It doesn't work with an open diff at all it doesn't matter how much you push that brake pedal down the same amount of pressure is applied left and right that means the tire in the air will still have less force on allowing it to spin.


Also it works in the front and rear with limited slips. Look at the HMMWV's they have. Torsen LS's front and rear and riding the brakes allows both tires to spin. They are not locked up but a percentage of power goes both ways.

 

Try rock crawling riding the brakes it just don't work and if your doing hill climbs like I do a decent bit of you need the wheel speed and riding a brake kinda defeats that. BTW it does work with an open diff. Torque goes to the wheel with least resistance and if you brake torque it it will spin the other tire if you have enough power to turn tires while riding the brake. I did it plenty of times in my old bronco.

 

If money is the issue then try a lunchbox locker, though with chromoly shafts your carrier becomes the weak link.

 

I have rockcrawled with my LS plenty of times using the brakes to lock it up. It is a lot different than holding the brakes to the floor and letting the vehicle overpower them. That breaks **** riding a little brake to get the LSD to lock up is nowhere near the same.

 

To get back to the original question ........ I have had 2 lunch box lockers (Powertrax) and 2 Tru-trac's in different vehicles.
1st off, if you wheel it heavy nothing will beat a selectable locker but they are also the most expencive.
Once you get away from selectable IMHO, for the rear, tru-trac is the only way to go if you want to maintain street manners. You will never know it's there until you need it, and no clutches to wear out. When you need it, it just works.
For the front, pony up and get the selectable. You can read up a few entries about difficult steering and see why.
My wheeling experience (I'm no rock crawler) says that 3 wheel drive (trutrac rear and open front) gets me anywhere I want to go. As long as you have 3 wheel drive you will never be without a pulling wheel on the ground.
As a matter of fact, my 2wd ford ranger with a tru-trac, 3 inch lift, and a front bash plate got me anywhere I wanted to go.
It all depends on what you want from your ride

 

I wheel with a Detroit locker in the rear and a E-locker in the front. I've had LSD in various rigs they work OK on pavement as a DD, and the TrueTrac is as good as it gets as far as LSDs go, but they don't work as good as a locker when you are wheeling and that is just a fact.

 

My First post on the forums, but i have an 01 XJ that i just recently swapped out the factory LSD rear and open front carriers with dual truetracs and 4.11's the true tracs are great for me, i used to have a samurai with lock right in the front and welded in the rear, it was also great in the bush but a PITA on the road.

if your rig is more of a driver/trail machine (pretty much anything other than hanging tires all the time) the true tracs seem to work very well.
and a little left foot braking turns them into a wannabe locker in a hurry..and they work just as well in reverse as they do forward. and you can get them cheap from summit.

i can notice a very slight bit of extra resistance in the steering wheel over the stock open front diff.

im very happy i went with dual truetracs. despite what others said about them.