30, is locking diff required with the specs given?

 

Buy a Catapiller 50 degree slope is hard to walk up.

 

Are you able to go up the driveway in your car or truck, when theres snow on it? If a car or truck can make it up, then you dont need locking diff.

 

50 degrees is steeper than 12 in 12. That's steeper than a regulation staircase and steeper than the Great Pyramid at Giza. It's about as steep as the stairs on the Mayan pyramids in Mexico. If you have a 350 foot driveway that's that steep, then it isn't safe to put anything on it at all and you have a good case for a lawsuit against any contractor who has built such a thing.

 

Like I said, lets say its a 30 degree slope.

 

OK, an answer: On a paved driveway, most quads could climb a 30 degree slope without a dif lock. Same is true for 40 degrees and even 50 degrees although the steeper picthes will require a good running start and/or a low gear and lots of low end grunt. Add some snow or ice and the answer is probably you'll need the dif lock, as you'll need all the traction that you can get. It's all kind of a moot point though - put a quad at the top of a snow or ice covered 50 degree driveway and you'll almost certainly loose control and slide down to the bottom.

You really need to recheck your degree of slope (which is why most responding to this post are skeptical). Only a few stock passenger cars or trucks could even hope to drive up a 50 degree paved driveway under ideal traction conditions. Most utes and trucks with low ranges could do it. Very few cars could. Front wheel drive cars - forget it unless you got really lucky. Even for those that could make it, it would cause tremendous wear and tear if done on a daily basis plus you'd still have the same problem - once you got to the top of an icy slope that steep, you'd never get down in one piece.

Let's call it a 45 degree slope. That means that if you are standing at the base of your driveway which is 350 feet long then the height of your garage floor is 350 feet above you. Actually a little less than that since the 350' is measured up the slop. In any event, the height of the driveway will be the same as the depth as measured on a level plane. Stick a 4' level anywhere on your driveway, measure down to the pavement from the lower end and you should get a distance of 4'. If you don't, then it's not a 45 degree slope. I'm a general contractor - a 10 degree slope on a driveway is extream, a 20 degree slope is stupid, any more than that should be considered a criminal act.

Sorry to be so skeptical, but a 50 degree driveway just ain't happening for me.

Jaybee

 

In that kind of situation, Honda's limited slip will work fine to power all 4 wheels because they all have the same amount of traction. The limted slip doesnt work so well when one wheel is up in the air etc...

 

Dont buy a limited slip diff machine. The 4 wheel lock is essential in climbing and pushing snow without it you will be all over the place.It isn't always needed but their becomes a time when you need it you'll wish you had it!!!

 

If a limited slip diff only works when all the wheels have the same amount of traction... what's the point? I have buddys with Hondas and for all the ad hype and glorious wordy explanations Honda spits out about it's torque sensing bla bla, it's version of a limited slip front end... well it just sucks. One guy bought a Detroit Gearless Locker and he's very happy about it. Honda just hasn't had to try very hard for it's market segment, given the good name it is working from after nearly 50 years of imported reliable clean running motorcycles, and they sell whatever they make even without free winch promotions or cutting edge technology. Other makes offer lockers, Honda offers ad hype. Who is to say they are wrong? They sell out every year!
Bombardiers visco-lock is said ro be excellent as well (as a DGL). Of course it's hard to beat a true locking front end for traction.
One thing about extreme grade climbing, at least when you are going forward, is that because of the weight transfer, the front end is doing little to aid forward progress anyway, locked up or not! When grades get so steep that there is a danger of upsetting the machine, you might as well be in 2WD for all the help the front wheels are giving to the workload. Now if you are backing up the hill, way different scenario. If you have a plow out front hanging there you will be in a way better situation of front wheel involvement on a hill too, of course.
Front wheel traction? More is better.

 

When a limited slip differential is new, it will apply power to both wheels up until the point where one wheel has 70% more traction than the other, at which point the limit is met and power is applied to the wheel without grip. In the driveway situation, the 2 wheels are well within that 70% range so it will act like a true 4x4.

Times when you dont get power to both wheels is when one wheel is really bound up and the other is free, or one is on solid ground and the other is in the air. The real problem is that as the diff wears, the 70% turns to 60, 50 and eventually nothing. This is sped up by lack of maintenance and in the case of old machines 2001 and older, not putting in friction modifier with the fluid change.

Honda's revised differential (2002 and up) is much better than the previous clutch set up like my 98 had. Supposed to last much longer and locks longer (more like 85%).