locked or open?

[bbungard]

is it best to have the diffs locked or open? And say one was to use an independent setup up over a straight axle... what would be best? im wanting to build 3 different rigs...one with solids axles front and rear. one with solid out back and independent up front and the third with both front and rear independent. thanks ahead of time.

also has anyone used the xtm brand 1/8th scale paddles? good or bad?

 

[Hacksaw707]

I've run both locked and open on my FOFF rigs, locked climbs much better, but lacks the handling of the open diff. I also have built an Ifs rig and it's a blast to bash, but my solid axle rig just kills it in the sand."thumbsup"

 

[bashncrawl]

thats sick, the wraith looks awesome

 

[mike_like]

I've run locked

 

[89redranger]

Hate to bust in and complicate things, but now I gotta ask...are OD/UD gears really required, or do these rigs still get around decent with the same ratios front and rear?

I am, and have been for like 2 years, working on a mini based FOFF build, and can't really run open diffs. To top it off, the gear set I'm using doesn't have any OD/UD options. Starting to wander if I may be headed in the wrong direction. It'll only be run for fun anyway, so I can't imagine it being a total bust...

 

[johnnyh66]

My FOFF (wich pretty much only see's the beach) runs solid axles with open front diff and locked rear. OD gears in both axles.
I've recently been running it on the street with road tires and it's really fun!

All my scale crawlers run OD/UD locked.

 

[89redranger]

I'm building an MRC based rig with Dravpnir's stainless spools and Exceed Maxstone 16 gears (much higher quality VS. Losi gears), and the only UD option is hand cutting a new tooth profile in an XR10 12T gear for the rear. While this seems to work well for crawling, I can't imagine a basically hand cut gear lasting at any kind of speed. I don't have an open diff option on this rig either. It can't drive any worse than an RC18T with locked diffs and paddles though, which uses a locked center and the same ratios front and rear.

 

[DrWardner]

Similar to real life 1:1 scale... Locked are best for rock crawling and most off road applications. Open is best for almost all other applications. If you want to run one in the rear, it will provide maximum traction and won't affect steering/handling.


Jeeping is life... The rest is just details.