I'm sick of 2WD vehicles -- I want a locking differential! and the torque converter's got to go as well. P.S. thanks to vijay (al_kohal) , qin, and the new neighbors for helping dig the GTI out of the snow.
Ah, driving in the snow is a challenge. Get in some practice in a parking lot, make sure you've got good treads on the drive tires, and you should be alrite. 'round here, we don't give driving a second thought unless the snow's above the bumper. And when it is, we just drive faster to push through it.
I think the tires are are large part of the problem.. they are fine tires, but they are not snow tires. The problem was that our driveway has a sort of lip to it. Trying to drive onto it, the GTI got a nose full of snow, more load went to the left tire, and the right spun freely. We dug out the snow from under the tires and put floor mats under them for traction. Altogether rather annoying.
Most folks around here use all-season, which aren't too bad. Snowplows here leave banks at the end of the driveways, so what we usually do is accelerate, compensate for which way the car usually pulls when it loses traction, and plow through it.
You need 4WD first, then a locker. And torque converters are pretty cool things, as they give you torque multiplication, unlike a manual transmission. But auto trannies suck in general, as we all know. Can you even get a locker for a VW? As far as I know they're available only for trucks and SUVs with real, non-front wheel drive axles.
Wouldn't 4WD be completely useless without locking differentials? I mean, with 4WD with standard differentials, then you'd have four wheels instead of two weeks through which you could lose power. i.e., if just one of four wheels lose traction, you lose everything. But I guess I may be oversimplifying the issue.
I really doubt a Golf can be 'locked' -- I think, as you say, the differential isn't exposed, but is buried inside of the final drive. AFAIK Volkswagen has never marketed a 4WD vehicle in the United States (with the exception of the new Touareg, which is a bit of an embarassment). In Europe there is the VW "Transporter" (like a vanagon), and the Phaeton (new luxury car?) has AWD. I know there was a 4wd Vanagon -- the "synchro" -- and Google searches turn up mention of a "Golf Synchro". That would be rad. I wonder if they really exist.
This is kind of interesting: http://www.rallycars.com/Cars/4wd_turbo_cars.html
Few 4WD vehicles have lockers. I can get them aftermarket for my truck but they're rather expensive (~$1200). There are various flavors of 4WD systems out there. Mine is part-time true 4WD, meaning that I have a normal driveline until I engage the transfer case and lock the front hubs to the front axles. There is also AWD, which uses a fluid coupling instead of solid axles and therefore allows the slippage of the driveline required when driving on pavement.
As for differentials, there are different kinds. My truck has the least desirable open differentials which are just a ring gear connected to gears on the axle shafts. That design transfers power to whichever wheel is slipping the most, hence its undesirable-ness. My Camaro had a limited-slip differential, which transfers partial power to the wheel that isn't slipping, obviously a better design. The best is a locker, which rigidly connects both axle shafts together, giving you power to every wheel regardless of slippage. Lockers do not allow the wheels to turn at different speeds so maneuverability is comprimised a bit and you can use them only on non-hard surfaces which allow the wheels to slip a bit.
So no, 4WD is not useless without lockers. It is possible for a drive system like I have on my truck to get stuck by having two wheels in the air with no traction going to the non-slipping wheels, but you've got to be doing something reasonably crazy to get to that point. It would be better if I had limited-slip differentials but Toyota didn't put them on trucks like mine.
And there's the issue of lockers adding a lot of parts to a differential. I like things to be as simple as possible and a locker goes against that. But they're nice to have.
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Date: 2005-01-21 02:10 pm (UTC)/wouldn't trade it for anything
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Date: 2005-01-21 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-21 08:28 pm (UTC)In Baja I got the Vanagon somewhat stuck in mud.
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Date: 2005-01-22 03:28 am (UTC)I'm lost in mud, though.
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Date: 2005-01-21 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-21 08:20 pm (UTC)I really doubt a Golf can be 'locked' -- I think, as you say, the differential isn't exposed, but is buried inside of the final drive. AFAIK Volkswagen has never marketed a 4WD vehicle in the United States (with the exception of the new Touareg, which is a bit of an embarassment). In Europe there is the VW "Transporter" (like a vanagon), and the Phaeton (new luxury car?) has AWD. I know there was a 4wd Vanagon -- the "synchro" -- and Google searches turn up mention of a "Golf Synchro". That would be rad. I wonder if they really exist.
This is kind of interesting: http://www.rallycars.com/Cars/4wd_turbo_cars.html
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Date: 2005-01-21 08:25 pm (UTC)wow, there really is a Golf Synchro... I want one!
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Date: 2005-01-21 09:47 pm (UTC)As for differentials, there are different kinds. My truck has the least desirable open differentials which are just a ring gear connected to gears on the axle shafts. That design transfers power to whichever wheel is slipping the most, hence its undesirable-ness. My Camaro had a limited-slip differential, which transfers partial power to the wheel that isn't slipping, obviously a better design. The best is a locker, which rigidly connects both axle shafts together, giving you power to every wheel regardless of slippage. Lockers do not allow the wheels to turn at different speeds so maneuverability is comprimised a bit and you can use them only on non-hard surfaces which allow the wheels to slip a bit.
So no, 4WD is not useless without lockers. It is possible for a drive system like I have on my truck to get stuck by having two wheels in the air with no traction going to the non-slipping wheels, but you've got to be doing something reasonably crazy to get to that point. It would be better if I had limited-slip differentials but Toyota didn't put them on trucks like mine.
And there's the issue of lockers adding a lot of parts to a differential. I like things to be as simple as possible and a locker goes against that. But they're nice to have.