By Stephen on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 06:29 pm: Edit

There's a couple of threads running here that have me confused about my center diff lock now. I thought I understood it but now I'm doubting myself!
I've only had my DI two weeks now. I've read the owners manual and the section on the forum here about understanding the basics of your Disco.
As I understand it, you want to avoid locking the diff on normal road conditions. Is a gravel road included here? What about icy or packed snow covered roads? or is this unnecessary?
When I lock the diff, I want to be driving straight - not in a turn - right? If I want to turn do I unlock the diff?
Am I missing anything else/ any more advice? I apologize for my ignorance!

By Jeff Bieler (Mrbieler) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 07:14 pm: Edit

When you use the center dif-lock, you have turned your D1 drivetrain into the equivilant of every other traditional 4wd on the road. Your front and rear drive shafts are turning together and transfering power to the front and rear difs as one unit. The front and rear difs remain open.

Only lock the center dif when the terrain will allow for slippage of the wheels (snow, ice, dirt, gravel, etc.) Slippage is good. If all for tires have solid grip (ie the road), the rear drive train pushes the front and the creates wind up in the middle (the transfer case). This torsional force will damage the drive train and can break components. Often, it will be necessary to back up in order to disengage the dif-lock as the wind up has made difficult to disengage the mechanism. Again, this is very similiar to traditional 4wd operation.

When you are off-road (dirt, snow, ice) with the dif-locked, you can drive the vehicle normally (straight, turning, etc). As a general rule (and more of a habit from years gone by), I always back up a little (about a full truck length) before I disengage the dift lock and head back to the pavement.

Go on line, do some reading, get some books, take a 4wd class. Land Rover even has a book they give out to owners with a basic review of 4wd. The best thing you could probably do would be to attend an off-road seminar hosted by your dealer. Most hold them at least quarterly. These are designed to help those unfamiliar with the vehicle and they will be able to walk you through the operation.