I have a 2010 jk sport that is open front and rear. I haven't really heard of this command trac until just recently... does my jeep have some sort of brake lock differential? I wheel all the time througout the summer and just treat my driving style as if I am completely open front and rear. So, how do I know if I have command trac?

 

All JKs except the rubi. The Rubicon's have Rock-Trac which is basically the same thing with a lower 4LO and lockers.

 

Huh. I guess I wouldve never known. I looked at the window sticker and went with the open differential package, knowing that I would one day put in aftermarket lockers and thought it was too expensive from the dealer for the tracloc package... what does the command trac do? I watched a short video on it but it wasn't very informational. All I know is that, when I lose traction, the tire with the least amount of traction just spins like traditional open diffs. Makes no sense to me

 

when it detects spin it will distribute an equal percentage of power to the opposing wheel and when in 4wd it will send equal power to all

 

In that respect, seems like it would work almost as efficiently as a locker, yet I still don't understand why a hung tire spins freely? Maybe I shouldve gotten into mechanical rather than electrical engineering. Haha

 

Command Trac is really just a marketing name of the 4WD system, but what you are refering to is the Brake Lock Differential (BLD) system. It is meant to work similar to a locker or LSD. Basically if it detects spin in a tire it applies braking power to that tire forcing more power to be applied to the non-slipping tire.

This is standard on all Wranglers.

From what I have heard it works well, but still not a replacement for a true locker.

 

Thanks for the help, this is a little more clear. And obviously, it doesn't work near as good as a true locker rhats for certain! Ha! My jk does amazing offroad compared to my buddies vehicles at least that's my opinion. Guess some of the compliments go to brake lock differential. ?

 

lots of you tube videos showing how differentials work there is one from the 30's floating around that explains it very well and in simple terms.

 

Although the BLD system doesn't actually operate within the differentials.

 

True.
I think they started calling the part-time t-case Command-Trac back in the early '80s.
That's what it was called on my '88 XJ and '88 MJ.