It would be nice to have an option to lock the center diff on the FXR and RB4. The reason being: even if you set it to viscous and turn it to max there are situations (curbs, grass) where the front wheels lose traction and it matters not that I have 95% of the power going to the rear tires, the front tires are the ones spinning. Usually this happens while going through a corner which ruins the advantage that AWD has when 2 of the 4 tires are spinning and the other 2 are barely moving the car. IRL people weld their center diffs to overcome this problem (especially in situations like rally where its easier just to have a permanent 50/50 lock).

Suggestions: 1) Have "Locked" as an option for the center diff.
2) Since the FXR and RB4 do not have traction control, and since some real life cars have this ability, it would be nice to temporarly lock the center diff from the cab of the car, ie, use the traction control assigned button to lock/unlock the center diff.

Anyways, just some thoughts, and I can't see how having a locked center diff as an option hurts anything. Cheers

surely this would only be an option for mud only stages?
locking a centre diff, or any diff for that matter may give you better traction, but at the loss of steering/manoevreability.
if you drove round a tarmac stage IRL with a locked centre diff, the chances are you would strip the diffs, gearbox.....etc, etc?

Andrew

Locking the center diff would only lock a 50/50 front rear power distribution. You would still have viscous/open diffs at front and rear and wouldn't result in loss of steering. This is why IRL people weld center diffs: permanent 50/50 distribution (and also usually to make the center diff stronger which isn't a problem yet in LFS). My point is though that since some people choose this in real life, I would like to choose it in here as well.

You never normally choose to have a locked centre diff on a tarmac surface, you'll just end up with loads of understeer. It has sometimes been done in the past but only really to fix fundamentally flawed cars, like the later 4WD gas turbine Lotus had to have a locked diff IIRC but that car was a complete disaster.

Quote from bw_krupp :

(and also usually to make the center diff stronger which isn't a problem yet in LFS)

Well I don't fully understand how a center diff works but based on my assumptions locking the diff will cause different forces acting on it from front/rear making it more liable to break like in a conventional diff.

The reason AWD cars like the FXR and RB4 have a center diff is to prevent Drive Line and Diff damage when the say you transision from a slippery surface to a grippy surface and the wheels are spinning. For instance when moving from the dirt to the tarmak in Rally-X. With a locked diff or in a car with out a center diff there is a good chance you will destroy the front diff or break the front drive line as the spinning tires regain grip. The center diff allow the front tires to rapidly slow down while allowing excess power to redirect to the rear wheels.

I can verify type of damage that not having a center diff and surface transision can do, please don't ask me how I know.

No, a center diff protects your driveline from going kablooie if you make a turn on tarmac! One thing you learn about driving part-time 4WD trucks is to never drive on tarmac with 4WD engaged. The transfer case (which is a chain drive between the rear and front axle, permanent lock when engaged), u-joints, and driveshafts don't like being loaded with the tremendous forces of one big oversized wheel wanting to turn faster than another big oversized wheel but can't because they're locked together mechanically. Normally the front wheels will just skitter across the gravel while off road. But on tarmac the tires grip enough to not slip, so something else has to break.

In my case it was the retention ring on the left out drive in the front diff. It snapped, the outdrive sliped out the side and I was once again a RWD truck in the ice and snow on my way to go snowboarding. There is a Diff there for a reason, there is no point to lock it. Though an adjustable torque sencing diff with veriable split would be nice instead of the viscus.