ShortTom, If you want to win the capability argument, take away all the variables including the driver. Hand your brother in law your keys and send him off road. He will come back a believer.

However, the discussion/argument is fun too. So here's some ammo:

- the ONLY thing keeps you moving forward is APPLIED torque
- in a vehicle, that torque is applied through the tires to terra firma

So, the first order of business is to plant as many tires firmly as possible.

To demonstrate, drive one wheel of each vehicle up on a ramp as far as possible - advantage LR.

After that, it's only a matter of preventing torque loss with traction control, locking diffs, and any other number of gadgets or electronics.

And then, it's not any particular feature, but the overall combination and execution. Again advantage LR, but really can only be experienced by driving.

 

well yes I understand that, I meant they aren't transfer cases in the way that are common or that people think when they think of t cases (2 hi, 4 hi, 4lo). they work just like an axle diff, with a locker, and of coarse hi and low.

 

You can debate and surmise all day long, the real answer lies in the dirt, go find out.

 

the LT230 is gear driven and TRANSFERS power to the front diff...that's about as old school definition of transfer case as you can get

 

that may be so but when we talk about transfer cases people think of a 2hi/4hi/4lo setup that has no differential action at all. This is clearly the deal considering about every other day people post on here confused at their t cases and at what a diff lock is and how it works. thats all I was trying to say, obviously there is a big hunk of metal hanging behind my tranny.

 

people get confused with the diff lock and mistake it for axle lockers. Diff locks have been around for a long time, Jeep grand cherokees/wagoneers with qudratrack transfer cases had it back in the '70s. All transfer cases I've seen have "differential action", they use gears to muliple torque.

 

No. The center diff is either fully open or locked.

 

I have an idea they are confused because they are clueless about transfer boxes in general.
I bought a Disco after 25 years of owning/driving Series Rovers which have 2hi/4hi/4low (except early S1's where were full time 4WD) and didn't have any problems understanding the LT230 operation.

 

Well, you probably RTFM, or at least looked at the illustration by the shifter, which is more than a lot of people do.

 

multiplying torque has nothing to do with differential action, differential action is allowing the different outputs to spin at different speeds without one having to slip. in a 2hi/4hi/4lo this is not the case if they are in 4 the front and rear driveshafts are locked together. AWD is a different story all together, in which case I don't consider a bunch of clutches slipping to lock and unlock drive shafts diff action either.