Old School poor man's diff locker...

Two parking brake levers fabed into one bracket with separate left and right cables. Just can't be lazy... Got to work a bit and make an effort, but it is positive control over axle spin.

When I was a kid all the 2 wheel drive stripped "dune buggies" with flatheads had these... lol

Anyone else old enough to remember these?

 

They arent a thing of the past. Got a few newer sand rails down in the show room with them. They use them as turning brakes though.

 

[QUOTE=5-Speed;3432470]They arent a thing of the past. Got a few newer sand rails down in the show room with them. They use them as turning brakes though.

[/QUOTE

Yep, put them in the bugout bug. But these were used to lock left or right spin as needed before bugs became popular for off road and very many 4X4'x were being built or affordable. Even Surplus Jeeps.

Anyways it was fun to stay on top of these as you were going for it. It was like shifting a four and four or a four and five in the old trucks.

 

Cutting brakes certainly have their place in the offroad world, although I wouldn't necessarily say they're effective as a "poor man's locker". Better than nothing for sure, and might be able to help you out if one tire was sticking in the air...

I've contemplated the idea of retrofitting one of the drag race style aftermarket traction control systems for offroad, but in the end with a brake-based traction system you're always reducing torque to the ground on one wheel, rather than adding it to the other with a real locker.

Still would be cool to throw a set on the Jeep and see how good you could get with them though.

 

Lol... Back in those days there were very few limited slip diffs. They were all open diffs in those years and buggies so it was indeed just for locking the wheel hanging in the air to transfer the output to the other side.

I will try to go pull a picture of what these old buggies looked like, Would have had one already but it looks like my image site had an issue the last time my host did a database update. I will go fix that and share one from my childhood...

 

Cutting brakes aren't meant to be used for any sort of traction adding.

They're meant to perform front or rear digs.

Using them as "traction devices" is a complicated and expensive means that an ebrake would solve.

 

A lunch box locker are around 300 bucks and up depending brand.It would be cheaper then all the brakes your gonna wear out trying to do a locker that way lol.

 

I shared it mostly for historical reference of course. But when you really think about it, how often and for how long is traction control actually needed? Meaning how often is there an actual demand put on a lunchbox or locker? Most the time it's there but only occasionally truly needed.

 

Agreed.

And, I remember them on a VW based dune buggy in the 60s. We used it for traction control.

 

Do you remember all the 2 wheel drive 50's cars stripped down with 55 gal drum rear fenders and skinny tires overblown on homemade wide wheels? "Sand Buggies". lol

Man were they heavy in the front... I am working my way to grab a picture of one of these from my youth this morning.

 

I do.
But I can't tell you what I had for dinner last night...............

 

Lol, short term loss? I get that too.

 

Some old tractors used steering bakes on the back of them to help in tight turns.

 

My 51 John Deere for example.

 

And one wouldn't think so, but many models came with open diffs. Those left and right pedals were an absolute necessity to transfer traction.