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.
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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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.