2 questions...

1. If installing a mechanisism to engage the CDL improves off raod performance by 50%....What would TruTracs front and back do?

2. Would they perform the same on the on-road obstacles as stock diffs...ie Ice and snow etc...?

 

I have a Detroit in the rear and a T.T. in the front and have to tell you the T.T. is a great diff. No H.D. axles are required, no special fluid and just lots of extra traction.
Living in Colorado, I can tell you the T.T. work great in the snow, actually better then my rear Detroit locker.
Yell if you are serious and I'll point you toward the right place to buy and save.

 

I am serious....point me...while I am spending I was thinking of doing the 4.11 gears too...I know that is what you have...so reccomendnew gearstoo?

 

Then you need to talk to Bill at Great Basins Rovers in Salt Lake City, is by far the biggest, most knowledable person in the states when it comes to gears and lockers for Rovers, sorry, I don't have his number, you'll need to call information.

 

I was hoping you'd say his name. I acutally called him this week. He had me on the phone 45 minutes...he knows a ton and seems like a great guy....Is there a secret password to get the best deal?

 

No, he is a distributor to the retail outlets and will sometimes have better pricing then going to your local 4X4 shop.

 

Truetrac work well, but they have limiting factors. If you want them to work automatically then you need traction control to be working. The down side is that off-road with truetracs traction control will eat brake pads and rotors fairly quickly.

The up-side is that with the CDL locked on-road with loose surface like snow or gravel you'll be able to get some lock-up/torque-shift where with full lockers you're going to be running open which will encourage total wheel slip vs limited slip and torque shifting. You don't need HD shafts with a limited slip setup, with full lockers you do because there is significantly more jarring on the system.

So it depends what you're planning on doing. Are you planning on fitting big tires, going rock crawling, doing deep mud or hill climbing? Or is 'off-road' to you doing old logging roads and exploring moderate terrain?

I went with TT in front and detroit in back initially, I HATED the noise and feel/behaviour of the detroit so swapped it to an ARB locker in the back which I'm quite happy with. The TT up front performs well, but wheeling with the three amigos had it slipping like mad where a full locker would have been fine.

If I was building for crawling and it was not also an expedition truck and daily driver I wouldn't have bothered doing it this way. I would just get a set of Toyota or Dana axles and swap those in with full lockers, the higher ratio pinions in the Rover axles tend to break and shear teeth. The shafts break regularly (which is why you need HD shafts with lockers) and the front CV's break (Ashcroft does a HD CV upgrade) so once you've added everything to the Rover axles you've spent as much as just putting in tougher parts from a donor truck. I did not go this route because I wanted to keep my ABS working. For a trail or pure expedition truck I'd ditch ABS entirely as well to reduce complexity and failure points.

So, in the end it really depends what your goal is. If you can be more clear on what that is then getting better advice will be easier. You'll still get 10 different opinions on what to do, but at least they'll be a little more in the same scope/direction. Half the fun is figuring out how your project is going to progress.

 

Truetrac work well, but they have limiting factors. If you want them to work automatically then you need traction control to be working. The down side is that off-road with truetracs traction control will eat brake pads and rotors fairly quickly. A quote from above


A T.T. will not eat up your rotors or pads as mentioned because once the CDL is engaged it's functional work load is reduced by about 90% or you can go one step further and turn off the ETC with the CDL and have all the control you want/need.

 

"So, in the end it really depends what your goal is. If you can be more clear on what that is then getting better advice will be easier. You'll still get 10 different opinions on what to do, but at least they'll be a little more in the same scope/direction. Half the fun is figuring out how your project is going to progress. ............"

True.....My goal would be to have the ability to go virtually anywhere I wanted in route toany secluded fly fishing hole, or the occational detour to show off the abilities of the DII to those that just don't know....Plus 1-2x a year in Texas we get ICE...need good performance their too...I might start going on trips with the local Rover Club too...

Either of these3 scenarios are likely to happen say1-2x a month max...

All that being said...Are TT front and back for me over kill...?

 

No, because Rover makes a very fragile factory diff, that if pushed much will fail and it is actually cheaper to put in a T.T., which is so much stronger the the factory diff, then it is to install a factory replacement and the T.T. puts so much more traction to the ground.
Go to , https://www.expeditionexchange.com/tractech/ ande read for your self.