Originally Posted by porters

great question.

You have part of the equation right and part is not quite right.

Yes, most axles break from too much skinny pedal. You try and get over an obstacle and one tire starts to spin and then when that spinning tire suddenly regains traction so much force is exerted on that one shaft it breaks. Locking the axles keeps any one tire from spinning as much so the chance of breaking axles is lower.

However, the idea that lockers distribute the applied force equally, 25 ft/lbs per axle as you say is not correct. Open diffs try and distribute the applied torque equally. Lets simplify and take the example of 2wd where one tire is on ice and the other tire is not. In an open diff the tire on the ice has near 0 ft/lbs of torque as the applied force cannot build up due and move the vehicle due to the spinning wheel. The opposite wheel, even though it’s not on ice also has near 0 ft/lbs of torque applied because the open diff is keeping the force at both wheels equal. So you don’t move and sit there and spin.

A locker does the opposite of an open diff. Instead of distributing the applied force equally like and open diff it concentrates the applied force at the axle with the most traction. In the ice example, if the applied force is 100 ft/lbs then the tire on the ice has near 0 ft/lbs of applied force and the tire not on the ice has all 100 ft/lbs of torque. In the locked case the vehicle will move. Lockers are useful in unequal traction scenarios like ice and lifted tires because they concentrate the applied force at the wheel with the most traction, transferring the force away from tires with little or no traction to those tires with traction.

Lockers can transfer up to 100% of the applied force to a specific tire. Limited slip diffs, depending on the type, can transfer between 50 and 75% of the applied force to a specific tire. Open diffs do not transfer any force to the opposite tire.

So back to the question at hand, will a locker reduce the risk of breakage? In some respects lockers will decrease the chance of breaking stuff from skinny pedal + spinning tires scenario. On the other hand lockers vastly increase the stress on the drive train and the forces applied to specific wheels way beyond open diffs increasing the chance of breakage in situations where one wheel has the majority of the traction thus increasing the risk of breakage. Again it comes back to the driver. If you do something stupid you can break an locked diff as easily as you can break and open diff.

Originally Posted by porters

I like charts.

Originally Posted by cyruspura

I like turtles...

Originally Posted by porters

Long story short. Yes, a locker helps prevent one wheel from spinning and then suddenly stopping when it encounters traction. This is one of the most common ways to break chit and lockers do help prevent it. But lockers put a lot of stress on the drive train so use them sparingly and only when you have to. The more you use lockers the sooner your drive train parts will break from stress and fatigue.